Case of Kenneth A. Frank, MD
(AKA: Yonatan Efrat, Ken Frank, Kenneth Frank)
Bakersfield, CA
Ra'anana, Israel
Jerusalem, Israel
Tel Aviv, Israel
December 20, 1989 - Convicted on charges of drugging and raping two woman in separate incidents in 1985 and 1986 (Kern County, California)
January 17, 1990 - Considered a fugitive since when he failed to show up for his sentencing hearing in Kern County Superior Court where probation officers recommended that he be sentenced to 12 years in prison. The television show "Unsolved Mysteries" aired a segment about Frank in 1990, which resulted in 160 leads.
December, 2004 - FBI agent working with Interpol located Frank living in Israel. "International red tape" delayed his arrest
July 26, 2006 - Arrested by Israeli police after a California FBI agent discovered he was living in Tel Aviv under the name Yonatan Efrat..
December 3, 2007 - Sentanced to 12 years in
prison.
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Fugitive doctor convicted of rape 16 years ago
arrested in Israel
By JESSICA LOGAN, Californian staff writer
Bakersfield - Wednesday, Jul 26 2006
http://www.bakersfield.com/619/story/64192.html
A Bakersfield doctor who drugged and raped two women more than two decades ago is behind bars in Israel after fleeing the country 16 years ago.
Kenneth A. Frank, 56, was convicted Kern County on Dec. 20, 1989.
One of his victims, who is now 57, said Wednesday she was relieved Frank is behind bars. Her name will not be released because she was the victim of rape.
"I didn't think anyone was looking for him," said the elder of the two victims. "I'm thrilled."
Deputy District Attorney Lisa A. Green, who prosecuted Frank, said a Bakersfield FBI agent working through Interpol led to the finding of Frank in Israel in December, 2004.
But what Green called "international red tape" delayed until Tuesday the actual arrest of Frank in Tel Aviv where he was using the name Yonatan Efrat, she said.
Green said she still has very little information about Frank's time in Israel, but she knows he has gotten married and has a child.
"He was very upset" when he was arrested, Green said.
It was Green who in 1989 asked then Kern County Superior Court Judge Lewis King to take Frank into custody right after the jury rendered its conviction.
But King, who is now deceased, denied the request and Frank fled before his sentencing hearing. The probation department recommended Frank be imprisoned for 12 years.
The Californian has been unable to contact the second victim, who was 23 in 1986 when she encountered Frank, but Green has talked to her and the woman "was relieved to the point of tears," Green said.
Frank is expected to appear in an Israeli court Wednesday for an extradition hearing, according to a prosecution press release.
If Frank is ordered to return to the United States, he will be given an automatic appeal in Israel, according to the release.
The doctor was convicted in 1989 on two counts of rape after drugging his victims, but he remained free on bail awaiting his sentencing hearing on Jan. 17, 1990. The doctor did not appear for the hearing and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Investigators have been searching for him ever since.
During that investigation, Frank's car was spotted at Los Angeles International Airport and investigators believe the doctor had a passport allowing him to travel out of the country.
The television show "Unsolved Mysteries" aired a segment about Frank in 1990, which resulted in 160 leads.
Frank testified at his trial on charges of raping 23-year-old woman in 1985 and a 37-year-old woman in 1986.
Frank took the women to his apartment and tranquilized them, according to evidence presented at the trial. When the women woke up they had no clothes on and found evidence someone had sexual intercourse with them, the women testified.
Frank told them not to worry because they enjoyed having sex with him, the women said. The doctor testified the women had sex with him voluntarily.
Frank's attorney Stanley Simrin said he has not spoken to the doctor since the trial and didn't know where he had gone.
He said he had no indication Frank would flee.
"He showed up at all of his appearances," Simrin said.
Green said shortly after Frank left, investigators believed he had gone either to Mexico or Israel.
News From the San Joaquin
Valley
Associated Press - July 27, 2006
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/breaking_news/15136677.htm
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (AP) - A Bakersfield doctor was arrested in Israel, where he has lived since fleeing sentencing for drugging and raping two women.
Kenneth A. Frank, 56, was arrested Tuesday by Israeli police after a California FBI agent discovered he was living in Tel Aviv under the name Yonatan Efrat.
Frank was convicted in Kern County of drugging and raping two women on Dec. 20, 1989. He was free pending sentencing. Authorities believe he left in 1990.
The FBI worked with the international intelligence agency, Interpol, and found Frank in December 2004 but "international red tape" delayed his arrest, said Kern County Deputy District Attorney Lisa A. Green.
Frank married and had a child while in Israel, she said.
He is waiting extradition hearings in Israel to see if he will be ordered to return to the United States.
Bakersfield doctor behind bars in
Israel
BY JESSICA LOGAN AND STEVE E. SWENSON
Backersfield - Jul 26 2006
http://www.bakersfield.com/619/story/64318.html
A Bakersfield doctor who drugged and raped two women more than two decades ago is behind bars in Israel after fleeing the country in 1990.
Kenneth A. Frank, 56, was convicted in Kern County of drugging and raping two women on Dec. 20, 1989.
One of his victims, now 57, said Wednesday she's relieved Frank is behind bars. It's The Californian's policy not to name victims of sexual assault.
"I didn't think anyone was looking for him," said the elder of the two victims. "I'm thrilled."
A Bakersfield FBI agent working with the Paris-based international intelligence agency Interpol led to Frank's discovery in Israel in December 2004, said Kern County Deputy District Attorney Lisa A. Green, who prosecuted Frank.
But what Green called "international red tape" delayed until Tuesday the actual arrest of Frank in Tel Aviv, where he was using the name Yonatan Efrat, she said.
Green said she still has very little information about Frank's time in Israel, but she knows he got married and has a child.
"He was very upset" when he was arrested, Green said.
It was Green who, in 1989, asked then-Kern County Superior Court Judge Lewis King to take Frank into custody right after the jury convicted him.
But King denied the request and Frank fled before his sentencing hearing.
The Probation Department recommended Frank be imprisoned for 12 years.
The second victim, who was 23 in 1986 when she encountered Frank, couldn't be reached. But Green has talked to her and said the woman "was relieved to the point of tears."
Frank was expected to appear in an Israeli court Wednesday for an extradition hearing, according to a prosecution press release.
If Frank is ordered to return to the United States, an immediate appeal will go to the Israeli Supreme Court, the release said.
The doctor was convicted in 1989 on two counts of rape after drugging his victims with Ativan, but he remained free on bail awaiting his sentencing hearing on Jan. 17, 1990. Ativan is used to treat anxiety, according to WebMD.com.
The doctor did not appear for the hearing and a warrant was issued for his arrest. Investigators have been searching for him ever since.
During that investigation, Frank's car was spotted at Los Angeles International Airport and investigators believe the doctor had a passport allowing him to travel out of the country.
The television show "Unsolved Mysteries" aired a segment about Frank in 1990, which resulted in 160 leads.
Frank testified at his trial on charges of raping a 23-year-old woman in 1985 and a 37-year-old woman in 1986 that he had consentual relationships with both.
Evidence showed Frank took the women to his apartment and tranquilized them.
When the women woke up they had no clothes on and found evidence someone had sexual intercourse with them, the women testified.
Frank told them not to worry because they enjoyed having sex with him, the women said.
Frank's attorney, Stanley Simrin of Bakersfield, said he has not spoken to the doctor since the trial and didn't know where he had gone.
He said he had no indication Frank would flee.
"He showed up at all of his appearances," Simrin said.
Green said shortly after Frank left investigators believed he had gone either to Mexico or Israel.
Frank's arrest has elated those around the case, said the elder victim.
"Everybody involved in this case is happy, except, of course, Mr. Frank," she said.
Fugitive doctor from Kern County arrested in
Israel
KGET- TV NEWS - July 27, 2006
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14049860/
http://www.kget.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_id=C4A15CBD-F11B-4C9F-961D-BBC469D39B8D
A local doctor who fled the country after he was convicted
of rape in 1989 has now been arrested in Israel.
Kenneth A. Frank, 56, was found by the state department and the FBI living in Tel Aviv under an assumed name, Yonatan Efrat.
Frank has been wanted in the United States after being convicted in Kern County on Dec. 20, 1989, of two rapes, of then 23-year-old woman in 1985 and then a 37-year-old woman in 1986.
Frank went missing after his conviction while he was on bail and waiting for his sentencing hearing in Jan. 1990.
Now, the District Attorney's Office is working to bring Frank back to Bakersfield.
Frank was set to appear Wednesday in an Israeli court for an extradition hearing.
Israel court orders Bakersfield rapist
jailed
By Steve E. Swenson
Bakersfield - Wednesday, Aug 2 2006
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/65701.html?
A former Bakersfield doctor, who fled to Israel after his rape
convictions more than 16 years ago, was jailed in Jerusalem Wednesday pending
further extradition hearings, an Israeli newspaper reported.
Former Bakersfield doctor Kenneth A. Frank hides his face from a news photographer Wednesday in a Court of Jerusalem hearing where he is facing extradition to Bakersfield for 1989 rape convictions.
Kenneth A. Frank, who changed his name to Yonatan Efrat in Israel, hid his face from photographers with a towel in the Jerusalem District Court hearing where Judge Moshe Gal ordered him in custody, according to reporter Amir Kurz of the Al Hasharon newspaper.
No date has yet been scheduled for the next hearing.
Frank has been working for at least the last two years as a family doctor in Ra'anana, a suburb north of Tel Aviv, Kurz said.
The community's Web site says Ra'anana is a small city (about 80,000 residents) in the southern Gush Dan Sharon region of Israel. Ra'anana is a suburb of Tel Aviv, about a 20-minute car ride north.
Ra'anana is predominantly Jewish, with many Anglo immigrants from English-speaking countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, and South Africa, the Web site says.
Frank has been living there with a woman who is believed to be his wife and their son.
Frank was convicted on Dec. 20, 1989, in Kern County of drugging and raping two woman in separate incidents in 1985 and 1986.
He has been a fugitive since Jan. 17, 1990, when he failed to show up for his sentencing hearing in Kern County Superior Court where probation officers recommended that he be sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Frank was arrested July 25 in Israel after he was found in that country by Interpol working with an FBI agent in Bakersfield, Kern County Deputy District Attorney Lisa S. Green reported. She was the prosecutor in the 1989 trial.
One of his victims, now 57, told The Californian last week that she was "thrilled" to hear of Frank's arrest. The other victim, who is about 44 years old, was relieved to the point of tears, Green reported.
Evidence in the 1989 trial showed that Frank went on dates with both women, gave them Ativan -- a tranquilizer that induces sleep -- and had sex with them while they were unable to resist or give consent.
Frank told both women not to worry because they enjoyed having sex with him, the women testified. He testified that both women consented to the acts.
One attempt to try to find Frank was an airing of the case on the television show "Unsolved Mysteries."
Before the show was broadcast, Frank's car was found at Los Angeles International Airport and investigators reported that Frank had a passport allowing him to travel out of the country.
Police: Fugitive California rapist is Dr. Yonatan
Efrat
By Jonathan Lis
Haaretz - August 2, 2006
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743741.html
The Ra'anana doctor whom police arrested on Tuesday on suspicion of being a wanted rapist from the United States has been living here under the name of Dr. Yonatan Efrat, according to U.S. and international law enforcement agencies.
Police believe that Efrat is really Kenneth A. Frank, 56, who was convicted in 1989 of drugging and raping two women.
Frank entered Israel shortly after fleeing the U.S., using an American passport bearing his real name. He allegedly applied for Israeli citizenship under the Law of Return four years later, and began working at a Ra'anana health clinic about two years ago.
Police officers, accompanied by an Interpol representative, arrested the suspect Tuesday evening, causing the stunned doctor to burst out crying.
The American authorities asked Israel to extradite Frank in December 2001, suspecting that he had fled to Israel and adopted a false identity. Israeli police spent three years searching for Frank, until Chief Inspector Carol Hasidim, from the Interpol section of the police liaison division, tracked the suspect down in 2004. He was living with his girlfriend and their s on.
Police said that although he deceived the Interior Ministry by failing to state that he had a criminal record, he was not suspected of criminal behavior while living in Israel.
The state prosecution did not immediately authorize the suspect's arrest, because it was concerned that the statute of limitations on the rapes had expired. Over the last two years, Israeli and American authorities kept in regular contact to discuss the issue. Finally, the authorities concluded that Israel was justified in extraditing Frank, since the statute of limitations could not expire while he was the subject of an international manhunt. On June 16, the state prosecution authorized Frank's arrest and began extradition proceedings.
The suspect was brought before the Jerusalem District Court yesterday morning, where he was remanded in custody until the end of the month. Extradition proceedings against him have been opened.
Runaway convicted US rapist found in
Ra'anana
By REBECCA ANNA STOIL
The Jerusalem Post - Deccember 28, 2006
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1164881992776&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
After almost 17 years on the lam, Dr. Kenneth Frank (alias Yonatan Efrat) will be returned shortly to the California penal system following a Jerusalem District Court justice's ruling on Wednesday.
Frank, 56, a former resident of Bakersfield, California, was convicted in 1989 of drugging and raping a woman in 1985 and anothe one in 1986.
He was declared a fugitive after failing to appear for his sentencing hearing. In his absence, probation officers recommended a 12-year sentence for the two attacks.
According to testimony at the trial, Frank raped the two women in his apartment after drugging them with the anti-anxiety medication Ativan. Both women said that they had woken up naked and discovered that someone had sexual intercourse with them, after which, they said, Frank told them not to worry because they enjoyed having sex with him. Frank testified in his defense that both relationships were consensual.
After his disappearance, police found that Frank's car had been seen at Los Angeles International Airport, adding to suspicions that he had fled the country. Months later, the popular US television show Unsolved Mysteries aired a segment about Frank.
Following his flight, Frank apparently entered Israel on his official passport, but then applied for citizenship under the Law of Return four years later.
On his application for citizenship, Frank claimed to have no criminal record in his country of origin.
But by 2001, the FBI had begun to suspect that Frank had fled to Israel. Israel Police worked to locate Frank and discovered in December 2004 that he was living in Ra'anana under the assumed name of Yonatan Efrat, and that he had since married, fathered a child, and was employed as a family doctor under his assumed name at a Ra'anana health clinic.
Police did not, however, move on the fugitive until puzzling out whether the statute of limitations applied after an international manhunt. After legal understandings were reached between Israeli and US authorities, Frank was arrested by Israel Police in August 2006.
On Wednesday the Deputy Head of the Jerusalem District Court, Judge Zvi Segel, ruled that Frank could be extradited to the US to serve his sentence for the two rapes.
Doctor ordered extradited to Bakersfield from
Israel
BY STEVE E. SWENSON, Californian staff writer
Bakersfield Californian - Thursday, Dec 28 2006 9:50 PM
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/91629.html
Dr. Kenneth A. Frank was ordered Wednesday in Israel to be extradited to Bakersfield to serve a sentence for his 1989 conviction of drugging and raping two women, police in Israel reported.
Former Bakersfield doctor Kenneth A. Frank hid his face from a news photographer in a Court of Jerusalem hearing. He will be extradited to Bakersfield for 1989 rape convictions.
A judge in the Jerusalem District Court ruled that Frank, who was known in Israel as Yonatan Efrat, should return to the United States for sentencing, reported Micky Rosenfeld, police foreign press spokesman.
Frank, 56, was convicted on Dec. 20, 1989, in Kern County Superior Court of sexually assaulting two women in separate incidents in 1985 and 1986.
He had been a fugitive since Jan. 17, 1990, when he failed to show up for his sentencing hearing. Probation officers recommended a sentence of 12 years in prison.
Frank was arrested July 25 in Israel after he was found in that country by Interpol working with an FBI agent in Bakersfield, according to Deputy District Attorney Lisa S. Green, who prosecuted Frank in the 1989 trial.
It is unknown when Frank will be returned to Bakersfield, but Green said the extradition decision can be appealed to the Israel Supreme Court and there are indications Frank may do that.
Evidence in the trial showed Frank went on dates with both women, gave them Ativan -- a tranquilizer that induces sleep -- and had sex with them while they were unable to resist or give consent.
Both victims -- one now 57 and the other now 44 -- were relieved and happy to hear of his arrest.
Frank had been working for at least the last two years as a family doctor in Ra'anana, a suburb north of Tel Aviv, according to reporter Amir Kurz of the Al Hasharon newspaper.
He was living there with a woman who is believed to be his wife and their
Convicted rapist assigned public
defender
BY STEVE E. SWENSON, Californian staff writer
Bakersfield Califorian - Thursday, Aug 2 2007 7:50 PM
http://www.bakersfield.com/102/story/204199.html
After asserting Thursday he had no money to hire
an attorney, convicted rapist Dr. Kenneth A. Frank was assigned a public
defender to represent him in a new trial motion and sentencing Aug. 30 on
his 1989 rape convictions.
His 1989 defense attorney, Stanley Simrin, was relieved Thursday of his duty to represent him.
Frank, who fled to Israel after the convictions and was arrested last year and extradited to Kern County this week, also was scheduled to be arraigned today on two other criminal cases. Those are a 1990 failure to appear for the rape sentencing and a 1989 grand theft case alleging he, his father, Irwin Frank, and his brother, Jerrold Frank, 55, stole $300,000 worth of medical equipment from the former White Lane Medical Center.
The charges against Irwin Frank and Jerrold Frank were dismissed on Jan. 29, 1991, according to Kern County Superior Court records. Irwin Frank would be 85 but there are no accessible records on his whereabouts.
The father and two sons owned the medical center before 1989 when it went into bankruptcy. A bankruptcy judge gave the center building and its contents to Wilshire Savings and Loan of Encino in August 1989 after the center defaulted on a $1.5 million loan.
Medical equipment was taken from the center in September 1989, according to the criminal complaint filed against the Franks.
Kenneth Frank was never prosecuted on the case, which is why the charge remains pending against him.
Meanwhile, he faces a 1990 charge of failing to appear for his rape sentencing, which could add up to three years in prison to the sentence he receives in the convictions, Deputy District Attorney John S. Somers said.
He faces up to 16 years on the rape counts, but in 1990, the Probation Department recommended 12 years. Judge Stephen P. Gildner referred the case Thursday to the Probation Department for a new review.
Kenneth Frank was convicted of two counts of raping two women after first drugging them with the tranquilizer Ativan, making them unable to resist, the women testified in the 1989 trial.
The first count was a 1985 incident with a 23-year-old woman and the second was with a 37-year-old woman in 1986. The trial was delayed to 1989 because of appeals on a decision to try the cases separately. Ultimately the California Supreme Court ordered the two counts to be prosecuted in the same trial.
Frank went to Ra'anana, Israel, about 20 miles north of Tel Aviv. He practiced as a doctor there, married and fathered a son.
Bakersfield Police Department Warrent
Office
October 8, 2007
http://www.bakersfieldcity.us/police/warrant/warrant_suspect_pages/frankkenneth.htm
SUSPECT: KENNETH AARON FRANK
ALIAS:
DESCENT: WHITE
SEX: MALE
HEIGHT: 5'10"
WEIGHT: 175
EYES: BLUE
HAIR: BROWN
REPORT/WARRANT #SC031304A
DATE/PLACE OF BIRTH: 03/07/1950
TATTOOS:
ODDITIES: "J" SHAPED SCAR ON LEFT LOWER ARM
WEAPON/S
WANTED FOR: BENCH WARRANT FOR RAPE OF A DRUGGED VICTIM (2 COUNTS)
CAUTION:
Do not attempt to apprehend this suspect yourself. Warrants must be confirmed as being active prior to service and they cannot be served by citizens. If you have any knowledge of the suspect's whereabouts please contact your local law enforcement agency.
CONTACT:
The Bakersfield Police Department Warrant Office at 326-3842. If no answer please call our 24 hour number at 327-7111, or 911 for an emergency.
MISCELLANEOUS: In 1985 and 1986, Frank twice met women in a local bar. On each occasion, he took the women to his home, offered her a beverage to which he added a drug. The women lost consciousness and did not awake for two days, at which time they discovered they had been raped. Frank was convicted for these crimes and failed to appear for sentencing on January 17, 1990.
Former Bakersfield physician sentenced
decades after crime
BY STEVEN MAYER, Californian staff writer
Bakersfield Californian - Monday, Dec 3 2007 3:22 PM
http://www.bakersfield.com/hourly_news/story/301159.html
Nearly
18 years after he was found guilty of drugging and raping two women, and
then fleeing to Israel and changing his name, Dr. Kenneth A. Frank was sentenced
today by a Kern County judge to 12 years in state prison.
After denying defense motions for a new trial — and another motion to remove news cameras from his courtroom — Judge Jerold Turner ultimately characterized Frank's crimes as "disturbing, premeditated and certainly somewhat repugnant."
After Frank was convicted in December 1989 of drugging and raping two women, he fled the United States and began another life in Israel. He was able to begin practicing medicine again, changed his name, married and fathered a son.
But it all came crashing down last year when determined detective work by a local FBI agent led to Frank's rearrest last year and extradition to Kern County earlier this year.
The first count was a 1985 incident with a 23-year-old woman and the second involved a 37-year-old woman in 1986.
Deputy Public Defender Glenn Nelson said he believes Frank is innocent of the original charges. He argued in court that, since there were no court transcripts available from the original trial, he could not properly represent his client.
Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green countered that by leaving the country before his trial was concluded, it was Frank's own actions that resulted in the lack of a court transcript.
Fugitive doctor sentenced - Rape of two women in '80s nets
12-year sentence
BY STEVEN MAYER
Bakersfield Californian - Monday, Dec 3 2007 10:35 PM
http://www.bakersfield.com/hourly_news/story/301478.html
Nearly 18 years after he was found guilty of drugging and raping two women, and then fleeing to Israel and changing his name, Dr. Kenneth A. Frank was sentenced Monday by a Kern County judge to 12 years in state prison.
He is expected to serve about half that. In addition, he must pay restitution to his victims and register as a sex offender.
After denying defense motions for a new trial -- and another motion to remove news cameras from his courtroom -- Judge Jerold Turner ultimately described Frank's crimes as "disturbing, premeditated and certainly somewhat repugnant."
Turner was adamant that Frank, 57, should not benefit from his years as a fugitive.
Frank was convicted in December 1989 of using tranquilizers to drug and rape two Bakersfield women in separate incidents in 1985 and 1986. Before he could be sentenced, Frank fled the United States and began a new life in Israel. He was able to begin practicing medicine again, changed his name to Yonatan Efrat and married.
But his new life came crashing down when determined detective work by a local FBI agent led to Frank's rearrest last year and his extradition to Kern County earlier this year.
One of the victims spoke briefly in court Monday, asking the judge to impose the maximum sentence: eight years for each count, or 16 years total. It is The Californian's policy not to identify victims of sexual assault.
The other victim, in a letter to the court, also asked for the maximum sentence.
Frank visibly scowled when Judge Turner imposed the two six-year sentences consecutively. Otherwise Frank showed little emotion during Monday's hearing.
Deputy Public Defender Glenn Nelson said afterward he believes Frank is innocent of the original charges. He argued in court that since there were no court transcripts available from the 1989 trial, he could not properly represent his client.
It was revealed in court Monday that the court reporter from the 1989 trial turned over the notes to a supervisor who stored them for several years. More than a decade after the trial, the court ordered all notes more than 10 years old to be destroyed.
"If the court is interested in justice," Nelson argued, "it will give Mr. Frank a new trial."
Deputy District Attorney Lisa Green -- also the prosecutor at the original trial -- countered that by unlawfully leaving the country before his trial was concluded, it was Frank's own actions that resulted in the lack of a court transcript.
She also cited an appellate court decision from 1982 noting that the destruction of old court records is allowed by government code. Such standard actions, she argued, may not be used later to benefit defendants.
Meanwhile, the victims in this case are suffering a different kind of pain, Green said, because they were drugged when the crimes occurred.
"For the rest of their lives, they will be left to wonder exactly what he did to them," she said.
-- Staff writer Steve E. Swenson contributed to this report.
Doctor sentenced to 12 years for
rape
CBS Eyewitness News - December 3, 2007
http://www.eyeoutforyou.com/news/local/12099896.html
A Bakersfield doctor convicted of raping two of his female patients almost two decades ago will be spending 12 years behind bars.
Doctor Kenneth Frank, 57, was convicted in 1989 for raping two Bakersfield women, but he fled to Israel before he could be sentenced.
Monday he was sentenced for two separate counts of raping of a drugged victim. For each count, Frank was sentenced to six years in state prison.
The defense attorney also requested a new trial for Dr. Frank which was denied by the judge.
Bakersfield doctor sentenced for decades-old
rapes
The Associated Press - December 4, 2007
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_7629793?nclick_check=1
BAKERSFIELD, Calif.—A doctor convicted of drugging and raping two women, then fleeing the country after the trial, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Kenneth Frank was found guilty in 1989 of using tranquilizers to drug and rape two Bakersfield women in separate incidents in 1985 and 1986. Frank fled to Israel before his sentencing, changed his named to Yonatan Efrat and married.
But the FBI caught up to him last year and extradited him back to Kern County.
At the sentencing Monday, Judge Jerold Turner described Frank's crimes as "disturbing, premeditated and certainly somewhat repugnant." He also ordered the 57-year-old to pay restitution to the victims and register as a sex offender.
Deputy Public Defender Glenn Nelson said he believes Frank is innocent of the original charges.
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Last Updated: 12/12/2007
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