NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — Former patients of the Center For Reproductive Health are expressing shock and disbelief.
You may remember the Nashville fertility clinic suddenly closed its doors back in April.
Shortly after that happened, NewsChannel 5 Investigates exposed how one of the men who'd treated patients there is not a doctor. In fact, I found, he had no sort of medical license whatsoever.
And that's why patients said they are so upset with Davidson County District Attorney Glenn Funk.
"It feels like the justice system let us down," Penny Coe said.
"He should not be getting away with that," Sarah Davis said.
"I don’t understand how nothing can be criminal," Julie Monroy said.
These three patients exhibited the same reactions as so many former patients after a letter sent by Funk's office to the Metro Nashville Police Department this week — informing police of the DA's decision not to prosecute in the case of Farere Dyer and the Center for Reproductive Health.
"I felt sick after I read it. I just felt that I could almost cry," Monroy said.
Former patients of the now-closed fertility clinic in Nashville received copies of the letter Wednesday.
"It is really, really easy to be angry with it because if they don’t do anything about it, we can’t," Coe said.
And the women just can't believe the DA decided to let Farere Dyer, as they put it, "walk free."
"So he gets a free pass to what he did and isn’t going to be held accountable, and there’s no repercussions for that? I just can’t understand," Monroy said.
Dyer, if you recall, was seeing patients at the fertility clinic, performing invasive procedures and touching women as only their doctor might. And his patients believed he was a doctor. And why not?
As our investigation revealed, patients were told he was a doctor.
The clinic called him Dr. Dyer.
And the clinic's own procedure forms referred to him as Dr. Dyer.
But, as we discovered, Dyer is not a doctor and he has never had a license to practice medicine.
"You have to be licensed by the state of Tennessee to do a procedure and our initial investigation, there were procedures being done that would require a licensed physician," Metro Police Captain Johnnie Melzoni explained back in May after our initial reporting.
Melzoni heads up the department's Special Victims Division and told us what Dyer had done appeared to be sexual assault.
"So you’re calling these women, these patients, victims?" we asked him.
"Absolutely. Absolutely," Melzoni replied.
But according to the DA's letter, the facts in this case do not meet the legal requirements to pursue rape by fraud charges because there's not enough evidence to pursue the charge.
"I can’t believe that there are no other charges that they could possibly pursue?" Monroy questioned.
Dyer's patients wonder if not rape charges, then why not at least charges for impersonating a licensed professional?
"He walked in the room and introduced himself as Dr. Dyer," Coe recalled.
These women believe there's overwhelming evidence of that.
"To me, if you would say you are a physician and you are not, then you’re an imposter. That’s criminal," Monroy said.
Davis agreed.
"Dyer was not licensed to do this and he knew that every day when he put that coat on. And every single time he sat down at a desk and looked at a family in the eye who is suffering and in pain from infertility and said, 'I can get you pregnant.' He knew that. He knew he couldn’t. He knew he wasn’t licensed to do any of it, and he knew he didn’t know what he was talking about, but he did it anyway," Davis said.
Funk did not respond to our requests for an interview.
But the letter from his office, "acknowledges the profound distress and pain experienced by those affected"...and said we "extend our deepest sympathies to the victims."
Coe's reaction?
"I rolled my eyes because I feel like that was just saying, 'Well, I’m sorry,' and that was it," Coe said.
Monroy said she felt that response showed that they didn't really understand the pain patients were feeling.
"I don’t really think you (the DA) understand because if you did understand, I think this would’ve been a different letter that you would be sending to patients," Monroy said.
And it's not just these three women. Many of the former patients are members of a private Facebook group, and it just blew up with angry comments as women started receiving these letters.
Metro police say more than 150 came forward after we first exposed that Farere Dyer was not a doctor and filed complaints against him.
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Former patients of shuttered fertility clinic share feelings of despair
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Patients of shuttered fertility clinic shocked to learn the man who treated them was not a licensed doctor
