Coronado Hospital Technician Faces Trial on Rape Charges

A Coronado Hospital X-ray technician faces trial on rape charges after two women said he molested them while they were alone with him in an X-ray room.

Oscar Figueroa, 34, a temporary technician at the hospital, was ordered Thursday to stand trial on two counts of rape with a foreign object and two counts of sexual battery.

Municipal Judge Charles Rogers also refused a request by Figueroa, who is being held in County Jail, to have his bond reduced from $200,000. Arraignment was set for Jan. 6.

A 25-year-old Coronado woman testified Figueroa took X-rays of her while she was being treated for pelvic pains. Figueroa took one set of X-rays, then asked her to return to the X-ray room a second time, she said. Figueroa told her the doctor had ordered more X-rays, she said.

The woman said that, while she was alone with Figueroa in the room, he performed painful pelvic and rectal examinations. The woman underwent surgery the next day, but couldn’t forget her experience in the X-ray room, she said.

“I had been having dreams about it, thinking it was wrong, and I had to get it off my chest,” she said. The woman said she asked her doctor about the examination.

“He just kept saying, ‘Oh, my God,’ and ‘Jesus Christ,’ and ‘Hold on, I’ll find out about this right away,’ ” the woman said.

Coronado Police Detective Keith James said the physician told him he never ordered the extra X-rays or the examinations. “He told me that under no circumstances do they (X-ray technicians) have the authority to perform such examinations,” James said.

The other alleged victim, a 16-year-old girl, testified that she was being treated at the hospital for head injuries. The girl said Figueroa fondled her breasts while he was alone in the X-ray room with her. James said a doctor noticed that the X-rays took an unusually long time and that “he found the door of the X-ray room locked, which he found peculiar,” James said.