When she told Forman that wouldn’t be necessary, MA’s mother said in an interview, the mood changed. “He’s a pretty big guy,” she said. “I was intimidated.”
MA’s mother said Forman stood over her daughter and touched the sides of her breasts while talking to the girl about plays his daughter had been in, according to the court order. Forman told the 15-year-old that if she still felt ill, she could “come over to my house and watch those videos" of the plays together, the mother testified.
MA’s mother said she continued to insist that her daughter was fine and asked the doctor to leave, according to the court order.
The mother reported the incident to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office, which investigated the alleged incident.
“A complaint about Dr. Forman was received by the LCSO in March 2017, and investigated by a Special Victims Unit Detective, including interviews with the juvenile complainant and family members,” sheriff’s spokesperson Michele Bowman said in an email. “The investigation was completed in April 2017, and the complainant was advised that there was insufficient evidence to file criminal charges.”
The police interviewed the mother March 29, 2017, and according to a case report written by Detective John Miller, police said that the mother told them she did not “observe him touch her daughter in a sexual manner” and that she at no time asked the doctor to leave the house. “She said she was trying to act nice because she was scared since it was just she and her daughters at home,” the report states.
Miller wrote that he told the mother that based on what she described, nothing criminal had occurred. MA’s mother told NBC News that she specifically told the detective, “Forman put his hands on my daughter’s breasts. That’s what I said in the civil suit as well,” she said.
In a narrative dated April 4, 2017, Detective David Orr wrote that he followed up with MA’s mother and took an additional statement. He wrote that he advised her on protective order procedures and gave her other safety tips, in addition to running a criminal check on Forman which came back clean.
Orr also wrote that he attempted to speak with Forman but his practice’s lawyer said he advised the doctor “not make a statement until such time as he can consult with criminal attorney.”
The Reston Pediatrics lawyer did confirm to Orr that Forman had spoken about the play with MA during the examination and did try to reach MA’s mother the next day to see how her daughter was feeling. When MA’s mother did not respond, Forman “became concerned and responded to the house,” the lawyer, who is not identified by name, said in the police narrative.
Orr wrote that he tried to contact Forman directly “with negative results.”
The mother took out a protective order against the doctor March 31, 2017, records show.
NBC News legal analyst Danny Cevallos noted the standard for taking out a protective order is much lower than it is for charging somebody with a crime.
"I’m not surprised that a prosecution didn’t follow from this," Cevallos said after he reviewed the investigators' incident reports. "In reading between the lines, I sense that law enforcement found Mom to be not very credible. And often in these cases the perceived credibility of a complainant will sink a prosecution before it starts."
Still, Forman's alleged behavior was "bizarre," and it's also not surprising that a jury awarded MA's mother a more than $1 million settlement, Cevallos said.
MA’s mother also filed a complaint against Forman with the state Department of Health Professions, which regulates doctors, Magner said. She received a reply on July 20, 2017.
“Based upon its review, the Board has concluded that a disciplinary proceeding will not be instituted,” Dr. William Harp, the executive director of the Virginia Board of Medicine, wrote.
Harp added that a letter has been sent to Forman that he “may wish to examine some aspects of his/her practice.”
Asked to explain why the DHP chose not to investigate the allegations against Forman, agency spokesperson Diane Powers sent an emailed response that did not directly address the allegations against the pediatrician.
Powers noted in the email that the state’s Board of Medicine “must have ‘clear and convincing’ evidence to substantiate a violation” and “if a physician is seen as a ‘substantial danger’ to the public, the Board is authorized to summarily suspend the license without providing a hearing first.”
Powers also did not answer whether the DHP would investigate Forman now that a second teenage girl has accused the doctor of improper behavior.
MA’s parents filed a civil lawsuit against Forman and Reston Pediatrics, and on June 24, 2022, a jury found Forman liable for battery and awarded the plaintiff $1.5 million, records show. Circuit Court Judge James P. Fisher reduced the award to $1.3 million Jan. 23 and dismissed an appeal by the defendants.
A second allegation
Forman and Reston Pediatrics were sued again last month, according to Magner who is representing the second teenager, a high school senior, who said the doctor “felt the sides of her breasts while pretending to check the lymph nodes in her armpits” during an office visit in February for a sports physical, according to the complaint.
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