Lawton doctor bound over for trial for sexual misconduct charges

A Lawton doctor was bound over for trial Friday for allegations of sexual battery and indecent exposure.

Following an hour of testimony and cross-examination of Mildred Anderson, Comanche County Special District Judge Susan Zwaan bound Dr. Bali Reddy Sodam, 58, of Lawton, over for trial for felony counts of sexual battery and indecent exposure, records indicate. The crimes are each punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

The incident is alleged to have happened Oct. 21, 2021, in his office at Comanche Nephrology, Suite No. 1, 4417 W. Gore, according to the warrant affidavit. 

Anderson testified she’d gone to Sodam’s office for a medical appointment when he asked her if she had a boyfriend and if she likes sex, a common question he asked her during her visits.

“No, I told you before I wasn’t looking for one,” she said she responded.

Sodam walked to his desk where Anderson said she presumed Sodam was retrieving her paperwork from medical testing. Instead, she said, he stopped talking and just looked at her.

Sodam then got up and shut the exam room door before exposing himself and attempting to make her perform a sex act, Anderson testified. She said she moved her head away and put her hands up to block her face. He then sexually abused her, she said.

“It felt like I was trying to protect myself,” she said.

“I just froze,” she said. “It took me back to 50-something years ago when I was a girl, maybe 13, when I was taken and raped and abused by an older man.”

Anderson said she sat there for a moment after Sodam left the room before collecting her purse and going to the front desk to pick up her next appointment card and paperwork. She never received information about the lab work that was to have been the topic of the day’s visit, she testified.

“I was so humiliated,” she said. “I didn’t say anything.”

Anderson said she went to her truck, parked in the Wolf Creek Center parking lot, and called her daughter to tell her what happened. “I just sat there and cried for a long time,” she said.

Anderson’s daughter, Crystal Dearing, contacted the Oklahoma State Medical Licensure Board to lodge a complaint a few days later. Anderson said she believed the board was who to complain to instead of the police. The board would later contact Lawton police to conduct an investigation a few months later.

“I never went back to him (for medical care),” Anderson said.

District Attorney Kyle Cabelka asked Anderson if she’d ever had a similar experience at any other doctor’s visits.

“No,” she responded. “All it did is cause me a lot of years of pain to come back to me.”

During cross-examination, Sodam’s attorney, Mack Martin, of Oklahoma City, asked Anderson why she reported Sodam to the state board. She responded that after speaking with an administrator with Comanche County Memorial Hospital, where he had privileges at the time, she was advised to contact the state board.

Martin asked Anderson why she filed a civil suit against Sodam if she is seeking justice and not money.

“Because I felt like I needed someone on my side so Dr. Reddy wouldn’t do this to no one else. … No, I’m not in it for the money.”

Sodam remains free on $25,000 bail since his initial court appearance July 7, 2022. He returns to court at 9 a.m. Aug. 31 for his formal arraignment.