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Former Ohio college physician faces multiple rape charges

County jail deaths down, still twice state avg.
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XENIA, Ohio — A former campus physician at Antioch College in southwest Ohio has been charged with multiple counts of rape and other sex crimes involving 15 women between 2017 and last year.

Donald Gronbeck, 42, was indicted Thursday in Greene County on 50 felony and misdemeanor charges that include nine counts of rape. He served as the campus physician at Antioch from 2015 through 2019 and maintained a medical practice in Yellow Springs where the small liberal arts school is located.

Gronbeck surrendered his medical license earlier this year after the State Medical Board of Ohio suspended him in late January based on complaints made by eight female patients.

He has been held in the Greene County Jail since his arrest Friday. He is scheduled to be arraigned on Thursday.

“There is definitely another version of the events as told by the prosecutor's office," Gronbeck’s attorney, John Paul Rion, said.

A Greene County sheriff's detective at a news briefing Monday said the investigation of Gronbeck was spurred by complaints from patients.

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost at the news briefing called the allegations against Gronbeck “an incredibly graphic and brutal betrayal of trust.” He said one of the victims recorded a portion of the acts committed by Gronbeck.

Antioch College President Jane Fernandes in a statement released when Gronbeck's medical license was suspended in January said the school would be working with local authorities to “provide information and help ensure that a full accounting is made of any harms done" from Gronbeck's work at the school.

College spokesperson Matt Shetler did not respond to questions about when in 2019 Gronbeck stopped working for Antioch or why he left the school's employment.

Gronbeck received his undergraduate degree from Antioch in 2002.

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