BOARDMAN Doctor found dead had been charged with rape, bribery

The state medical board did not have action pending against Dr. Dickstein.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
BOARDMAN -- Township police and the Mahoning County Coroner's office are investigating the death of a doctor accused of sexual assault.
The body of Dr. Emil Dickstein, 52, was found Wednesday at his Hitchcock Road home. The coroner's office did not say how Dickstein was killed or who found his body.
Dickstein, who practiced in Forum Health's Austintown Medical Park, had been charged with rape, bribery and public indecency. A woman who met with him to discuss pharmaceutical drug purchases said he sexually assaulted her.
Arraigned Monday
He was arraigned Monday, pleading innocent to the public indecency charge. No plea was accepted to the rape and bribery charges, which are felonies.
Dr. Dickstein also had taught at Forum Health Northside Health Center through the Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine in Rootstown.
Police said Dr. Dickstein met with a 25-year-old woman who worked for a pharmaceutical company in February at the medical park to discuss sales. The woman told police that after the meeting ended, Dr. Dickstein hugged her.
He then cornered her and performed sex acts on her, the woman said.
The woman told police that she checked her e-mail that night and found a message of a sexual nature from Dr. Dickstein that had been sent the day before.
Court records allege that Dr. Dickstein tried to influence the testimony of a female witness by offering her $5,000. The records do not identify the witness.
The state medical board's Internet site showed Wednesday that there was no formal action pending against Dr. Dickstein, whose license would have expired in April 2005.
Background
The site shows that Dr. Dickstein, a native of Oakland, Calif., graduated from the Bowman Gray School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, N.C., in 1976, and he received his medical license in Ohio in 1978. His specialty is internal medicine.
Forum Health's Internet site also lists Dr. Dickstein as a specialist in geriatric medicine.
Dr. Dickstein was one of 1,700 doctors who volunteer to teach at hospitals throughout Northeast Ohio as an associate professor at NEOUCOM.
hill@vindy.com