Murray Stephen Kievit.

Image Credit: FACEBOOK: Rae Kievit

Sarah remembers the exact outfit she was wearing down to the colour of her underwear when she went for her last appointment with Vernon chiropractor Dr. Murray Kievit.

It was sometime in the late 1990s and Sarah, not her real name, was in her early twenties.

"He unbuttoned my jeans... and he put his hand to the side of my leg and went down and underneath my underwear so fast and put his fingers inside of my vagina," Sarah told iNFOnews.ca. "I completely froze... I just kept staring at the ceiling and thinking, oh my god, oh my god."

Sarah says she left, got into her car, and burst into tears.

"I cried and cried," she said.

Eventually, she went to the RCMP and Dr. Kievit was charged with sexual assault.

She said she was one of six victims who testified at the Supreme Court in Vernon against him.

However, in 2000, Dr. Kievit was acquitted.

Sarah said the judge said the Crown couldn't prove Kievit's intent.

Records from the case don't show in the province's court computer system and appear to have been expunged, which is not unusual. iNFOnews.ca couldn't track down any front-page newspaper articles about the case, but Sarah says it made the local TV news.

Nearly 25 years later, Kievit was charged in November 2022 with two counts of sexual assault for an incident that's alleged to have taken place in December 2021.

The alleged assault involved the same victim and took place two days apart. It's not known whether the alleged victim was a patient. He's next due in court in March.

While Kievit was acquitted at trial in 2000, the College of Chiropractors of B.C. did take disciplinary action against Kievit following the allegations.

In September 2000 Kievit signed a consent resolution admitting that he had failed to meet the standards of care "in relation to the provision of treatment in the patient's pubic area" which "resulted in unintentional violations of their sexual integrity."

Kievit was ordered to discontinue pubic area treatment and to communicate his treatment plan fully to all female patients so there could be "no misunderstanding."

He was also ordered to "practice in such a way as to maximize patient privacy and minimize accidental or inadvertent contact with patient's breasts or genitals."

The College fined him $4,000 and ordered him to pay $15,000 costs. It also mandated he write a letter of apology to the women involved.

Sarah says she never got a letter.

He was back in front of the regulator again in 2009 and admitted he'd put his hands in the front of a woman's pants without her consent.

The College suspended him for three months and ordered him to have a chaperone present for two years when treating female patients in sexually sensitive areas.
Again he was ordered to write an apology letter and left on the hook for $4,900.

Sarah estimates she went to see Kievit around a dozen times in the late nineties about a painful back from working.

"On the very first visit I had with him he asked me to undress which I did, just into my underwear... and he said just keep the gown open in the back,"

Sarah says Kievit then stood behind her and made her bend over and touch her toes.

She says at other appointments, she felt that he lifted up her bra.

"He was literally bent over sideways lifting up my bra to look at my nipples, and when I looked at him he quickly put it down," she said.

She said he was always very nonchalant.

"He would act like it was totally normal," she said. "I was thinking, 'Am I just being paranoid?' I was questioning myself."

After her final visit to Kievit, she went to another chiropractor and asked if what was happening was normal.

The other chiropractor was mortified.

From there she reported Kievit to the regulator, the College of Chiropractors of B.C.

Sarah said someone from the College came from Vancouver to see her.

"They wanted to keep that in-house, they didn't want me to go to the cops," she said. "They said we will deal with him."

iNFOnews.ca asked the College if it told a woman who alleged she'd been sexually assaulted not to go to the police or why.

We didn't get a response.

Sarah said she developed very bad anxiety and was sick all the time. She then went to see a victim's assistance worker and ultimately the RCMP.

She said the RCMP officer that began taking Sarah's statement had also been a patient of Kievit's and became one of the six complainants in the case.

Occasionally, Sarah talks through tears as she relays her story. It is memories from more than 20 years ago that she's tried to forget.

She says she still has panic attacks.

"I always thought if anybody had ever touched me like that I would have freaked out and throat-punched them, but I couldn't believe I froze," she said.

She's still angry about what happened two decades ago.

"He used his power to groom women and brazenly do what he did to them."

Murray Kievit did not return our call for comment.

READ MORE: College knew Vernon physiotherapist was accused of sexual assaults on patients but failed to act

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