Board approves agreement with unnamed Iowa physician, suspending the doctor’s practice

Faced with a complainant holding up a placard that read, “I told you so,” the Iowa Board of Medicine voted Monday to approve an agreement suspending the practice of an Iowa physician.

After meeting in closed session for just over an hour, the board voted unanimously to approve what it called “an agreement not to practice” — but it didn’t disclose the terms of that agreement, disseminate a copy, or even announce the name of the physician to whom it pertained.

The agreement comes five days after the arrest of Dr. Lynn Lindaman, 72. Police allege that on June 26, Lindaman committed a sex act in Ankeny against “a child born in 2015” by using his hands to touch the child over the child’s clothing. The next day, he allegedly touched that same area of child through “skin-to-skin contact,” according to police records.

Lindaman is charged with two counts of second-degree sexual abuse. He has yet to enter a plea in the case.

A Board of Medicine administrator said immediately after Monday’s vote that the board staff would “go ahead and move forward with processing (the agreement) and make that publicly available as soon as possible.”

Monday’s meeting was not one of the board’s regularly scheduled meetings, having been announced only last Friday, a few days after Lindaman’s arrest.

Separate from the criminal case and potential licensing-board action, Lindaman is currently facing a civil lawsuit brought by Sherri Moler of Eldridge. Moler, who attended Monday’s Board of Medicine meeting via Zoom while holding up a bright green placard that read, “I told you so,” alleges that in July 1975, when she was 14, she attended a gymnasts’ summer sports camp at the University of Iowa. Lindaman, then 24, was at the camp, working as a counselor and athletic trainer.

According to the lawsuit, Lindaman sexually assaulted Moler while treating an injury to her back. He was later arrested, and on Feb. 26, 1976, he was convicted of lascivious acts with a person under the age of 16.

Lindaman later went on to become an Iowa-licensed physician. When Moler learned of that in 2020, she launched an unsuccessful effort to have the Board of Medicine restrict or revoke Lindaman’s license. After considering Moler’s complaint, the board voted to close the case without taking any form of public disciplinary action.

Moler’s lawsuit is based on a new federal law that was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden in September of last year. The Eliminating Limits to Justice for Child Sex Abuse Victims Act of 2022 allows sex-abuse victims to sue their attackers decades after the fact.

Her lawsuit alleges the 1975 assault has caused Moler to experience emotional problems — including major depressive order, post-traumatic stress disorder and generalized anxiety — throughout her adult life, and that she has suffered financial injury in the form of expenses related to therapeutic services.

The lawsuit seeks actual damages of $150,000, as well as punitive damages and attorneys’ fees.