Cardiologist Nelson Mangione has reportedly been acquitted of sexual battery charges that first surfaced in September 2018.
Mangione, of Smyrna, Tenn., was indicted last January on six charges of sexual battery against a patient. Few details about the case have emerged, but last year Mangione’s attorney told the Murfreesboro Daily News Journal that the charges stemmed from a “brief chest exam” of a woman who presented with an emergent condition.
“Dr. Mangione conducted the exam as he has done with thousands of patients before, male and female,” the attorney, Alex Little, told the Journal at the time. “The only reason there is an indictment is because Tennessee permits individuals to bring criminal accusations directly to a grand jury, even without a detective or prosecutor endorsing the proposed charge. That is what happened here.”
The Journal reported Mangione was still practicing medicine more than a month after he was indicted last year—something that’s legal in Tennessee. State law permits healthcare professionals charged with a sex crime to continue practicing until they’re found guilty.
At the time charges were filed, Mangione was working at TriStar StoneCrest Medical Center in Smyrna. According to Liz Beatty, who reached out to Cardiovascular Business with news of the acquittal, Mangione was acquitted on all charges Jan. 30 in Rutherford County Court by a jury of his peers.
After graduating from Indiana University-Bloomington with a bachelor’s in journalism, Anicka joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering cardiology. Close to her heart is long-form journalism, Pilot G-2 pens, dark chocolate and her dog Harper Lee.