Judge Clears Woodland Hills Doctor of Sexual Abuse Charges : Medicine: State jurist concludes that accusations were fabricated. On his recommendation, the California Medical Board drops the case.

A state judge has cleared a Woodland Hills doctor of charges that he sexually abused a patient during a gynecological exam.

The state Medical Board last August accused Dr. H. Brian Herdeg, 65, of having intercourse with the woman and fondling her breasts after she came to his office for a Pap smear in 1992.

But after a four-day trial in February, Administrative Law Judge Ralph B. Dash concluded that the woman’s “entire story was fabricated.” Acting on Dash’s recommendation, the board on May 1 dropped charges against Herdeg.

Herdeg, a longtime family practitioner who also has served as mayor of the wealthy enclave of Hidden Hills, strongly denied the allegations when they were made public, saying the patient--whom he treated for 14 years--had suffered a “hallucination.” He could not be reached for comment Friday.

The patient claimed that Herdeg took her into his examination room, asked her to lie on a table and began a breast exam.

During the exam, she charged, the physician fondled her breasts and had intercourse with her. Then he picked up her chart, smiled and left the room, she claimed. Under board rules designed to protect complainants, the patient was identified only as “S.M.”

Dash said in a written opinion that the woman’s testimony contained a number of inconsistencies and that “the story she told could not have happened.”

The judge said the woman was passionate and convincing when she talked to Medical Board investigators, leaving them “no choice” but to file charges against Herdeg. But when she testified at the trial, her recollection of the alleged events became vague and her voice “took on a pleading and pathetic, almost childlike quality.”

Dash said the woman’s account differed significantly from Herdeg’s long-established office routine, as described by several “credible independent witnesses.”

The judge said Herdeg always records patient names in his appointment book and billing records when they visit. But the woman’s name did not appear in the physician’s records on the day she claimed she was molested, though it appeared on other dates, Dash said.

The woman also claimed she was given a white paper gown that opened fully to wear during the exam, but Herdeg actually gives patients cloth gowns that do not open completely and must be stepped into like a partially buttoned dress, the judge wrote.

Although the patient said she arrived at Herdeg’s office at 5 p.m., Herdeg and his wife--who also is his office assistant--had canceled all late-afternoon appointments that day in anticipation of a meeting with their lawyer, who was preparing an estate plan for them, said Dash.

The judge said that while it would have been physically possible for Herdeg to have intercourse with the patient on the examination table, the effort would have been “extremely difficult,” forcing him to stand on his toes, lean forward and not use his hands.

At the time he was accused, Herdeg said the woman made up her story after reading a 1993 Redbook magazine article about an Alaska doctor who raped several patients. Dash agreed, saying the patient’s account was “startlingly similar, if not identical” to the magazine story.

In a final paragraph, the judge noted that until the charges were made public, Herdeg had “enjoyed an unblemished record of more than 35 years as a physician held in high regard by his patients and colleagues and as a civic leader active in community affairs.”

A Medical Board spokeswoman said 95% of all accusations filed by the agency result in some form of disciplinary action against a physician.

“This hardly ever happens,” she said of the dismissal of charges against Herdeg.