Accused Doctor Keeps Small Town’s Loyalty

When word spread through the central San Diego County town of Ramona that one of its longtime favorite physicians, Dr. John DeKock, had been arrested on child molestation charges, the reaction was swift and sure. But it was not what might have been expected.

“He has a fantastic following here,” Ellie Whitcomb said. “I’d be willing to say, if they’d allow him to come back to his office today, things would go along like they did before all this happened.”

Added another of the doctor’s patients, Fran Gefken: “I’d have no qualms going back to him today.”

The comments came despite growing allegations that DeKock, a registered sex offender who was convicted of molesting a young boy in 1961, had not changed his ways.

DeKock, 62, pleaded innocent May 8 to 23 counts of molesting, sexually exploiting and having oral copulation with a minor. The alleged victim is an 11-year-old boy, a relative of DeKock through marriage.

And as sheriff’s detectives pored over the evidence they had taken from DeKock’s home and office--as they looked at more than 20 scrapbooks containing hundreds of pictures of naked or scantily clad boys, as they viewed hours of videotapes featuring such youths, and as they turned through the doctor’s diaries listing boys’ names--others came forward to claim that they, too, had been molested by the town doctor, authorities say.

Law enforcement officials say that more than 10 people, including the alleged victim’s own father, now have made such claims. They include eight adults who say DeKock molested them as children, as well as two pre-teen boys, authorities say. Detectives say these allegations may lead to more charges against DeKock.

“He is a pedophile. There’s no doubt about it,” said San Diego Sheriff’s Detective Michael Radovich, who is investigating the case. “You don’t need to be a psychologist to realize he’s got serious problems. He’s a danger to all children in the community.”

Neither DeKock nor his attorney, Jack Phillips, responded to requests for interviews for this story.

Meanwhile, many Ramona residents continue to rally to his side. They say DeKock, a quiet and unassuming man who is one of five local doctors in Ramona, possesses qualities of caring, warmth and generosity that are sometimes lacking in modern medicine.

“We were all aware of his record (as a convicted child molester), but, you know, second chance and all that,” said Thelma Stansbury, a longtime Ramona resident. She added: “You know, he never molested women, so I didn’t personally worry. Is that awful?”

Many Ramona residents say that long before the doctor’s recent arrest, they had been aware of his 1961 child molestation conviction. Indicted in that case in El Cajon on three counts of oral copulation with minors and two counts of child molestation, DeKock had pleaded guilty to one count: fondling a 7-year-old boy in his medical office.

According to court records, DeKock told psychiatrists he had had sexual contact with other boys, but never forced himself on the children. He knew he had a “psychological problem,” but said he was in psychotherapy and that he believed he would “never commit any such offense in the future.”

DeKock was placed on 10 years’ probation. Under its terms, he was not permitted to associate with minors under the age of 18 unless he was accompanied by a responsible adult. He was forbidden to drink alcohol, required to continue his psychotherapy, and told to move out of the El Cajon area “as soon as possible.”

He moved to the north San Diego County hamlet of Ranchita. In 1962, less than a year after his conviction, the state medical board allowed him to resume his practice. His patient list was dominated by the Indians and backcountry folk of nearby Warner Springs, Santa Ysabel and Julian. He married his first wife, Bea, who told probation officials at the time that, despite his conviction, DeKock had “all the qualities she wanted in a husband.” Her young son and daughter from a previous marriage were devoted to him, she added.

The couple has since divorced; DeKock remarried.

In the early 1960s, word spread about DeKock as a qualified medical doctor who didn’t seem to care much about being paid on time and would make a house call any time of day. DeKock built his patient list among Ramona residents and relocated to the town.

One longtime Ramona real estate agent, Jim McWhorter, said knowledge of DeKock’s 1961 conviction preceded the doctor to town.

“I always felt bad that they’d spin this story before the guy even moved here,” McWhorter said. “It was like they were prepared for this children’s ogre. They were afraid of him.”

Overall, however, the paucity of medical care in Ramona worked to DeKock’s benefit. “People were just so pleased to have him here as the doctor,” recalled Don Haught, the school district superintendent, “they didn’t ask a heck of a lot of questions. And those who knew (about DeKock’s past) decided to let bygones be bygones.”

Soon enough, DeKock’s skills and charming bedside manner won him fierce allies.

“You probably wouldn’t be talking to me today if it wasn’t for John DeKock,” said McWhorter, recalling that when he suffered a heart attack during a vacation in Florida, it took DeKock to properly diagnose the problem after he returned home.

“John has an intuitive ability to tell when people had a medical problem. He’d worry about them. He’d stop my wife and kids on the street, just to ask how I was doing. . . . People all over town will tell you they’re alive because of John DeKock.”

DeKock’s storefront office on Ramona’s Main Street was a family place; DeKock’s second wife, Louise, and one of his stepdaughters worked the front counter. They did the bookkeeping, the reception, the office management. In one of three or four small examining rooms, usually with either his wife or his nursing practitioner present, often with the doors of the examining room wide open, DeKock would care for patients.

Most patients never saw the inside of DeKock’s personal office, which was hidden behind a door that appeared to lead to a back parking lot. It took sheriff’s investigators two inspections of the premises to realize that behind that door was another door--one that opened onto an office and its safe, which authorities say was full of the scrapbooks and videos of the naked and scantily clad boys.

About a month ago, the 11-year-old boy related to DeKock through marriage came forward with his molestation allegations. Law enforcement officials say the boy alleged that DeKock had promised him gifts in return for sex and had made him promise not to tell anyone “our secret.”

“It’s my feeling that (the boy) did this out of love,” said San Diego Deputy Dist. Atty. Eugenia Eyherabide. “There apparently wasn’t any coercion or force. But as he got older and started making his own decisions, he probably started to realize, ‘Hey, I don’t know if I should be doing this.’ ”

Not all of Ramona’s residents have torn feelings about the case. Ramona school board member Dan Plough said: “Anyone who violates a child--especially if it’s a teacher or a doctor--is unforgivable. . . . There are two types of people in Ramona--the old guard, who have a different outlook on this, and the new people--people like me, who have lived here for 10 or 15 years or less--and among us there is outrage.”

But Fran Gefken said the allegations haven’t changed her affection for the man who has ministered to her children and grandchildren for years.

“I was very upset when I heard the news” of the new molestation charges, she said. “Very upset. How did I deal with it? Well, I hate the disease, but I love the man.”