Another patient files suit against former Dothan ER doctor

A second civil lawsuit has been filed against a former Dothan emergency room doctor who is also facing multiple criminal charges for sexual abuse.

The suit claims Gregory Johns, who was an emergency room doctor at Southeast Alabama Medical Center, intentionally touched a female patient in an inappropriate sexual manner during a visit to the ER on Sept. 30, 2007. The patient is the second to allege inappropriate sexual contact by Johns. Another female patient filed a civil suit in October of last year in relation to a November 2006 incident.

Johns has been charged with two counts of first-degree sexual abuse. The Alabama Board of Medical Examiners revoked Johns’ license to practice medicine on Sept. 30 of last year, citing the two incidents.

“This conduct caused emotional distress to (the defendant) so severe that no reasonable person could be expected to endure it,” states the lawsuit, filed by Warren Cobb of the Dothan firm Cobb, Derrick, Boyd and White, as well as Birmingham attorney William Scott.

The suit also lists Southeast Alabama Medical Center and its governing board — the Houston County Healthcare Authority — as defendants, and claims the hospital acted negligently because this alleged incident occurred months after the previous incident, which resulted in a complaint to the hospital about Johns.

“Amazingly, despite notice of the prior event, (SAMC) did not take any actions to alert the public of the occurrence or remove Dr. Johns from employment. They simply tried to sweep it under the rug without consideration of the public or that the victim/victims in this case may have been telling the truth,” Cobb said in a written statement.

Steve Pearce, spokesperson for SAMC, said the hospital can’t comment on pending litigation. Mobile attorney Douglas Brent Baker, who is listed as representing Johns in the earlier suit, was unavailable for comment.