Convicted rapist asks for new trial after fleeing to israel
Some people have a whole lot of chutzpah.
A Kern County doctor who fled to Israel rather than face prison time for drugging and raping two women could face a new trial for 1989 rape convictions, a judge said.Kenneth Frank, 57, was extradited to the U.S. this week to appear in Kern County Superior Court on prior convictions of sexually assaulting two women in two incidents in 1985 and 1986.
A jury in 1989 convicted him of two counts of raping two women whom he drugged with the tranquilizer Ativan.
Probation officers at the time recommended a 12-year prison sentence, but Frank fled to Ra'anana, Israel, about 20 miles north of Tel Aviv, instead of appearing for his sentencing hearing in 1990.
Judge Stephen P. Gildner referred the case Thursday to the Probation Department for a new review, since Frank now faces up to three more years for failing to appear at the hearing.
He also faces a grand theft charge for allegedly helping to steal $300,000 worth of medical equipment from the former White Lane Medical Center. Frank was never prosecuted in that case, said deputy public defender Glenn Nelson.
In July 2006, agents from Interpol and the FBI arrested him in Israel, where Frank had married, started a family and was practicing medicine under the assumed name Yonatan Efrat, prosecutors said.
Unbelievable.
The man flees to israel almost 20 years ago, starts a new family and practices medicine AGAIN, after being convicted for raping two of his patients, and he has the nerve to file a motion for a new trial!!!
