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Bamberger trial finishes second day

EAGLE, Colorado – Alfred Bamberger was in England when he learned he was being accused of sexually assaulting one of his teenaged patients; he phoned police investigators almost immediately, his attorney said.

The 74-year-old homeopath calls himself a “psycho-neuro immunologist.” When returned to his Edwards office, he invited them into his office where they searched for more than an hour, said his attorney Kristen Frost.

“They called him in England. He called them back. When he returned he let sheriff’s investigators search his office for more than an hour,” Frost said.



The alleged victim’s father had confronted him in February, Frost said.

“Mr. Bamberger didn’t run away from the family or the police. He called them,” Frost said.

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Bamberger is on trial this week, charged with sexually assaulting a minor by a person in a position of trust.

Prosecutor Braden Angel called Bamberger a predator.

“Alfred got what he wanted. He got the girl alone and naked for his own sexual gratification,” Angel said. “His actions were not in keeping with accepted medical practice.”

Frost said this is a case of two worlds colliding, and that Bamberger’s accuser did not understand alternative medicine.

“She’s beautiful,” Frost said. “Over a year ago, her own mother described her as scary and tortured looking. She wasn’t doing anything that normal 15-year-old girls do.”

Bamberger’s accuser said she trusted him because he was her doctor. Later, when victims advocates and police investigators explained to her the elements of sexual assault, she understood what had happened, she said.

“Mr. Bamberger is a firm believer in healing through touch. That’s when those two perspectives collide,” Frost said.

Her parents took her to Bamberger for eczema treatments. Over the last five or six sessions, he had her disrobe and lie on her back on a massage table, while he rubbed cream on her, according to the alleged victim.

That eighth appointment Bamberger first sexually assaulted her, she said.

“Do you think that on that eighth appointment Alfred Bamberger improperly touched your breast?” asked prosecutor Colleen Clark.

“Yes,” she answered.

While putting on the cream she was sexually assaulted on her breasts and buttocks for each of the remaining appointments, six occasions, she testified.

Dr. Mark Boguniewicz is considered one of the world’s leading experts in allergy immunology and rheumatology. He’s a professor with the University of Colorado School of Medicine and is on staff with National Jewish hospital.

The alleged victim stopped seeing Bamberger on Feb 5, 2011, said the alleged victim’s mother.

Boguniewicz examined the alleged victim Feb. 8, 2011.

Boguniewicz testified that he left the room as she put on an examination gown, leaving on her undergarments. When he returned to examine her, her parents and a female nurse were also in the room.

He would never examine a patient without parents present, he said.

“The skin irritation and itching were severe. They’re socially ostracized. They haven’t slept in days or weeks, and in some cases years. Their inability to function is impaired,” he testified.

She didn’t sleep for days, the alleged victim’s mother testified.

“She’d go night after night,” she testified.

When Bamberger talked to the alleged victim’s parents, he didn’t indicate she would disrobe, the mother said.

“She’d just modeled three days before (she first started going to Bamberger). She was perfect; she was perfect,” she said, tears welling up in her eyes as she testified.

Staff Writer Randy Wyrick can be reached at 970-748-2935 or rwyrick@vaildaily.com.


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