Delaware County chiropractor charged with sexually assaulting 5 patients

Five women in Delaware County have accused a Springfield chiropractor of sexually assaulting them during visits at his office, prosecutors said Friday.

Ardel Cirio, 61, has been charged with four counts of indecent assault as well as one count of aggravated indecent assault, a felony, for incidents that took place between December 2020 and March, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

Cirio was arrested March 8, after the first victim came forward. He was arraigned on additional charges early Friday in four other, similar cases and was released on $610,000 unsecured bail. As a condition of his bail, Cirio must stop seeing patients.

His attorney, Arthur Donato, declined to comment, saying he is reviewing the charges and conducting a parallel investigation.

The first victim to report an assault, a longtime patient of Cirio’s, told detectives in Newtown Township that he groped her breasts during exams at his office in Newtown Square, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

Not long after Cirio’s arrest was reported in local media, four other women came forward to report similar abuse, according to District Attorney Jack Stollsteimer.

“We’re outraged that a medical professional would continue to do this illegal behavior and treat these women so badly,” Stollsteimer said. “Part of the outrage of these complaints is not just the behavior, but the behavior of a doctor who has a long-standing relationship with the patient.”

The women told detectives the assaults happened within the last year or so and took place when they were alone in the office with him.

Four of the women said Cirio groped or massaged their breasts, sometimes excusing it as a part of the treatment and some said they felt “frozen” during the incidents.

One woman said Cirio digitally penetrated her under the guise of trying to loosen her groin muscles, according to the affidavit.

Stollsteimer commended the victims for coming forward, saying that without their cooperation, Cirio’s behavior would have gone unpunished.

“It’s always hard in a sex assault case to tell the world what’s happening to you,” he said. “And I think it’s harder, because these women were going to him as a doctor and felt even more violated, that he betrayed their trust.”