Joseph Ferriero
FEBRUARY 7, 2016 LAST UPDATED: SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2016, 12:18 PM
BY JEAN RIMBACH
STAFF WRITER |
THE RECORD
It’s been a year since federal prosecutors quietly dropped a bombshell in the corruption trial of Joseph Ferriero, one that raised troubling questions about the justice system in Bergen County.
Without offering details, they alleged that a decade ago the onetime Democratic Party leader, since convicted on racketeering and fraud charges, had secretly received nearly $500,000 to influence the case of a Teaneck dermatologist accused of sexually assaulting two women patients. In a prosecution that still is surrounded by many questions, the doctor, Gangaram Ragi, was allowed to enter a program that spared him a trial on charges that could have yielded a prison sentence and lifetime registration as a sex offender. And while fining him and barring him from treating women, state licensing officials allowed him to continue his practice.
Since news broke of the government’s assertion — contained in court filings and court transcripts — and in the wake of a series of articles by The Record, the state has toughened its disciplinary process for doctors accused of sexual misconduct with patients.
