Doctor charged with assaulting employee pleads no contest

A Virginia doctor is in hot water after allegedly assaulting an employee and then preventing that person from calling 911, NBC Washington reports. 

The incident in question occurred at Vista Medical Center in Arlington on May 10. Whitney Grant says she was asking Dr. Haroon Rashid how to best transfer an elderly patient onto an exam table for an EKG when tensions began to rise between the two. Rashid told Grant he would not help with the transfer and ordered her to stop arguing with him. Grant told the doctor that she was not trying to argue but was instead just trying to figure out how to complete the EKG for the patient when Rashid “went into a rage.” 

Grant told NBC Washington that Rashid “balled up his fist and said, 'I am going to hit you.’”  

“I couldn't believe that he was even talking to me like that,” Grant said, adding that she was in shock at the time. 

What happened next was caught on camera via cellphone recording. In the video, it appears Rashid made some sort of aggressive physical contact with Grant; at one point another employee can be seen standing between Rashid and Grant, trying to walk Rashid away from the dispute. 

Rashid allegedly kept Grant from calling 911 when the incident transpired, which resulted in the doctor being charged with assault and battery and preventing someone from calling 911. 

On July 5, Rashid pleaded no contest, dropped the charge of preventing a 911 call and agreed to defer sentencing for the other charges for a year while the doctor attends court-ordered anger management and completes community service. 

Rashid’s attorney says the video footage does not show Grant’s “aggressive and inappropriate behavior” prior to the incident, although there is no mention of such behavior in the police report.