State suspends license of St. Augustine doctor over allegations of exchanging sexual acts for drugs and exams

An emergency suspension has been placed on the license of a St. Augustine doctor over allegations he exchanged sexual acts with patients for free or discounted medical exams and prescriptions.

It’s just the start of the claims against Dr. Asok Ray- who’s accused of wrongdoing dating back to November 2015 and continuing through February 2017.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement searched Ray’s office on A1A Tuesday, the same day the emergency suspension took effect. The order obtained by WOKV says Ray “engaged in a pattern of behavior” that involved trading sexual acts for drugs and exams. In the order, FDOH says Ray appeared to be “exploiting patients’ addiction and/or economic circumstances for his own sexual gratification”.

He’s also accused of allowing his wife to practice medicine in his office, even though she is not registered to practice in the state of Florida. As part of that, Ray would allegedly pre-sign blank prescription forms that his wife would hand out. Additionally, Ray is accused of prescribing controlled substances to patients without performing proper medical exams, and sometimes without performing any exam at all.

Law enforcement used confidential informants and sources as well as undercover officers in their investigation of Ray. Some of the conversations and interactions were recorded as well.

In some of the interactions detailed in the FDOH emergency suspension order, Ray and the patients agreed to sexual acts- including oral sex- in exchange for various prescriptions for pills used to treat pain. He would also make comments about the physical features of some of the patients and tell other patients to bring more women with them.

In one exchange, Ray allegedly pressured a patient to have sex with him or he would stop writing her prescriptions. In another incident involving an undercover officer, Ray is accused of attempting to pull out his genitals while grabbing the officer’s breast. The officer- who was posing as a patient- told Ray “no” several times, according to the FDOH report, but Ray responded “Yes” and “I want you”.

Other exchanges involved Ray agreeing to prescribe patients drugs without full medical workups. During one exchange with an undercover officer, Ray said he needed to know why the officer needed the pain medicine. The officer- who was also posing as a patient- continually dodged the question, telling Ray that he didn’t want to get in to details. Instead, the officer said he had $600 and wanted a prescription. Eventually, Ray wrote a prescription for Xanax, telling the patient that “everybody has that problem with stress”. During a second visit, Ray allegedly called in a prescription for pain meds.

Still other incidents described in the FDOH order show Ray’s wife telling patients that she is a doctor. To some patients, she allegedly said she was a retired pediatrician, but still helped out. Ray’s wife would conduct some of the medical histories and write prescriptions- either using a script that was already signed by Ray or getting him to sign it without him having been involved in the screening.

All of this combined indicates “Dr. Ray is not capable of caring for patients in a manner that is correct and safe”, according to the FDOH report.

Our partner Action News Jax was outside of Ray's office today as law enforcement searched. Ray himself appeared at one point, and told them that he denied all of the claims in the investigation, as detailed in the FDOH documents.