Alleged fake doctor arrested

NEW YORK (WABC) -- An alleged fake doctor is under arrest Friday in Manhattan. Authorities say he molested two young women during what they thought were gynecological exams.

It allegedly happened in an office on the Upper East Side that also houses several legitimate doctors.

Eyewitness News reporter Phil Lipof has the story.

He is a wealthy businessman well-known in the Orthodox community. He has a wife and five children. But what he is accused of doing is simpy depraved.

We caught 40-year-old Zalman Silber getting out of his car at his Munsey home hours after being arraigned on charges he was pretending to be a gynecologist. He allegedly gave exams to at least two young women in 2003 and 2004.

The girls, 18 and 20 years old at the time, say it happened at a building on Park Avenue.

They say Silber touched their breasts, gave them what they thought was a gynecological exam and then made them turn on their sides for a rectal exam.

His attorney says no way.

"We firmly state that Mr. Silber is innocent of these charges," attorney Ken Gribetz said.

His attorney goes on to say that the line up his client stood in was questionable.

"There were two other women who were brought in," Gribetz said. "Both identified fill-ins who were brought in from the Hasidic community by the New York City Police Department."

At Silber's home, the woman who answered the door wouldn't comment on the arrest. Neither would Silber, who quickly ran away from our camera.

His neighbor, though, did talk to us, and was stunned by the news.

"I can't wrap my head around the whole idea," Ruth Lowenstein said. "I had absolutely no idea."

Silber made millions in the 90s offering tourists simulated helicopter rides around the city through the New York Skyride at the Empire State Building.

Prosecutors say Silber would tell his victims that the exams were part of a medical survey.

Silber's family posted $10,000 bail Friday morning. The next step is a grand jury. As for other victims, the district attorney says the investigation is ongoing.

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