The Region - News from March 29, 1985

After deliberating three days, a Van Nuys Superior Court jury acquitted a Panorama City physician who had been charged with raping an 18-year-old woman after injecting her with a sleep-inducing drug. The jury did find Dr. Julian Milestone, 58, guilty of a misdemeanor offense: prescribing a dangerous drug without medical cause. He faces the possibility of a six-month jail term when sentenced April 23. Milestone, a general practitioner, said the trial “was a nightmare for me, my wife and my family. This decision vindicates me.” Milestone did not dispute that he was sexually involved with the Van Nuys woman. But he maintained that he and the woman did not share a doctor-patient relationship. Milestone testified that the woman, now 19, had been introduced to him by mutual friends. She told Milestone that she had been raped when she was 15 and she sought help from him, according to court testimony.