Madsen barred from practicing
Warning: This story contains depictions of sexual assault.
A Franklin chiropractor pleading guilty to 12 different sexual crimes against female patients avoided prison and must surrender his license.
On Sept. 11, Erik Romer Madsen, 64, of Franklin, pleaded guilty to 11 counts of assault on a female and one count of committing a “crime against nature.” Judge Peter B. Knight ordered that Madsen be on probation for 30 months. Madsen’s 6–17-month sentence for “crime against nature” and two 60-day sentences for the consolidated assault on a female charges were all suspended.
The new “crime against nature” charge comes up for the plea deal, which Madsen accepted along with 11 assault on female charges. Madsen made an Alford plea, meaning he maintained his innocence while entering the guilty plea and accepting the sentencing set by the court. Alford pleas are usually entered when a defendant wants to avoid a possibly worse sentence were they to lose the case against them at trial.
“Part of the terms of the probation are for [Madsen] to write a letter to the N.C. Board of Chiropractic Examiners advising them that he is permanently surrendering his North Carolina Doctor of Chiropractic License and [Madsen] is to have no contact with any of the victims,” the plea arrangement states.
The acceptance of the plea deal on 12 charges comes with the dismissal of 15 other charges, including 12 sexual battery charges, one assault on a female charge, one second-degree sex offense charge and one attempted second-degree sexual offense charge.
In North Carolina, the “crime against nature” charge can apply to all sexual encounters outside of heterosexual sex. The crime is a Class I felony with a 24-month maximum prison sentence. According to the court’s worksheet, Madsen could have been sentenced to up to 24 months and 300 days in prison for the 12 offenses.
The plea deal ends the case dating back to 2019 in which a 12 women stated Madsen touched them inappropriately in areas not related to their treatments.
Starting in November 2019 and going through August 2021, Madsen was arrested and charged six different times as charges were dropped and added.
According to testimony given in 2020 by two victims to the N.C. Board of Chiropractic Examiners, Madsen did not fully explain the treatment beforehand and they were not draped. That same report noted medical records for both victims did not describe the inappropriate treatment.
Other than a brief suspension in 2020, Madsen continued practicing at Mountain View Chiropractic Holistic Wellness Center on Sloan Road throughout the case.
That state chiropractic board voted to suspend Madsen in January 2020 and barred him from reapplying until he took and passed two courses, which he did three months later. Madsen was fully reinstated after a year’s probation, despite facing prosecution the entire time. Dr. Joe Siragusa, executive director of the NCSBOCE, said in late 2023 that he believes the board (which he was not a part of in 2020) got into a discussion about Madsen’s rights and that “the presumption of innocence in this manner prevailed.”