Court Order Sought to Shut Down Doctor : Medicine: Tustin gynecologist accused of molesting scores of patients also faces possible criminal prosecution.

Dr. Ivan C. Namihas, the Tustin gynecologist accused of molesting more than 115 of his patients, faces attacks on two fronts today as the attorney general seeks a court order to immediately shut down his medical practice and the district attorney reviews possible criminal charges against him.

Deputy Atty. Gen. Randy Christison said he would ask an Orange County Superior Court judge to issue a temporary restraining order barring Namihas from practicing medicine pending further inquiry. Christison said he plans to present statements from as many as 25 women who have reported to authorities that they were sexually molested by Namihas or that he had subjected them to improper medical treatment.

The head of the sexual assault unit of the district attorney’s office, Jan C. Sturla, met Thursday for more than two hours with a lieutenant and an investigator from the Tustin Police Department to consider the complaint of a woman who says Namihas fondled her last month.

Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi confirmed that his office is reviewing that case but declined to speculate on whether Namihas would be criminally prosecuted.

Of all the women who have reported that they were molested, she is so far the only one who has requested criminal prosecution. There are lingering doubts, however, that the case is strong enough to convince a jury that Namihas violated the law.

As lawyers and investigators explored the case, new details emerged about how Namihas has responded to similar accusations in the past. When one complaint was investigated by the medical board in 1982, Namihas contended that he touched patients only for medical purposes and that he was trying to help women lead sexually satisfying lives.

Kathleen Schmidt, the investigator to whom he offered this explanation, said he arrived for the interview carrying a book containing explicit pictures of women masturbating. She said he showed her the book in an apparent attempt to demonstrate that he was helping patients with sexual dysfunction.

“He said it was a medical text, but it sure looked obscene to me,” Schmidt said.

She said Namihas told her that few doctors understand women or try to help them with their sexual problems. He insisted that his accuser had misinterpreted his touches.

A decade later, scores of his patients are claiming that he would ask whether they were sexually satisfied and whether they masturbated, even though they had not sought his advice on such matters. They say that in the course of pelvic examinations, he also touched them in apparent attempts to arouse them.

The medical board did not file charges on the 1982 complaint, or on another complaint against the doctor in 1987, due to what it said was insufficient evidence.

The woman who filed the 1987 medical board complaint, however, also filed a complaint against Namihas with the Tustin Police Department, Schmidt said.

Police Lt. Chuck Crane said that his department presented the 1987 complaint--another story of alleged sexual molestation by Namihas--to the district attorney’s office but that the agency declined to prosecute.

One of the stories that the deputy attorney general plans to present at today’s hearing is that of a woman who claims that Namihas induced her labor early because he wanted to leave on a skiing vacation. And then, when she did not deliver quickly enough, he performed a Cesarean section.

Among the problems confronting police and prosecutors exploring criminal charges against Namihas is that the conduct described by many of his accusers--being masturbated by the doctor against their will--does not in itself constitute a felony, and misdemeanors are subject to a one-year statute of limitations. Many of the incidents date back 10 or 15 years.

Seeking to revoke his license, the medical board charged Namihas with sexual misconduct and negligence in December, based on complaints filed by five women. When the number of women coming forward to complain soared this week, the board sought to speed up the process by seeking the court order halting his practice until the license revocation hearings can be completed.