Chiropractor’s trial on sex charges begins

YOUNGSTOWN — Dr. Gregory S. Dew is “a charismatic con artist” who sexually abused girls and women, according to Rhys Cartwright-Jones, assistant Mahoning County prosecutor.

Dr. Dew’s lawyer, however, said the chiropractor will swear to his innocence on the witness stand. “There’s a whole heck of a lot of smoke around, but there is no fire,” said Elizabeth Kelley, Dr. Dew’s Cleveland lawyer.

The jury trial of the former Boardman chiropractor on multiple rape and gross sexual imposition charges, which are contained in two indictments, began Monday before Judge R. Scott Krichbaum of Mahoning County Common Pleas Court.

The first indictment alleges three counts of rape and one count of corruption of a minor between 1990 and 1992, with the alleged victim being a female, who was then between the ages of 15 and 17. The fifth count in that indictment alleges gross sexual imposition against another girl in 1992, with that alleged victim then being 15 and 16.

The alleged victims in that case were girls Dr. Dew, 46, of Kelly Park Road, Columbiana, coached at the Youngstown Gymnastics Center in Boardman before he became a chiropractor. The statute of limitations for sex crimes involving juvenile victims extends 20 years after the accuser’s 18th birthday.

The second indictment pertains to sex crimes Dr. Dew allegedly committed against three adult women who were his chiropractic patients between 2005 and 2007. It alleges 15 counts of gross sexual imposition, 12 of them against one woman and three of them against another, and three counts of rape against a third woman.

All five women are scheduled to testify for the prosecution in the trial, which is before a seven-man, five-woman jury.

Read more in Tuesday’s Vindicator and vindy.com