Content Warning: This story contains details about alleged sexual assaults. This content may be difficult to read and upsetting.
A 27-year-old woman emotionally recounted what she described as being sexually assaulted by Dr. Zvi Levran at an August 2022 preliminary medical exam on Friday.
Speaking through tears while giving testimony in the 48th district court in Bloomfield Hills, the woman described Levran, a Michigan-based urologist, inserting his fingers into her vagina and her anus without her consent during an appointment she made to address post-operative pelvic pain, as well as difficulty urinating and painful urination.
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The woman also testified that Levran asked her uncomfortable questions about her sexual history, including the size of her sexual partners’ penises and questions relating to masturbation.
She said that she left the appointment in more pain, and immediately called her parents from her car to relay what happened, crying while telling them that she felt violated and that the interaction was “creepy.” Since that appointment, she said she suffers from daily panic attacks and has trouble with intimate relationships because of the trauma from her interaction with Levran.
“It haunts me every day,” the woman said, taking a long pause before growing emotional. “I feel like, just dirty and unclean and like there’s something wrong with me.”
The woman, who deals with chronic illness and anxiety, said she is “traumatized” to go to the doctor and has canceled appointments following the incident with Levran because she doesn’t “want it to happen again.”
“It’s very hard because I’m in so much pain every day,” she said.
The woman said she was referred to Levran by her primary care physician after experiencing complications following an endometriosis-related surgery. Her surgeon advised she was prohibited from having anything inserted into her vagina as a post-surgery restriction, which the woman said she told Levran multiple times. She said he ignored that restriction and gave no warning or explanation before inserting his fingers into her anus.
The woman also detailed how Levran inserted a catheter into her urethra to obtain a urine sample. Though she ultimately consented to the catheter, the woman said she voiced concerns about its necessity given she was in considerable pain.
When pressed on cross-examination by Levran’s attorney Jonathan Jones about why she did not leave the exam and whether she was in any way physically threatened that something would happen if she left, the woman said:
“Honestly, at that point, I was scared for my well-being and I just wanted it to be over with,” she said. “Personally, I was in physical pain. I couldn’t lift anything over five pounds and at that point, I was pretty much a rag doll.”
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Oakland County assistant prosecuting attorney Rob VanWert asked if she consented to being digitally penetrated vaginally or anally by Levran. The woman said she did not consent to either.
The woman, who works as a pharmacy technician, said that she found out at work that a doctor from the area had been arrested on sexual assault charges when she read a headline on her computer. When she clicked the link and discovered it was Levran, she said she immediately threw off her headset and started shaking and bawling. She subsequently informed her boss that she had been sexually assaulted.
The woman, who is not being named per the presiding Judge Kimberly Small’s court order, is the only female complaining witness among the 12 charged cases against Levran. Her testimony comes less than three weeks after 10 former athletes and one former patient, all men, testified about their experience with Levran in 47th district court in Farmington Hills, detailing a variety of unwanted sexual contact and invasive and inappropriate questions relating to their sex lives.
The Athletic has reported extensively on this story since Levran’s initial arrest in October. In a January story, The Athletic quoted several players who said they were inappropriately touched and groped by Levran while they were seeking medical treatment. Players also told The Athletic that Levran made inappropriate remarks and inquired about their sex lives.
In a November story detailing Levran’s time spent practicing in Minnesota, The Athletic quoted two players who alleged that Levran, who was volunteering as a doctor and yoga instructor for the Fergus Falls (Minn.) high school team, sexually assaulted them. At least one of these incidents was reported to the school district and to Levran’s employer.
Dr. Ganesh Palapattu, the urology department chair at the University of Michigan who testified as an expert in the preliminary exam earlier this month, is slated to appear again as a witness on May 8 via Zoom. He has previously characterized the conduct described in police reports relating to the consolidated case out of the 47th district court as “unethical and unacceptable.”
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Prior to Friday’s preliminary exam, an additional charged case that was also slated to be heard was dismissed by the court without prejudice.
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(Photo of Levran in court: Katie Strang / The Athletic)
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