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Dennis Lippert, a prominent doctor at Adventist Health Portland, was arrested last month on charges of raping his now 12-year-old daughter in 2015.
Lippert, who lives in Oregon City, has posted $25,000 bail. His arrest came after prosecutors filed a March 15 indictment in Clackamas County Circuit Court accusing Lippert of first-degree rape, sexual abuse and sodomy.
“Dr. Lippert categorically denies the allegations made against him,” says his attorney, Stephen Houze.
Lippert’s arrest follows a Child Protective Services investigation into reports by Lippert’s daughter that she was sexually abused by her father twice as a young child. CPS ultimately found “reasonable cause” to believe her and a judge issued an order in November 2022 finding the daughter in “immediate danger” and denying Lippert further parenting time.
According to a letter confirming CPS’s findings mailed to Lippert’s attorney in late 2023, “the documentation, including the child’s detailed and consistent disclosures, forensic summary, police report, collaterals and corroborating information, provide reasonable cause to believe that Dennis Lippert sexually abused [his daughter].”
Lippert formally challenged the decision in a January legal petition, saying the allegations of sexual abuse, which date back to 2013, were false and his daughter had been “manipulated, influenced, and misused by [her] mother” during the course of a custody dispute.
Her mother, Cara Jean James, denied that allegation in a statement released through her lawyer.
“Dr. Lippert’s attempts to cast the shadow of blame on Ms. James while he is facing multiple Measure 11 felony charges ignore the facts that he has previously gone on record stating Ms. James is a ‘phenomenal’ parent and that he told at least one professional involved with this matter that he generally has confidence in Ms. James’ judgment regarding medical decisions for their daughter,” the statement says, noting that the Oregon Department of Human Services investigation was initiated following “two separate reports to ODHS by mandatory reporters” in 2022.
Lippert’s petition also accuses ODHS of failing to adequately train its employees, who the petition claims failed to “understand the dynamics of high conflict custody and parenting time cases in terms of their impact on the motive of older children to falsely or inaccurately report against a parent.”
“Dr. Lippert passed three separate polygraphs, and that information was forwarded to ODHS,” says Rich Cohen, who is representing Lippert in that legal proceeding.
Lippert, a doctor with a specialty in internal medicine, was named Adventist Health Portland’s 2021 “provider of the year” for his leadership during the pandemic. He is currently a “medical director” working at the East Portland hospital, according to his LinkedIn. A biography posted last year on the webpage of Project Access NOW, a health equity nonprofit he advises, identified Lippert as “Chief Medical Officer Ambulatory Care.”
Shortly after Lippert’s arrest, the Oregon Medical Board issued an order temporarily restricting him from seeing patients. Adventist’s spokesman did not respond to repeated requests for comment.