Prosecutors have charged a St. Joseph, Michigan dentist with criminal sexual conduct after multiple people complained. Officials aren’t releasing much information about the case.
Berrien County Prosecutor Amy Byrd has filed the charges against 44-year-old dentist Charles Howenstine. WVPE has waited to report on the case this week because it was unclear whether Howenstine allegedly committed the acts at his dental practice or somewhere else.
It’s now clear that it happened at the practice, but officials won’t say whether the victims were patients or employees. One part of the charging document says police initially received a report of “harassment,” which could indicate the victims were staff members.
Byrd has declined to comment, citing ethics rules that she says bar her from speaking publicly about a pending case.
On Friday Julie Antonini, the county’s Freedom of Information Act administrator, released the documents but they’re so heavily redacted to shield victims’ names that they also hide what Howenstine is accused of doing. There were just enough words left unredacted to say that multiple people said Howenstine had intentionally touched them in a sexual manner during examinations on multiple occasions.
