- Posted: Wednesday, February 15, 2012 12:07 pm
A former anesthesiologist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center pleaded guilty Wednesday to charges that he exposed himself to a woman at Hanes Park last year.
Dr. John Charles Gerancher, 48, of 1911 Buena Vista Road pleaded guilty in Forsyth District Court to one count of misdemeanor indecent exposure.
Winston-Salem police arrested Gerancher on Sept. 26 after a woman reported that a man had exposed himself to her and two other women at Hanes Park on West End Boulevard. She told police that the same man had exposed himself to her at the park twice before.
As part of the plea arrangement, prosecutors voluntarily dismissed the two other counts of indecent exposure. Forsyth District Judge Roland Hayes gave Gerancher a suspended 45-day jail sentence and placed him on unsupervised probation for two years.
Steven Arbogast, a prosecutor with the N.C. attorney general’s office, handled the case for the Forsyth district attorney’s office because of a conflict of interest. Forsyth District Attorney Jim O’Neill said his wife worked with Gerancher’s wife at the Baptist hospital. Also, the husband of an assistant district attorney in his office worked with Gerancher, O’Neill said.
Gerancher still faces a charge of indecent exposure for an incident Sept. 13 at Winthrop University in Rock Hill, S.C. According to WBTV, Gerancher was accused of running up to a woman who was getting into her car, pulling down his jogging shorts and exposing himself.
Gerancher had worked at Wake Forest since 1999. The medical center issued a statement at the time of his arrest, saying it was shocked to learn about the charges. The medical center placed Gerancher on administrative leave Sept. 16 after he was charged in the incident at Winthrop University.
The hospital did not immediately have a statement on Gerancher’s conviction Wednesday.
David Freedman, Gerancher’s attorney, said in court that Gerancher resigned from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center after his arrest and after he was put on administrative leave. He has since checked himself into a six-week inpatient treatment center in Pennsylvania.
Gerancher, who is married with children, realizes he has a problem and has sought help for it. He also reported his arrests to the N.C. Medical Board, and his medical license is inactive, Freedman said.