A jury in in Texas has a curious notion of justice after recommending a sentence of just 10 years probation and no jail time for Shafeeq Sheikh, a former physician at Baylor College of Medicine. Sheikh raped a heavily sedated patient but will walk after a guilty verdict. It is one of the most disturbing sentences that I have seen in a decade.
Under state law, Visiting Senior District Judge Terry L. Flenniken was required to follow the recommendation.
Sheikh sexually assaulted the woman named Laura, 32, after she was admitted to the Ben Taub Hospital in 2013 after complaining of a shortness of breath and wheezing. She was sedated overnight and surveillance films show Sheikh using his badge to swipe onto her floor at least 12 times that night. The victim said that a doctor came to in the dark and began touching her breasts during a chest exam. She said that she tried to call for help but the call button was disabled.
A rape kit later retrieved his DNA. In other words, it was an open and shut case of the use of authority over a sedated person to commit aggravated rape. It is also not clear if this was the first time Sheikh committed such a heinous act. He did not come forward and only was arrested two years after the rape. He insisted it was consensual though it is help to imagine consent with a heavily sedated patient.
His lawyer argued for leniency because Sheikh is a father and his dreams to become a doctor “were shattered by his conduct.” Why is that a compelling argument since he used his power as a doctor to rape a helpless patient?
The Texas Medical Board revoked his license in 2015 after finding that Sheikh was a “continuing threat to public welfare.”
So why would a jury of five women and seven men recommend such a low sentence for a rapist who used his medical authority to assault a helpless patient? They deliberated for 14 hours but rendered a recommendation almost as shocking as the crime.
This episode of ”Brown People Behaving Badly” has been brought to you by the Committee to REElect the President.
Our Observations:
Ever Heard the Term ‘Third-World Assassins?’ Probably Not . . .
Sexual pervert Sheikh is the pluperfect example of what we call a Third World Assassin, and trust me on this – Paramedics clash with these ‘bad actors’ every day of the year.
You see, in the cloistered world of healthcare, there exists a curious reality that pops up quietly among those who treat patients for a living. That reality is ‘third-world assassins’ – dubbed TWA for short. TWA refers to foreign doctors who come here; are issued medical licenses in every state; then proceed to ply their trade, treating hundreds of thousands of citizens daily, often with seriously unprofessional skill levels, motives, or functional moral compass. They quickly learn the various and sundry ways to rob the nearly-toothless system blind.
Why do American healthcare professionals refer to these people as TWAs? Well, because as the name implies, they kill people with surprising regularity, due to either incompetence or indifference. More often, they injure patients daily, by totally unnecessary procedures and/or seriously screwy antics, and then rob insurance carriers blind, as they dip into the well of the U.S. healthcare money trough.
And when it comes to sexual perversions, they can be off-the-chart nasty.
I get no joy in reporting that the sheer numbers of Third World Assassins welcomed into naive American communities are jaw-dropping. Land of opportunity? You be the judge.
https://www.paramedicheretic.org/3rd-world-assassins
Now, do we deport them after their rapes and murders? We do not. We allow them to cross state lines and start all over, with a brand new, totally unsuspecting victim pool.
“America. What a country.”
Wow! Thank you for the head’s up. Is there a database where one can easily find out their professional history and any disciplinary actions?
It’s Texas, rape isn’t considered that big of a deal, perhaps she let her gown open too much and tempted the good doctor, ugh!
madnessreigns – don’t those gowns tie in back?
I recently read how psychopaths tend to get out of jail earlier than non psychopaths. The clever ones know how to manipulate the system, garner sympathy, and wear the perfect mask of civility.
I have no idea if Dr. Sheikh is a psychopath, but I do know he is a rapist. Perhaps he incurred such a light sentence because he portrayed himself as charming and contrite in court. Perhaps they did not want to “rip children from their parents’ arms”.
The jury forgot about the victim. A man with ultimate power over her, in a position of trust and authority, raped her repeatedly in a hospital while she was helpless and sedated. If she had not had sufficient consciousness to know what happened, she would have been violated without ever finding out. I highly suspect that she is right in her assessment that there must be other victims. 12 times in a night he went in to her.
This was a miscarriage of justice. Our country rallies and marches against bugaboos like the “war on women” false accusation against Republicans. There are real predators out there who game the system to prey upon women, or whomever their chosen targets are.
This is the dichotomy of justice that I was referring to earlier. Mueller threatens Gates with 300 years for tax evasion until he rolls on Manafort, who suffers the same threat. 300 years plus for allegedly having offshore bank accounts. But a doctor who rapes a sedated, helpless patient in his hospital over and over again all night gets off without any jail time for the sake of his family?
The law is supposed to be blind justice, unmoved by politics, race, wealth, or other immaterial matters. But it is not. And therein lies our goal. Equal justice for all.
I am so very sorry for what happened to the victim, and how this jury let her down. Her rapist is free and never was punished by the law for violating her repeatedly. At this point, they can never know if there are more victims. If they were completely unconscious, he could have cleaned them up and they would have no idea what happened, no explanation for how they felt. Physical evidence is now long gone. I grieve for her, and for them, if there were other victims.
All I’ve seen is Turley’s description and the outcome. My feeling there must be a lot more going on here. Juries in Texas are not soft on crime, particularly not sexual assault.
He falls under the unofficial prielege list made by the Legislature to scapegoat justice by claiming to be a civic leader or first responder. Just like the ones in Florida and Alabama who even had taken personal photos of the tricks they did. One was a Sargeant who used his grade school niece on Facebook to get pictures of over 40 naked uner 15 years old boys.
Also, in Texas a few years back a deputy was taking naked pictures of registered sex offenders, claiming the law required them to comply or go to jail for years. Turned out he was a SO too.
WTF! The jury instructions would have including sentencing guidelines, correct? Otherwise, this jury would be receiving the Benson claim of just making stuff up.
I don’t know how this works. One would think that if the defendant is found guilty, the jurors would only be given lawful sentences to choose from. Is probation for a rapist lawful? Just?
Perhaps jurors should only decide guilty or innocent. Sentencing should be according to strict guidelines, like the tables that insurance uses for compensation for various injuries. That way race cannot ever come into play. It’s X years for this crime, Y added on for extenuating circumstances A-E.
This is also not a very popular opinion, but I think prison sentences should be a lot harder, but often shorter. It’s a punishment and a deterrent, not a warehouse. You shouldn’t have to sentence anyone to ten consecutive life sentences to ensure they won’t get out on parole. I don’t believe in parole. What does it matter if a prisoner behaves in prison? He’s away from the population on which he preys, and there is the impetus to fake reformation to gain benefits. Sentences should be fair, and you should serve your sentence to grant justice to the victims or society. Good behavior in jail should net you benefits inside, not early release.
My Dad met a man who was honest to a fault in Turkey. He had survived a Turkish prison sentence, which often equates to a death sentence. He spent his time breaking big rocks into smaller rocks, or some other Sisyphean task. Apparently it is a nightmare in a Turkish prison. When he survived his sentence, he would do anything to avoid being sent back there.
Now, I’m not saying that prison should be a death sentence. It should definitely be less rapey. But serving a prison sentence should make one most emphatically never want to return. The question is how to do that while still avoiding cruel and unusual punishment or some oubliette.
I’ve never understood sentencing guidelines. Admittedly, I’ve never made much of an effort though.
You might find this developing story interesting:
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-prison-strike-protest-slavery-demands-south-carolina-a8501681.html
Thanks, Olly. I’ll check it out.
What did the doctor have going for him in TX that would allow him to rape an unconscious patient without receiving jail time. Hmmm. That’s a tough one.Not really. He’s white and has money.
Correction. He looks white and ha smoney.
Yeah. A magical thing that white privilege is; you don’t even have to be white to get the benefit of it.
Just out of curiosity, lloyd, since you seem to know so much, what was the victim’s ethnicity?
Lloyd, please tell me you suffer from dichromatic color confusion.
Correction. Shafeeq Sheikh, an Arab with money.
I was interested in what Prof. Turley had to say about the Mary Winkler case back in the day. I get the idea that Jill / Natacha types used to dominate the comment boards here.
Houston is so Diverse a jury of the wildest composition imaginable is possible (In terms of worldview//ideology of course). We’ve all head/read of contemporary cultures where rape is more or less a matter of routine.
You’ll notice that the Prof. complains about the (lay) jury, and fails to notice that it took the police and courts in Houston 57 months to process this case. And, no, she didn’t delay reporting the crime.
Always empathy for all true victims.
However, in recent years the logical meaning of ‘rape’ has illogically been heavily sedated and publicly raped.
So, logically, defer public comment.
Until the court hearing and sentencing logic is – made public.
He needs to be held down and given an enema of one gallon of battery acid from an old car.
ouch
Of course his family is harmed by his conduct, but that is a result of what he chose to do. If a poor black or Hispanic father goes to prison as a result of criminal behavior, his children will suffer also, but the jury doesn’t take that into consideration. So this guy gets a break because he got to go to medical school, and is likely from a privileged family? I suppose the Feds could charge him with a civil rights if the victim is a minority. If she’s white, he skates….
In my view this sentence is a manifest injustice. Does
VirginiaTexas criminal procedure allow the state to appeal a sentence such as this?I don’t agree with having a practice where a jury sets sentencing except in the case of determining if a death penalty may be assessed, since this is at the very least mandated in case law. That should in general be calculated by the judge and any determinate sentencing guidelines.
It happened in Texas, not VA.
Ah, my mistake, thank you for pointing that out.
I have a suspicion there are unreported details in the case that influenced the jury’s decision. (Or that the jury was largely composed of Democratic Party mascots).
Judges shouldn’t be allowed discretion over sentencing either.
I agree. How would a jury know how to sentence anyone? There should be a fair standard
Too bad it wasn’t a trial before the court..Terry Flenniken is an excellent judge and great guy.
I would like to know the religious makeup of the jury……which would be more important to know, than gender, since It’s Houston.
At least he will have to register forever as a sex offender……and he lost his license. Maybe he could move to Hollywood….even though he couldn’t be a doctor, he could play one on TV.
Primary objectives in sentencing are first to take the threat out of society-not done, may be encouraged, second to illustrate results of malfeasance to deter others-not accomplished, may encourage given precedent. If it was consensual then he wouldn’t be a sex offender. If he was guilty of rape, then prison.
Now we have low crimes and misdemeanors by judges in addition to the high crimes and misdemeanors from the 9th Circus to the Supreme Court.
Impeach the entire judicial branch en masse.
Start over with the “manifest tenor” of the Constitution: Article 1 limiting the power of Congress to tax solely for “…general Welfare…” omitting and, thereby, excluding taxation for individual welfare. The right to private property “…in the exclusion of every other individual.” No more welfare, affirmative action, fair housing, non-discrimination, forced busing, etc., etc.,etc. Did the Founders implement welfare, affirmative action, fair housing, etc. in 1789? They couldn’t because those are unconstitutional acts. People must adapt to the outcomes of freedom. Freedom does not adapt to people…dictatorship does.
Earth to loony toons, the judge had nothing to do with this sentence; the jury assessed the probation. Back to your table now, the attendant is coming to cut up your chicken.
to “the mad king” georgie
Most of the problem is not within one of the three branches but the fourth branch embedded primarily in the executive that are judge, jury, executioner as well as legislature and the rest of all in one little single agency branch. BLM proved that in Oregon, IRS same way. Wht you do is return each sub branch to control and management of their real branch and make that branch responsbile. Enough of this scientific administration crap of FDR’s it’s too damn progressive to be a part of our Constitutional Republic and will not assimilate unless forced to do so or is disbanded and pink slipped. IT’s not just over reach in regulation writing .
Very sadly the centures old observation of Montesque is true. Dictators do not take over they are invited to take over by the population.
We just went through eight years of that with one man one rule deal making who refused to get required congressional approval. FDR of WWII fame tossed out the entire concept of civil rights, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights citing exigencies of war. Habeas corpus the whole bit. Confiscated private property and more.
Recently we’ve been finding out that the 911 perps won considering the 17 year plus need for citizens to be treated like criminals just to fly in an airplane. 17 years and not one of us had our rights read before that sentence was passed.
Having recognized that many of us moved to do something and make a change but as you can see have to fight fire with fire. Schumers latest tantrum today proves that and his party isn’t even Constitutional any more if it ever was. .
Let’s look at it from the idea that he lost his license for life. That is all that education down the drain and he still has the student loans to pay. Personally, I would want the maximum jail time besides. However, I was not on the jury and I guess the defendant’s attorney made a compelling argument. BTW, he is still a convicted sex offender.
As for the perp he can go to any number of other countries with third world medical schools Caribbean seems to be full of them take a few local courses and get a brand new license. He can also easily get a name change. Re-enter and unless their is a fingerprint check involved start up again or just go to another country. Just stay out of Texas Not like he is going to stop.
As for the general cultural situation my sibling works at Mayo and they get a lot of the interns. The conduct of some from certain countries towards female staff and patients would get the a job with the Clintons when it comes to victimizing women. The worst was having prescribed a wrong medicine when an allergy to such was clearly printed on the charts had one of them screaming obscenities heard over one wing.
The Hospital eased him out of the program and presumably out of the country. They can talk about deplorable fly over red necks all they want and racial this and that it’s a cultural thing that has to be guarded against. Consider the constant rapes of Swedish women from the middle east immigrants That is what their social consciousness gifted them inthat country.
Assimilate they refuse to do so to the point where the notion of the jury make up is a valid observation. Such a jury would after all be ‘peers.’
“His lawyer argued for leniency because Sheikh is a father and his dreams to become a doctor “were shattered by his conduct.” ??? Indeed. This is beyond shocking!
A lawyer earns his keep making the case for his client. Evidently the chutzpah is effective on occasion.