Overland Park chiropractor loses license after two patients allege sexual abuse

Note: This story has been corrected to reflect that the Overland Park police are still investigating Pounds and have not referred his case to the Johnson County district attorney's office.

An Overland Park chiropractor surrendered his medical license last week as the Kansas Board of Healing Arts investigated reports that he sexually abused two patients.

The board had already suspended the license of Overland Park Family Chiropractic's Christopher Lee Pounds on an emergency basis in May, after a female patient reported abuse and got a protection order from a Johnson County judge because she said she feared he would retaliate.

In a subsequent order published June 20, the board said it had received information from two of Pounds' patients "who independently reported similar instances of sexual abuse, misconduct and/or improper sexual contact perpetrated on the patients" by Pounds.

Pounds' attorney didn't respond to a phone message Wednesday.

In surrendering his license, Pounds admitted no wrongdoing. In fact, the board's order says he denied the allegations against him. But in waiving his right to a hearing and surrendering his license, he agreed that the board had enough evidence to prove he had violated the medical board's rules — similar to a plea of "no contest" in a criminal court.

The Kansas medical board said its order should be treated as a license revocation. Under that designation, Pounds may apply for reinstatement after three years. But the board said that if he does, it will re-open the sex abuse cases and factor those into its decision whether to grant him a license.

The Star is not naming the woman who filed the protection order against Pounds as part of its policy to protect alleged sexual assault victims' identities.

The woman filed a report May 9 with Overland Park police.

Officer John Lacy, a spokesman with Overland Park police, said Thursday that the department is still investigating the allegations against Pounds.

It was not the first time that the Kansas medical board disciplined Pounds.

The board found evidence in 2013 that "there may be grounds" that Pounds' ability to treat his patients would be "impaired by reason of physical or mental illness, or condition or use of alcohol, drugs or controlled substances," according to a report by the agency.

On his initial application for licensure, Pounds had answered "no" to a question about whether he had prior arrests, according to the report. But the board found Pounds had been arrested in January 2009.

The board issued a license to Pounds on the condition that he agree to a consent order that required him to be monitored. The terms of the monitoring were redacted, which is standard procedure for the board when dealing with substance abuse or mental health issues that don't involve patient care.

Two months later, the board denied Pounds' request for a modification to the consent order, writing, "(Pounds) did not obtain Board approval of the therapist, thus, failing to abide by the terms of the consent order."

Other conditions of the order were redacted.

Then, in April 2014, the board granted Pounds' motion to terminate the consent order, concluding Pounds had "satisfactorily met all requirements" of the order and that "termination of the monitoring and (redacted) requirements are warranted in the circumstances."

This story was originally published June 27, 2018 at 3:20 PM.