A dentist was filmed extracting a tooth while on a hoverboard. He was found guilty on 46 counts
Jan 20, 2020, 9:37 AM
(CNN) — A dentist in Anchorage, Alaska, has been convicted on dozens of charges after he was filmed extracting a patient’s tooth as he stood on a hoverboard, according to the Alaska Department of Law.
Seth Lookhart was convicted on 46 felony and misdemeanor counts in Anchorage Superior Court on Friday by Judge Michael Wolverton, who called the evidence presented by the state during a five-week bench trial “overwhelming,” the Department of Law said in a news release.
A lawsuit filed by the state in 2017 charged Lookhart with “unlawful dental acts,” saying his patient care did not meet professional standards.
Lookhart, the lawsuit said, “performed a dental extraction procedure on a sedated patient while riding a hoverboard,” filmed the procedure and then sent it to several people.
In at least one conversation, Lookhart joked that performing oral surgery on a hoverboard was a “new standard of care,” the lawsuit said, citing phone records.
Lookhart was also charged with medical assistance fraud for billing Medicaid for procedures that were either unnecessary or not properly justified and theft of $25,000 or more by diverting funds from Alaska Dental Arts, among dozens of others.
The evidence indicated Lookhart “believed that he could get away with his fraud indefinitely, and that he believed his scheme was foolproof,” Judge Wolverton said, according to the Department of Law’s news release. That evidence “was often supported, and often in excruciating detail, by Lookhart’s own texts, photos and videos.”
An attorney for Lookhart, who had pleaded not guilty on all counts, declined to comment Sunday.
He’s expected to be sentenced on April 30.
‘It’s crazy!’ hoverboard patient said
The Alaska Department of Law thanked several of Lookhart’s former patients who testified during the trial, including the patient whose tooth was removed while Lookhart was filmed on the hoverboard.
Veronica Wilhelm testified she did not consent to being filmed while sedated nor to having her tooth taken out while Lookhart was on the hoverboard, CNN affiliate KTUU reported last month.
Wilhelm didn’t even know about the video until she was contacted by investigators, she said.
“I would’ve said ‘hell no!’ No, that’s unprofessional,” she testified, per KTUU. “It’s crazy.”
Stockler apologized to Wilhelm in court on his client’s behalf.
“It’s unacceptable and be assured that when I agreed to represent him I got in his face and told him what I thought about him for doing this,” he said.
According to KTUU, Wilhelm addressed Lookhart and told him she thought he “could’ve made better choices.”
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