Ex-employee shares information about Richmond-area chiropractor charged with sex crimes

CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. -- In 1987, a woman in her early 30s started working at the Bon Air Chiropractic Clinic on Professional Drive in North Chesterfield.

Her boss? Dr. Michael Pollock.

"He claimed to be a Christian, very well grounded in the Bible," the woman, who agreed to share her story if her identity was protected, said. "It was very important to me to know that I would be working in a position that I did not have to worry about the atmosphere, and to know that we had the same type of faith."

But she said that faith was tested during an adjustment Pollock performed on her.

"The muscles in my lower back became so tight that I could basically not function.

She said Pollock had her change into a hospital gown and lay on her side.

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"Then when I turned on my side he started massaging my breast, and explaining to me how this could help the lower back," the woman said.

She said she groaned and rolled onto her stomach and stopped the appointment.

"My gut feeling was this is not right, this is definitely not right," she said. "I had a hard time trying to figure out how could muscle in your breast help your lower back?"

She ended up leaving the practice and getting a new job.

"I had saved myself for my husband, that was very special to me," she said.

The woman said she contacted a friend who served on a medical board in another state and asked if chiropractors typically gave a breast massage to treat lower back pain.

RELATED: Chesterfield Police investigating new allegations made against Bon Air chiropractor

"And [I] was told definitely not," she said.

That person sent CBS 6 an email that supported the woman's claim.

However, the woman opted not to contact the Virginia Board of Medicine because she did not think board members believe her.

"When you're in a room and it's just you and him, which he never had anyone else in the room with him, I just felt it would be like so many times what you hear about oh you're just hearsay," she said.

She went on with her life and even wrote a letter to Pollock at the advice of her pastor in an attempt to forgive him.

"But I couldn't forget because I felt like he was using his faith to lure people as well as his position as a chiropractor to take advantage of people," she said.

And then, 34 years later, she learned that Pollock had been arrested and charged with four felony sex crimes for allegedly assaulting two different women at the Advanced Wellness Center in the Museum District where he worked as a fill-in chiropractor.

"He needs to be stopped," she said.

Pollock still has an active license, but a court ordered him not to practice
until his trial.

The woman said she cannot understand why the medical board still has not pulled his license.

In fact, the Federation of State Medical Boards issued 38 recommendations last year related to physician sexual misconduct.

Among them, the recommendation that medical boards should have the authority to suspend a license prior to the completion of an investigation.

While the board will not confirm nor deny if it was investigating Pollock, at least two women have filed complaints against him this year. Those complaints typically open investigations.

A board spokesperson said Virginia law prohibited the board from suspending a license before an investigation is finished.

"I think [the medical board] has done a great disservice to people who have come forward. Maybe it's because of their policies, I don't know, but it's wrong, and they need to change, and they need to change quickly," the woman said.

The woman filed a complaint in August with the Board of Medicine, and she said Chesterfield Police contacted her this week after the Board of Medicine told them about her complaint, but she said a detective told her the case was too old to pursue.

We have reached out to Pollock's attorney three times, and we have not heard back.