By Johnnie Rosario
Despite the Guam Board of Medical Examiners going to bat for the reinstatement of Dr. Abner Pasatiempo's medical license, the former psychiatrist for drugs-addicted women accused of sexually assaulting several of his patients is now wanted by the law.
Judge Benjamin Sison in court Friday morning issued a bench warrant for the arrest of Pasatiempo, after failing again to appear before the judge and answer for the criminal charges against him.
Dr. Pasatiempo was employed by the Guam Behavioral Health and Wellness Center, where he was supposed to care for the drug addictions of women in rehabilitation.
Seven women came forward, beginning in December 2019, to accuse him of a range of sexual misconduct.
"One of the girls, he grabbed her ass," one of the women told Kandit. "He groped another girl's breasts and he even went and bought a dildo for one of the girls. He's sick. He should not be a doctor."
The woman was contacted by a Guam Board of Medical Examiners representative, who asked her whether she would be okay if the GBME lifted the flag it placed on Pasatiempo in the National Practitioner Data Bank. The GMBE raised the flag to NPDB after six of the seven women filed complaints and he resigned from his job and declined to renew his medical license in the middle of an impending investigation.
The psychiatrist was trying last year to renew his license in Guam, but is living in Alaska. The renewal of his license may remove the flag and allow him to practice in Alaska, or other places throughout the United States, including Guam. Whether he now is in Alaska is a mystery. The court's Marshal services informed the judge at Friday's hearing that there was "no service" on the Pasatiempo case.
"This is I believe the third or fourth time," the attending prosecutor said to Judge Sison. "We ask the court to issue a bench warrant." The Office of the Attorney General February this year filed charges of criminal sexual conduct against the doctor. A series of arraignment hearings for him to plea to the charges have come and gone, and Pasatiempo was a no-show despite all the clamor from his doctor colleagues defending his honor and character.
"I really feel like the board is trying to side with him, and that's just wrong," the woman said. "I told them there's no way he should be a doctor anywhere."
The GBME licensed Pasatiempo in 2018 knowing his medical license was suspended in Maryland for having a sexual relationship with one of his patients there.
Former Gov. Eddie Calvo hired him at GBHWC once his license was approved by the GBME, and the doctor was given access to one of the island's most vulnerable populations: women coping with addiction and trying to stop using drugs.
"We're just trying to move on with our lives and do better for ourselves and our families," the woman told Kandit. "How are we supposed to fight someone like him? He's a doctor. We're considered addicts and pariahs on the community. If it weren't for the other women who stood up with me, I wouldn't have a strong case, and maybe people just wouldn't believe what I have to say. This kind of thing needs to stop."
