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Dr. Donald J. Cline (pictured above) was in Marion County Superior Court on Monday to enter not guilty pleas on two different counts of felony obstruction of justice before being released on his own recognizance ahead of his next court date, on October 17.
Bizarrely, the allegations now aren't even a new thing — Dr. Cline has been accused of inseminating his patients with his own sperm in years past, too.
It's only now that he's being charged, with the obstruction charges coming from his years-long denials and misleading when law enforcement tried to investigate.
It is unclear how many people Cline may have impregnated like this during his run operating a fertility clinic in the 1970s — although police believe over an eight-year period, he may have donated his own sperm in at least 50 instances.
Court documents indicate that all of this came to a head when two people exploring their ancestry through DNA testing realized they were related to more than 70 of Cline's relatives.
One of Cline's alleged children spoke to reporters about the situation, saying:
"It was unethical what he did. He was telling his patients one thing and doing another. I want to find out as much truth as I can but I know deep down that we never will know the complete truth as to how many siblings we do have."
And another alleged child spoke out about the charges and her obvious, frank disgust with the doctor:
"I am outraged by this clear breach of ethics in the field of medicine."
All this said — even including the particularly damning DNA testing — and Cline still hasn't fessed up to anything.
The doctor, who retired from medicine in 2009, wrote a letter to the Indiana Attorney General's Office saying in part:
"I can emphatically say that at no time did I ever use my own sample for insemination."
Regardless, this is a disturbing story. Guess we'll just let justice wind its course…
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