A new sexual assault allegation has surfaced against a Bay Area fertility doctor, previously accused by the California Medical Board of inappropriately touching a half-dozen patients more than two decades ago.
The previous matter ended in a settlement without an admission of liability and the doctor continued to practice.
In a recent lawsuit, a North Bay woman suing under the pseudonym "Jane Doe" accused Dr. Ryszard Chetkowski of sexually assaulting her during an appointment at the Marin Fertility Center in late 2021.
“I knew what was happening wasn’t OK and I knew it was wrong,” Jane said in an interview with NBC Bay Area’s Investigative Unit. “Nobody had ever touched me like that before.”
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According to court documents, she and her husband had been coming to Marin Fertility Center for months before meeting Dr. Chetkowski.
“We wanted a family and we wanted to create something that was the product of the two of us,” Jane said.
In December 2021, she was scheduled for a transvaginal ultrasound. When she arrived, however, Jane said her normal doctor wasn’t there and she was told Dr. Chetkowski would be handling the procedure.
“I’d never see him before,” Jane said. "I was hesitant. You know, here’s this strange man who I have never met, who is now here to stick something inside of me. But when you are at the fertility clinic, you’re there to have a baby.”
It’s a procedure Jane had gone through before: The paper gown, her feet in stirrups, a probe used to monitor the growth of her eggs. But this time was different, she said. Before inserting the probe, the lawsuit alleges, Chetkowski inappropriately stroked and fondled Jane in a way no other doctor had done before.
“My response was to freeze,” Jane said. “It’s almost like my soul got sucked up into my head.”
There was a nurse in the room, but Jane said she was looking at a tablet and Dr. Chetkowski was positioned in a way that blocked the nurse’s view.
Chetkowski’s attorney, Colin Cooper, called the accusation against his client “Completely, totally, thoroughly false.”
He also brought up the nurse.
“That nurse was interviewed and completely denied that anything untoward ever happened inside that medical room during the examination,” Cooper said.
Jane left the clinic trying to process what had just happened, she said, and began researching Dr. Chetkowski online. That’s when she came across some disturbing information posted on a patient safety advocate’s website.
NBC Bay Area requested the same records from the California Medical Board and confirmed they’re legitimate.
According to the Medical Board accusation filed against the doctor in 1997, Chetkowski allegedly inappropriately touched six female patients between 1987 and 1994.
“It was exactly the same as what he did to me,” Jane said.
The descriptions of each alleged incident are similar and mirror what Jane alleges happened to her. In each case, according to the records, Dr. Chetkowski inappropriately rubbed or fondled the clitoris of women going through fertility treatments.
In at least four of the cases, the accusation states a nurse was in the room when it happened.
Chetkowski reached a settlement with the medical board without admitting liability, according to the records, and the doctor’s license was not revoked or suspended. The board issued him a public letter of reprimand and required him to go through training on pelvic exams, as well as patient communication and sensitivity.
“Here I am 30 years later,” Jane said. “How in the hell was I allowed to be put in a room with this guy?”
Chetkowski’s attorney brushed off the Medical Board’s 1997 accusation.
“If there are allegations from 30 or 40 years ago and there’s nothing in between then and now, I think those allegations would be quite suspect as well,” Cooper said.
The week after her visit, Jane filed a police report, but Chetkowski was never criminally charged. In March, she filed her civil lawsuit against Chetkowski and Marin Fertility Center.
“She could barely have anyone touch her after Dr. Chetkowski,” said Sandra Ribera Speed, Jane’s attorney.
Ribera Speed claims Marin Fertility Center was negligent for hiring Chetkowski and placing her client in harm’s way.
“Are you telling me that Marin Fertility Center, that had retained Dr. Chetkowski’s services, couldn’t have even done a simple Google search as a background check on him?” Ribera Speed said. “Because all of this information comes up and has been available for years.”
In a statement, an attorney representing Marin Fertility Center said Dr. Chetkowski has not used the facility in over a year and was never directly employed by the business. The attorney declined to comment further, citing the pending litigation, and did not respond to questions about the professional relationship between Dr. Chetkowski and Marin Fertility Center.
Jane and her husband are still trying to get pregnant, but she said her experience with Dr. Chetkowski has darkened her already difficult journey.
“I hope that we’re going to get there eventually,” Jane said. “This has been incredibly stressful. We miscarried a couple months ago, which was devastating.”
