Ramona Doctor Arraigned on Molestation Charges

A 62-year-old Ramona physician was arraigned Tuesday on 23 counts of molesting an 11-year-old boy, and a San Diego County Sheriff’s Department official said more charges may be brought as detectives sift through pornographic photographs seized at the doctor’s office.

Dr. John Byron DeKock, a registered sex offender who was once disciplined by the state medical board for a sexual abuse offense 28 years ago, pleaded not guilty to child molestation, sexual exploitation of a child and oral copulation with a child. DeKock is being held in San Diego County Jail.

At the hearing, Jack Phillips, DeKock’s lawyer, had asked that his bail, set at $1.4 million, be lowered to $50,000 because DeKock needed to care for his ailing wife. But Deputy Dist. Atty. Eugenia Eyherabide told Municipal Judge Terry Knoepp that DeKock had been convicted in 1961 of molesting another young boy.

Since DeKock’s arrest, she said, several adults have called the prosecutor’s office to say DeKock molested them when they were children.

“This certainly has been an ongoing thing,” said Eyherabide, who called DeKock “a danger to all children” and requested bail be set at $500,000.

Judge Knoepp set bail at $250,000, on the condition that DeKock not practice medicine, not contact anyone under the age of 21 and not contact the victim or the victim’s family. A preliminary hearing is set for June 5.

Detective Michael Radovich said Sheriff’s deputies searched DeKock’s office and confiscated 22 photo albums and hundreds of color photographs, mostly of the 11-year-old victim. The victim, a relative of DeKock, came forward last week.

At DeKock’s home, they found several expensive cameras, a video camera and light, videotapes and a several books, including “Pornography: Solutions Through Law.”

“There’s a good chance there will be additional charges coming, stemming from what we found,” said Radovich, adding that officials believe DeKock had molested the 11-year-old since 1986. “We think it’s been going on with this one particular boy for at least four years. We have found other pictures that show the boy’s development.”

In 1962, the Medical Board of California disciplined DeKock for the previous sexual abuse offense. According to Ron Cooke, a medical board regional supervisor, DeKock spent nine years on administrative probation for the offense, but no details are available because the records have been purged.

Later, from 1981 to 1986, DeKock was placed on probation again for prescribing Demerol and Dilaudid, two habit-forming pain killers, in excessive amounts to two patients.

Despite this disciplinary record, DeKock volunteered as the team physician for Ramona High School’s athletic program in the early 1980s, according to Ramona School Board President Dan Plough, who said most Ramona residents were surprised by DeKock’s arrest.

“What I can gather from the community is that most people were taken aback,” Plough said. “You probably put as much trust in a practicing physician as you would into a teacher.”

Currently, DeKock’s state medical license, which was issued in 1959, is in good standing, but Cooke said the state board will likely seek a court restraining order to prevent DeKock from practicing until the current allegations are resolved.