Charles Momah pleaded not guilty last year to two counts of rape and two counts of indecent liberties with patients. He could face 16 years in prison after being convicted on all charges. The verdict came after four days of deliberation by the King County Superior Court jury.

Prosecutors alleged that Momah performed gynecological exams without wearing gloves, sexually touched patients, probed them unnecessarily with a vaginal ultrasound wand and flirted with them inappropriately. The documents also say the obstetrician-gynecologist prescribed addictive painkillers for no good medical reason, pressured patients into surgeries and double-billed insurance companies for procedures.

In closing arguments last week, Momah's defense attorney David Allen said the stories told in court by four former patients were "preposterous" and defied "common sense."

King County Deputy Prosecutor Roger Rogoff acknowledged some of the alleged victims' testimony wasn't pretty: One patient admitted she used Momah to get drugs, one admitted extorting him, and some continued to go to him after the alleged sexual contact.

"Each of them had a vulnerability" that Momah exploited, Rogoff said.

A patient who took hush money from Momah told the jury the truth about how Momah took indecent liberties with her, Rogoff said. "Her testimony is credible simply because of the rawness of it."

Allen repeatedly picked apart the testimony of women who took the stand.

One patient who said Momah touched her sexually during an examination had returned repeatedly. Any "reasonable person," Allen said, would "leave and never come back."

Momah grew up in Nigeria and trained in Nigeria and Canada.

In 1993, after working in New York and Georgia, Momah moved to Washington state and opened clinics in south King County. Clinics he operated in Federal Way, Burien and Issaquah are now closed. The state suspended his medical license in 2003.

He was censured and reprimanded by the New York State Department of Health in 1999. Also that year, a criminal jury acquitted him of Medicaid fraud in New York.

In 2000, a former patient, Jolie Campbell, told the King County sheriff's office that Momah had performed unnecessary surgery on her, deliberately got her addicted to painkillers, raped her five years earlier, and told her no one would believe her if she reported the rape because she was addicted to drugs.

Deputies investigated, but prosecutors decided there wasn't enough evidence to file charges.

Momah continued practicing until Sept. 11, 2003, when his license was suspended after another patient reported being raped. By June 2004, 44 women had filed lawsuits against him.

King County prosecutors had been investigating Momah for about a year when they filed criminal charges in September 2004. Spokesman Dan Donohoe said the investigation took so long because prosecutors reviewed reams of medical documents and interviewed scores of people.