Holistic Healer Is Released Without Bail

A self-described holistic healer accused of molesting two women during health treatments was ordered released from jail on his own recognizance Tuesday, as more than 30 of his clients and alternative medicine supporters jammed the courtroom.

A municipal judge in Laguna Niguel allowed Salvatore D’Onofrio, 52, to continue his alternative healing practice, provided he does not administer medical examinations, laboratory tests or an “ozone therapy” that can involve inserting tubes into a woman’s vagina.

Despite earlier predictions by prosecutors and police that D’Onofrio would face additional charges, none were filed Tuesday. His bail, which had been set at $500,000 at one point, was whittled to nothing.

“I think this is a phenomenal victory for alternative medicine,” said Charles F. Benninghoff, D’Onofrio’s attorney, in a statement to reporters and D’Onofrio’s supporters outside court.

A prosecutor with the Orange County district attorney’s office characterized the proceedings differently. “We are not conceding anything,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Roseanne Froeberg said.

But Froeberg said that her office has opted to look into the legitimacy of techniques used by D’Onofrio, in part by conferring with various experts in alternative medicine. D’Onofrio’s pretrial hearing was rescheduled for January.

“We have to take into consideration the healing community’s perspective on this,” she said. “We have not reached a decision one way or another [on new charges]. We cannot say this case has been weakened or strengthened. It simply has become more complex.”

D’Onofrio still faces eight counts of penetrating two women with a foreign object and one count of practicing medicine without a license.

In a jailhouse interview last October, D’Onofrio said he was stunned by his arrest and felt it stemmed from a misunderstanding of holistic medicine by medical board investigators and police. He said one of his techniques was to use oxygen tubes to activate patients’ immune systems and cure their vaginal infections.

Many of those in a crowd of D’Onofrio supporters also expressed anger and frustration Tuesday at his arrest and six-week incarceration.

“The Laguna Beach police did not act properly,” said John Hamilton, 66, a client of D’Onofrio’s who has known him 10 years. “I think they considered him a quack.”

Froeberg said that, on the contrary, Laguna Beach police officers are sensitive to the “holistic community” and she is keeping an open mind toward alternative treatments.

“My office does not view this as political,” she said. “We’re viewing it like any other criminal case. . . . The focus is on whether there was a specific intent [by the defendant] to sexually gratify” himself.