The Iowa Board of Chiropractic has reached a settlement with Bruce Lindberg of Lindberg Chiropractic in Fairfield and the Ottumwa Chiropractic Clinic which reinstates his license. This is after a criminal case against him was dismissed in July. On April 18th, Lindberg was charged with simple assault as authorities alleged that after treating a 10-year-old boy on February 16th at his clinic, Lindberg hugged the child and kissed him on the top of his head. A few weeks after the arrest, he agreed to stop seeing patients until the case was resolved and his license was at that point suspended. The criminal case was dismissed by a judge who deemed the complaint filed by prosecutors did not meet the legal definition of assault as the acts listed did not inherently show criminal intent.
The agreement to reinstate his license allows Lindberg to practice, but bars him from providing care to anyone under the age of 18 or any dependent adult. An adult employee of his clinic also has to be present during all examinations and treatment provided by Lindberg until further notice from the board.
While the criminal complaint was dismissed, there is still a civil lawsuit regarding the 10-year-old as his parents allege that during the February events in question, the boy was not scheduled to be seen, but Lindberg took the child into an examination room, massaged the boys back with lotion then hugged and kissed him, telling him he was “beautiful”, “adorable” and “the prettiest boy in the world”. The civil suit accused Lindberg of assault, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and malpractice. Lindberg has denied the allegations.
In 1990, he was sentenced to six years probation after being convicted of two counts of indecent contact with children and two counts of indecent exposure. In that case, he was initially charged with seven counts of lascivious acts with a minor and admitted in court that he had touched a child under the age of 14 in the groin area for his own sexual satisfaction. At that time, Lindberg was excluded from the Medicare program and following an appeal, the judge issued a statement adding that Lindberg “did not confine his sexual misconduct with these children only to situations where illicit touching occurred under the guise of legitimate chiropractic treatment. He often engaged in sexual molestation of children in the sauna at his home, while engaged in water sports and in his car driving children to their homes.”