Dr. John Hall was jailed for injecting semen into his patients' mouths in 2005. But last month, he nearly reopened a practice in Belize. Dr. John Hall was the kind of dentist who could inspire horror films. He had developed a reputation in his office in Cornelius, North Carolina for experimenting with unconventional treatments. One day, during a routine visit, he told a patient that he was "going to put something in her mouth that would taste funny, but would stop the bleeding." Then he used a syringe to inject the fluid and told her to swallow it. That fluid was semen. This was not the first time Dr. Hall had injected his own semen into his patients' mouths. Two of his employees had begun collecting suspicious syringes left in his office after they overheard the doctor telling patients to swallow something and at least one female patient objected to doing so, on the grounds that the liquid he was preparing to inject "smelled like sperm."
When Dr. Hall was eventually brought to court—for violating dentistry's standard of care, engaging in immoral conduct, and seven misdemeanor counts of sexual assault—six former patients provided testimonies about how the doctor had incorporated his semen into their dental visits. Another woman also alleged that Dr. Hall had pounced on her in the dental chair and began to "gyrate against her lower body in a sexual manner." The police had confiscated syringes from Dr. Hall's office, which DNA tests proved had traces of his semen in them. The issue of whether or not his homemade remedy did, in fact, stop oral bleeding was never made clear, to the dismay of frat boys around the world.
All of this is to say that a dentist like Dr. Hall should not be in practice. After he pleaded guilty to the charges in 2005, he spent four months in Mecklenburg County jail and had his dentistry license permanently revoked—which is still a pretty sweet deal for making multiple patients swallow a load while in his dentist's chair.
"How in the world can he just walk away from this? There's no justice in this," said Lisa Carpenter, one of his victims at the time, referring to his light sentence. Jail time notwithstanding, at least Dr. Hall would never practice dentistry again.
But early last month, on the island of San Pedro in Belize, Dr. Hall came dangerously close to opening a new clinic before police ultimately discovered his seedy past.
San Pedro is probably best known as the inspiration for the Madonna track, "La Isla Bonita," and a violent feud between the Bloods and the Crips. It's a popular tourist destination for those looking to unwind in the idyllic landscape and blue-green waters, but it's also a poor country with a history of corruption.
