A Marshall doctor can be heard admitting to “making love all night long” with a patient he had recently treated with “tranquilizers” in secret audio and video recordings made by the alleged victim.

That doctor, Shaun Kelehan, was reprimanded Thursday by the Texas Medical Board and is now barred from treating any male patients and is not to prescribe medication or treat any patient outside of in-person encounters within his clinics. Kelehan is also barred from practicing telemedicine or refilling prescriptions by phone.

Kelehan on Friday denied all allegations against him through a statement posted on his medical practice’s social media page.

“The board panel found that based on evidence, Dr. Kelehan engaged in nonconsensual sexual encounters with a patient and administered medications to the patient during these encounters,” a statement from the disciplinary board read. “On the date of the alleged sexual assault, there is no record of the treatment provided to the patient.”

The temporary restriction will remain effective until the board takes further action.

The Recordings

The Texas Medical Board held a virtual hearing Wednesday involving Kelehan and his alleged victim Trey Wood of Austin. Wood, a self-admitted former drug addict and alcoholic who lived in Marshall at the time of the incident, was a patient of Kelehan’s since the early 2000s.

Wood alleged that while being treated by Kelehan for anxiety and depression as a result of his drug and alcohol abuse, Kelehan gave him medications that would incapacitate him and make him more inebriated — and then Kelehan would perform sexual acts on and with him.

Wood also said Kelehan gave him many narcotics, opiates and benzodiazepines that were returned medications of his patients, that he kept in a large bag inside his closet at home.

Wood reported the incidents of alleged sexual assault to Marshall police, who instructed him to “pretend to be curious” and get Kelehan to admit to the behavior on a recording. The recordings, along with other evidence, were presented to a Harrison County grand jury in 2017 but the grand jury no billed the case, former prosecutor Rick Hulburt said Friday.

Following a successful stint in rehab and Alcoholics Anonymous a couple of years ago, Wood was told by his AA sponsor to confront issues in his past and let them go for good.

“I was told by my sponsor to write a letter to myself, and forgive myself and to write a letter to the Texas Medical Board,” Wood said. “I did both and mailed the letter to the Texas Medical Board and then they contacted me. I gave them the recordings that Marshall police had told me to get at the time, and the medical board brought this case to a hearing.”

In the recordings, which are comprised of both audio and video recordings, Kelehan can be seen and heard admitting to giving Wood drugs like seroquel and klonopin, despite knowing Wood had a problem with opiates and benzodiazepines. Kelehan can also be heard admitting that Wood was “out of his mind,” and that more than one sexual encounter occurred while Wood was under Kelehan’s care.

Doctor’s Public Response

Kelehan issued a public statement on Thursday via the Access Family Health Facebook page.

In the statement, Kelehan said he has been a licensed physician for 20 years and has practiced in Marshall for the past 17 years and he is speaking out in an effort to protect his staff and family from “heartache” brought on by the allegations of Wood.

“There is much misinformation already on Facebook about this,” Kelehan wrote. “I will take the high road and not detail my side of the story because I do not want to reveal information regarding (Wood) that is not already publicly available. Everything that happened that led to the Texas Medical Board decision on (Wednesday) occurred prior to April 2017. In April 2017, I passed a lie detector test 100 percent to clear my name. A grand jury looked into the allegations made by (Wood) to the police against me and determined that no charges should be brought against me. That was in July 2017. Prior to the grand jury making its final decision, (Wood) demanded a large sum of money from me in exchange for him dropping his allegations. Since his allegations were 100 percent false, I refused his attempt at extortion.”

Kelehan went on to write that the Texas Medical Board heard testimony from Dr. Michael Arambula, an expert witness in forensic psychiatry and sex addictions.

“He is also the ex-Medical Board president. He spent five hours with me earlier this week before the hearing interviewing me and another five hours hearing the audio tapes and seeing the evidence,” Kelehan wrote. “He told the panel that he felt after thorough review of the record and my examination that I had not done any of the things (Wood) said I had done, and in fact that it was ‘highly unlikely’ for me to ever do anything like that in the future.”

Despite that testimony, Kelehan said the medical board ruled as it did and he said he disagrees with their ruling.

“I disagree with the board’s decision. However, the board believed in me enough to allow me to continue to see female patients, and I have brought in another physician to see my male patients while I am temporarily unable to see male patients,” Kelehan wrote. “My clinic remains open for business and I look forward to my clinic continuing care for you as we have since 2003.”

Wood denied the allegations of attempted extortion made by Kelehan. Wood also said the medical board is only allowing Kelehan to temporarily continue seeing female patients because Kelehan’s attorney said if the community lost him as a doctor it would “leave a gaping hole” in the community’s medical care. Wood said he believes the board will reconvene with a new disciplinary decision once it conducts research to see the medical impact on the Marshall community.

The News Messenger has filed Freedom of Information requests with the Marshall Police Department and Texas Medical Board in an effort to receive the details of the felony sexual assault case that was sent to a Harrison County Grand Jury in 2017 and to receive all testimonies given during Wednesday’s hearing of the Texas Medical Board.