Vernon chiropractor gets to serve sexual assault jail sentence in his $1.2M home

CONTENT ADVISORY

A Vernon chiropractor with a history of sexual misconduct will spend six months in jail for sexually assaulting a patient in 2021 — but he gets to serve it in his $1.2-million Coldstream home.

Today, Jan. 14, at the Vernon courthouse, BC Provincial Court Judge David Ruse said Murray Kievit’s actions were devastating for the victim who trusted him to provide treatment. But Ruse found the risk he would offend again was low and therefore a candidate for house arrest.

The courts refer to house arrest as “a jail sentence in the community,” and Kievit will get to spend his jail sentence unable to leave his 2,500-square-foot, five-bedroom, three-bathroom home in an upmarket neighbourhood in Coldstream.

The court heard that the woman, whose identity is protected by a court order, saw Kievit four previous times before he sexually assaulted her.

The judge said he created and developed a relationship before he then abused that trust with a patient who was in a vulnerable position.

“She was alone in a small room, but allowed Mr. Kievit access to her body,” the Judge said.

The now-former chiropractor removed her underwear and the way he touched her was “not clinically justifiable” and the victim did not consent to this treatment, the judge said.

The incident dates back to 2021 and Kievit was charged a year later. He pleaded not guilty to the charges and tried to defend his actions during a three-day trial, saying his “pubic synthesis adjustment” was part of treatment.

The Judge found him “defensive and argumentative” during his testimony, and there was no legitimate therapeutic reason for him to have done it.

The Crown wanted Kievit to spend five months behind bars, while defence lawyer Michael Klein argued for house arrest.

Judge Ruse said that Kievit was a low risk to reoffend, although he had no psychological report to back this up, and that he hadn’t breached his bail since being charged three years earlier.

The court had no pre-sentence or psychological reports, which isn’t typical. Kievit didn’t address the court before being sentenced.

He refused to comment outside the courthouse when asked if he had any remorse.

The court heard Kievit has been married for 36 years and his wife and two other people attended court to support him. He also submitted 11 letters of reference.

At an earlier court appearance, the victim spoke through tears as she read out her victim impact statement.

“He left me feeling degraded and hollow, there is nothing I can ever do to change that, the pain of such a violation of my body is something I will grieve for the rest of my life,” she said.

The court heard that shortly after being charged, Kievit sold his business. In 2023, the College of Chiropractors of BC permanently cancelled his licence.

While this is the 61-year-old’s first conviction, he does have a history of sexual misconduct allegations and findings against him.

In 2000, he was acquitted after being charged with sexually assaulting six patients. Following the court case, the College of Chiropractors of BC took disciplinary action against Kievit, and fined him $4,000 and ordered him to pay $15,000 costs.

A decade later, he was back in front of the regulator after he admitted to putting his hands in the front of a woman’s pants without her consent. He lost his licence for three months and was barred from treating females without a chaperone being present for two years when treating patients in sexually sensitive areas. He was ordered to pay $4,900.

His house arrest is followed by three months under a 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew. Following that, he’ll be on probation for three years and is barred from doing any chiropractic work, including unpaid.

While the sentence hearing concludes Kievit’s criminal file, the court heard the victim is taking civil legal action and suing him for sexually assaulting her.