Doctor to Stand Trial in Alleged Rape of Patient

A Van Nuys physician was ordered Thursday to stand trial for rape after a 40-year-old woman testified that he attacked her on an examination table in his office.

After a two-day preliminary hearing in Van Nuys Municipal Court, Judge Aviva K. Bobb ruled that the prosecution had presented sufficient evidence to hold the general practitioner, Abraham Alfred Mekelburg, 65, for trial.

The woman, a Salvadoran immigrant who testified with the aid of a Spanish interpreter, repeatedly broke into sobs during more than four hours on the witness stand. She alleges that Mekelburg, who had been her physician for six years, raped her after she went to his Sepulveda Boulevard office about 5 p.m. on March 11 seeking treatment for a cut hand.

“It seemed strange to me because I had known and trusted him for so many years,” the woman, a mother of four who lives in Sepulveda, said of the attack.

“I told him he was a dog.”

Doctor Denies Accusation

Mekelburg, who has been in private practice in Van Nuys since 1948, denies the allegation and maintains that he was not at his office at the time and did not treat the woman that day, his attorney, James E. Blatt, said outside the courtroom.

Blatt contends that the woman concocted the charge in hopes of winning a $10-million civil suit against the doctor. Blatt said the suit has not been filed, but the woman’s attorney has notified Mekelburg by letter that she intends to sue.

“Her story is a total fabrication,” Blatt said.

When questioned on the witness stand, the woman acknowledged that she hired an attorney, but only after he approached her in May after a court appearance on the criminal charge.

‘Take Care of Ourselves’

“I wanted to show that a humble Latin person, we can take care of ourselves,” she said.

The defense called as a witness another of Mekelburg’s patients, who said she was in the physician’s waiting room about the time of the alleged attack and did not see the woman, who testified that she ran crying from the office.

Mekelburg, who is free on $10,000 bail, will be arraigned Aug. 21 in Van Nuys Superior Court.