LOS ANGELES : Doctor Convicted of Sexually Assaulting Patients

A Brentwood doctor was convicted Thursday on 10 counts of sexually assaulting his female patients, but a jury deadlocked on eight other counts and acquitted the doctor on two remaining charges.

Superior Court Judge Charles Horan ordered Yahya Lavi, who has been free on bail, taken into immediate custody pending his June 6 sentencing. He faces more than 43 years in state prison.

Lavi, who works at several Los Angeles-area health clinics and has a private practice in Brentwood, was accused of 20 counts of drugging, raping and sexually assaulting five women. The jury could not agree whether Lavi had drugged some of the women.

In all, Lavi was convicted of three counts of genital penetration by a foreign object, three misdemeanor counts of sexual battery, two counts of sexual battery on an institutionalized person, and two counts of rape of an unconscious person.