A Fairbanks jury acquitted a local chiropractor of second-degree sexual assault July 23 after a four-day trial.
The verdict comes more than four years after the incident in question.
A woman accused 61-year-old Normal Todd Lovell of inappropriately touching her breast during a session at Ridgeview Chiropractic in March 2021. Lovell was charged with one count of sexual assault in the second degree about a year later, under a section of criminal statute specific to sexual contact by health professionals, court records show.
During the trial this month, Lovell maintained that the contact was medical in nature and a legitimate part of the treatment he was providing the woman, according to trial log notes. The notes say the patient saw things differently, and that she said Lovell’s behavior that day was a break from sessions she’d had with him over the past 10 months.
The trial’s witness list shows Lovell and the woman were among seven people to testify before the jury. The prosecution brought forward the woman, an expert witness and the Alaska State Trooper who investigated the case; the defense called Lovell, two expert witnesses and a former employee of Ridgeview Chiropractic.
According to the log notes, the expert witnesses, each of whom said they have experience in chiropractic treatment, offered differing opinions. The one called by the prosecution said the incident sounded inappropriate; the two brought by the defense testified that they thought Lovell’s actions sounded consistent with acceptable care.
Jury foreperson Katrina Erick told KUAC Thursday the woman’s testimony was powerful, and that she seemed sincere. But Erick said the investigation and evidence presented in the prosecution’s case didn’t prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Lovell had committed any crime.
“I think it was really difficult to determine what happened because none of us were there,” she said. “So there was, I think, a lack of evidence that was able to be presented from the state.”
Erick said, after the trial ended, jury members agreed to go home and sleep on it. When they returned the next morning, reaching a not guilty verdict didn’t take much time or debate, according to Erick.
“We all were unanimous in that decision that morning,” she said. “We probably chatted for about an hour about why we felt that way, and kind of went back and forth about – just making sure that we were doing our due diligence about all the details that we learned.”
Lovell, through his defense attorney, Bill Satterberg, declined an interview request. Satterberg also declined to comment.
Alaska’s Board of Chiropractic Examiners suspended Lovell’s license in April 2022, and he surrendered it that September, according to documents in a state professional licensing database. As of Thursday, the database did not show a new or renewed license listed under his name.
Two pending lawsuits against Lovell contain similar allegations to those in the criminal case. Between the pair of civil cases, three female patients claim Lovell touched their breasts in a sexual manner while treating them during separate incidents in 2020.
The lawsuits were filed later – in May 2022 and April 2023, respectively. Lovell denies the claims, court documents show. Judges ordered a stay of proceedings in both lawsuits while the criminal case unfolded.