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SANDY — A former physician assistant who is already facing federal charges in connection with the death of a former NHL player now faces state charges accusing him of sexually abusing patients.
Oscar Couprou Johnson, 62, of Draper, was arrested on Nov. 29. He was charged Thursday with forcible sodomy and object rape, both first-degree felonies. The case was transferred to West Jordan's 3rd District Court on Tuesday.
According to charging documents, a woman went to the Alta Pain Clinic on Sept. 6 to receive medication and was forced by Johnson to perform sex acts.
When Johnson was arrested, Sandy police said they feared there was the potential for many more victims.
Police noted in Johnson's Salt Lake County booking report that he "was fired from his previous job as a physician assistant due to a complaint of a sexual nature. He was also recently investigated by (the Utah Division of Occupational and Professional Licensing) and admitted he had engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with several patients on multiple occasions."
When interviewed by detectives, Johnson said he kissed and hugged three or four patients and had sex with one, but claimed it was consensual, the report states.
In October, the licensing division revoked Johnson's physician assistant license.
His license had been suspended in April. Johnson was ordered at that time to undergo a psychosexual and physical examination and "obtain a letter from each evaluator stating that the respondent is mentally and physically fit to practice as a physician assistant," the division report states.
Johnson, a former medical assistant for the Utah Grizzlies, made headlines in 2014 when he was indicted by a federal grand jury on 26 counts of illegally prescribing oxycodone and one count of making false statements to federal agents.
Johnson, who worked for the medical group that provided services to the team, prescribed 2,920 Percocet pills to Jordan Hart over two years after the player was no longer with the Grizzlies, according to an indictment filed by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York.
Beginning in late 2010, Hart allegedly sold some of those pills to New York Rangers star Derek Boogaard. Boogaard died of an oxycodone and alcohol overdose in his Minneapolis apartment in May 2011.
In 2016, Hart reached a plea deal and was sentenced to one year of probation and 100 hours of community service.
The case against Johnson has still not been resolved, even though court documents indicate that a plea deal had been reached in 2015. In 2016, Johnson's case was transferred from New York to the U.S. District Court in Oregon. It's unclear why the case was transferred to Oregon, but according to court records, Johnson said he intended to plead guilty there.
