News That Matters Support us. In Hawaii, both his physical therapy and acupuncture licenses remain in good standing. A Hawaii acupuncturist and physical therapist convicted of arranging a sexual encounter with an undercover agent he believed to be a year-old boy still has his professional licenses two-and-a-half years later β 20 months after California revoked his license based on the Hawaii judgment.
Taromina, who has been trying to get states to share disciplinary information to avoid practitioners jumping from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, said the nature of acupuncture and physical therapy make them inappropriate professions for someone who has violated sexual boundaries. Despite having the highest concentration of acupuncturists in the U. By contrast, California has disciplined Even taking into account that California has 10 times the number of practitioners, the state disciplines them at roughly nine times the rate of Hawaii, according to a Civil Beat analysis of cases posted on government websites.
The case against Hsu began late one evening in , when he started chatting with someone on a social networking service and sent a picture of his naked torso, according to a summary of the case in the California license revocation case file. But Hsu continued making sexual remarks and sent several photos of his erect penis to what he believed to be the year-old boy, according to the case summary. The two agreed to meet at a Maui grocery store. Hsu said he wanted to stop first at a nearby pharmacy to buy an enema kit.
In the grocery store parking lot, Hsu was met not by a teenager but by agents of a Hawaii attorney general task force. A year later, he pleaded no contest to electronic enticement of a child in the second degree, a felony, and was sentenced to a year in jail.
Some 40 people wrote letters of support saying they knew Hsu to be a compassionate man who stumbled into the sting operation. One described him as "a gentle soul who wouldn't hurt a fly, let alone a human being," the Maui News reported at the time. Hsu's lawyer, meanwhile, said that the case had "severely impacted" his acupuncture and physical therapy business.
