WV Board of Medicine revokes Kabbara's license for five years
Jul. 16—A former Beckley physician who is accused of sexual harassment, abuse and rape has had his medical license revoked for five years.
Dr. Zouhair Kabbara, who fled to Lebanon last year, practiced at Beckley ARH Hospital and Raleigh General Hospital. He has denied the allegations.
The West Virginia Board of Medicine (WVBOM) revoked the doctor's license on July 12, after Kabbara signed an order that showed he had consented to the revocation.
WVBOM reported that in February 2020, the organization received a report that "set forth a variety of allegations of misconduct by" Kabbara, including those allegations in three civil suits and additional allegations of sexual and professional misbehavior.
In June 2020, while investigators were looking into the February allegations, WVBOM received reports that Kabbara had allegedly sexually assaulted two women. As a result, WVBOM amended the initial complaint to include allegations by nine people against Kabbara.
Kabbara appeared before the WVBOM Complaint Committee virtually in September to discuss the charges. After the meeting, WVBOM found probable cause, based on evidence. The governing body suspended Kabbara's license.
Kabbara returned to Lebanon, his native country, in 2020 after West Virginia State Police opened a criminal investigation into one of the cases.
Kabbara may petition WVBOM for renewal of his medical license after five years, if he pays for and undergoes an assessment and evaluation, including a "psychosexual evaluation," and shows the board that he can competently and safely begin practicing medicine in the state again, according to the consent order.
Beckley attorney Stephen New, who last month secured a $10.5 million settlement against Veterans' Administration Medical Center in Beckley for victims of former doctor Jonathan Yates, represented the accusers in all of the Raleigh cases against Kabbara.
In one of the cases, filed in June 2019, a girl who was then 15 sued Kabbara and Beckley ARH Hospital for sexual harassment. The suit alleges that hospital administrators were aware that Kabbara had sexually harassed nurses and volunteers. It also alleged that a 15-year-old junior volunteer reported to administrators that Kabbara had pressed his genitals against her while behind the hospital's welcome desk, had chased her down steps, kept staring at her and tried to steer her into an empty hospital room. The suit claims that administrators retaliated against the girl by fabricating a reason to take away her volunteer opportunity at the hospital.
In a case filed against Kabbara and Raleigh General Hospital in August 2019, a female adult patient of Kabbara's alleged that he had sexually assaulted her in June 2019 inside a hospital room at Raleigh General.
Before Raleigh Circuit Court Judge Darl Poling in March 2020, New reported during arguments in one of the civil cases that his office was investigating reports by two Queens, N.Y., women, who accused Kabbara of raping them in 2012, when he lived in Queens, a borough of New York City.
In a third suit, a woman alleged that she was a senior in high school when Kabbara raped her at his house, forced her to wash away evidence in the tub and later stalked her and threatened her when she talked about the alleged rape.
In June 2020, a second teen volunteer at Beckley ARH Hospital sued the hospital and Kabbara after, she alleged, Kabbara's pattern of behavior toward teen volunteers, which hospital administrators had allegedly permitted to continue, created a sense of threat for her when she fulfilled her volunteer activities.
