- Joseph Clarence Cox, 44, was arrested in April 2021 on three counts of sexual abuse and one count of rape.
- Eight former employees and three patients testified about numerous incidents of sexual abuse within his dental office during normal business hours.
- Subjected patients to sexual contact during their dental procedures.
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An Alabama dentist has been sentenced to 180 years in prison for raping, sodomizing and sexually abusing eight members of his former staff and three patients at his dental office.
Joseph Clarence Cox, 44, was arrested in April 2021 following an investigation by the Gadsden Police Department, which revealed shocking evidence of inappropriate sexual contact between Cox and his staff.
During the trial, a total of eight former employees and three patients testified about numerous incidents of sexual abuse, including rape, sodomy, and sexual contact during dental procedures.
After a week-long trial, the jury found him guilty of two counts of rape, two counts of sodomy and eight counts of sexual abuse in January, according to reports. ABC.
Cox treated his workplace as his “own personal playground” and showed no respect for any woman who came to his office, Judge George Day said.
Joseph Clarence Cox, 44, has been sentenced to 180 years in prison for raping, sodomizing and sexually abusing eight members of his former staff and three patients at his dental office.
During the trial, a total of eight former employees and three patients testified about numerous incidents of sexual abuse, including rape, sodomy and even sexual contact during dental procedures at their business (pictured) in Gadsden.
Judge Day sentenced Cox to 25 years in prison for each count of rape and sodomy and 10 years for each count of sexual abuse. He ordered those sentences to run consecutively.
Cox, who founded Gadsden Dental Clinic in 2017, was arrested after officers found high employee turnover within his business between June 2020 and April 2021.
Officers executed search warrants at both his home and the clinic on Rainbow Drive and arrested him a week later.
Cox was later released after posting $100,000 bail.
During the trial, his former employees testified that high turnover at Gadsden Dental Clinic was due to repeated incidents of sexual abuse by Cox.
Two former staff members testified that his behavior went beyond touching, to rape and sodomy, and that some incidents occurred during normal work hours.
The patients were subjected to sexual contact during their dental procedures, according to two of those who testified.
Years before opening her dental practice in Gadsden, Cox had received complaints about sexual harassment and unwanted touching.
Cox (pictured in January), who founded Gadsden Dental Clinic in 2017, was arrested after officers found high employee turnover within his business between June 2020 and April 2021.
Years before opening her dental practice in Gadsden, Cox had received complaints about sexual harassment and unwanted touching.
A former employee at his dental office in Fort Payne, less than an hour’s drive from Gadsden, accused him of hitting her butt in 2012.
Cox, who graduated from the University of Alabama School of Dentistry, pleaded guilty to three counts of harassment after appealing the case to circuit court, online records show.
He was fined $500, sentenced to probation, and had his dental license suspended for six months for those offenses at the time.
In court earlier this year, Judge Day ordered their sentences to run consecutively, stating that it would not be justice for each of the victims if the sentences were run concurrently.