OGDEN, Utah, July 29, 2022 (Gephardt Daily) — A veteran neurosurgeon has been charged with allegedly groping a woman’s breasts during surgery while she was under anesthesia.
Dr. Bryson Smith, 65, who has practiced in the Ogden area for more than 30 years, was booked Thursday into the Weber County Jail on two counts of sexual battery, a class A misdemeanor, according to Ogden 2nd District Court charging documents.
The charges stem from an Oct. 11, 2021, surgery Smith led at Ogden Regional Medical Center. The operation involved the front of the adult female patient’s neck, according to a probable cause affidavit written by a Weber County Sheriff’s detective.
The reporting detective stated that two staffers who were at the operating table assisting in the surgery witnessed Smith touching the patient’s breasts.
In the first incident, the touching was accompanied by brief squeezing, the witness told the detective.
“The complainant stated that when this happened, no one in the room said anything, which he believed was due to the shock of witnessing Bryson squeezing the unconscious woman’s breasts,” according to the charging document.
The silence was broken when Smith was heard saying something to the effect of “Please don’t report me,” the affidavit states.
A second witness, a female, who also was at the table, detailed other behavior with the same unconscious patient, saying Smith both grabbed and patted the woman’s breasts, then said, “Uh, no one report me for that,” the detective wrote.
A third witness who was interviewed said he was standing 12 feet away from the operating table and did not see the reported sexual assaults, but did hear Smith say on one occasion during the surgery, “Please don’t report me to HR.”
The reporting detective and other detectives from the sheriff’s office took Smith into custody at his Farmington home Thursday and transported him to the county jail. He has since been released on bail.
