Journalists are digging deeper into what happened after a Michigan State University doctor was accused of sexually assaulting patients in his care.
MSU police first announced on September 11 that 39-year-old Arpit Saxena had been arrested in Georgia. He remains there in custody while the extradition process goes forward.
Saxena worked as a resident at the MSU Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Clinic from July of 2024 to April of 2025. The first victim reported being assaulted by him during a medical appointment in early April of that year.
According to an intent to sue filed by the attorney representing a second victim obtained by the Detroit News and the Detroit Free Press, the following day Saxena allegedly assaulted her during another medical appointment after the initial report had already been filed.
"Initially, it was very difficult to get the timing out of the university of the second assault. They weren't willing to disclose that initially," said Detroit Free Press reporter Kristen Shamus who has been following the story.
The following week Saxena was removed from patient care. He was later dismissed from the university. Shamus says Saxena wasn't barred from seeing patients immediately after the first report because of university policy.
"The university has said that they have a a process that they have to follow. It's kind of a complex process. It involves several departments, including the MSU Office of Civil Rights, the Human Resources Department, there's a triage response team that has to get involved and the MSU Office of Health Science," she said.
An initial investigation was completed by Michigan State University Department of Police and Public Safety in August of 2025. The Ingham County Prosecutor's Office filed an arrest warrant in early September of this year.
According to the Detroit Free Press, Saxena was apprehended at Georgia's Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as he attempted to leave the country to travel to Amsterdam in the Netherlands.
Shamus spoke to the second victim's attorney who said the alleged assault could have been prevented by removing Saxena from patient care while an investigation played out. He compared the situation to an officer being put on paid administrative leave after an officer-involved shooting.
"There isn't an automatic assumption of guilt, but what it does do is it protects the patients from any other future harms or potential harms in case that investigation proves that there actually was an assault and a problem," Shamus said as she explained the lawyer's reasoning.
MSU did issue this statement to the Detroit Free Press: "Patients deserve to be treated with dignity, respect and professionalism, and we regret that this trust was broken. The university is deeply sorry for the harm this has caused and apologize to those affected by this abuse."
It's not clear when Saxena will be extradited back to Michigan, but law enforcement officials have said the process could take weeks.
Interview Highlights
On what former MSU physician Arpit Saxena is accused of
He's accused of sexually assaulting two female patients during the course of their medical treatment. The women are alleging that he assaulted them, you know, and made it sound as if it was routine and ordinary treatment, and they are saying that it was sexual assault. And so, the first woman calls 911 after she had her medical appointment with Saxena and reported the incident, and that was on April 3, 2025. The next day, the second victim also had an appointment with Saxena, and she also alleges she was assaulted by him during that treatment.
On the university process for investigating the alleged assaults
It involves several departments, including the MSU Office of Civil Rights, the Human Resources Department, there's a triage response team that has to get involved and the MSU Office of Health Sciences. So, the university said that MSU Police notified Human Resources and Civil Rights on the morning of April 4 of the alleged assault of the first woman. Then that triggered its own internal processes that involved all those departments, and it wasn't until the morning of April 7 that the leaders of those departments decided Saxena shouldn't see patients anymore, but of course, by then it was too late.
On what the attorney for the second victim has said about the case
His overarching point was that this didn't have to happen. His client never had to be assaulted had MSU simply removed Saxena immediately from all patient-facing care as soon as the first victim reported her assault ... There isn't an automatic assumption of guilt, but what it does do is it protects the patients from any other future harms or potential harms in case that investigation proves that there actually was an assault and a problem.
Interview Transcript
Sophia Saliby: We are learning more about a former Michigan State University doctor accused of sexually assaulting patients in his care.
MSU police first announced on September 11 that Arpit Saxena had been arrested in Georgia. He remains there in custody while the extradition process goes forward.
Detroit Free Press reporter Kristen Shamus has been covering the story, and she joins me now. Thank you for being here.
Kristen Shamus: Hi, thanks for talking with me today.
Saliby: So, who is this doctor, and where did he work at MSU?
Shamus: Arpit Saxena is a 39-year-old medical resident who was working for Michigan State University. He started at the university in July of 2024, and he was working at the MSU Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine Clinic, and that was on Hagadorn Road in East Lansing.
Saliby: What is he accused of doing? He worked for the university between I think summer of 2024 to, again, April of 2025 when these allegations took place.
Shamus: He's accused of sexually assaulting two female patients during the course of their medical treatment. The women are alleging that he assaulted them, you know, and made it sound as if it was routine and ordinary treatment, and they are saying that it was sexual assault.
And so, the first woman calls 911 after she had her medical appointment with Saxena and reported the incident, and that was on April 3, 2025. The next day, the second victim also had an appointment with Saxena, and she also alleges she was assaulted by him during that treatment.
The university knew that he had committed an alleged assault on the third, but didn't act to remove him from the clinic until several days later. And in that time, the second victim was assaulted.
Saliby: Has the university said why they didn't immediately pull him from the job? Was it a matter of, "well, the investigation hadn't played out yet?"
Shamus: Initially, it was very difficult to get the timing out of the university of the second assault. They weren't willing to disclose that initially.
I'd been working on trying to get that bit of information out of the Michigan State University Public Relations Department for several days, and it wasn't until the notice of intent to sue, that document was found yesterday in the Michigan Court of Claims that we were finally able to confirm that indeed that second victim was assaulted in that window of time, that four-day window between April 3 and April 7, when Saxena finally was removed from seeing patients.
And the university has said that they have a a process that they have to follow. It's kind of a complex process. It involves several departments, including the MSU Office of Civil Rights, the Human Resources Department, there's a triage response team that has to get involved and the MSU Office of Health Sciences.
So, the university said that MSU Police notified Human Resources and Civil Rights on the morning of April 4 of the alleged assault of the first woman. Then that triggered its own internal processes that involved all those departments, and it wasn't until the morning of April 7 that the leaders of those departments decided Saxena shouldn't see patients anymore, but of course, by then it was too late.
Saliby: You've talked to the attorney for one of these women. What is that attorney saying about this case?
Shamus: So, the attorney I spoke with is Lawrence Nolan, and he represents the second alleged victim in this case. And his overarching point was that this didn't have to happen. His client never had to be assaulted had MSU simply removed Saxena immediately from all patient-facing care as soon as the first victim reported her assault.
He said that his client has suffered, and she's still very traumatized by what happened to her. She still cries every time he talks to her about it, and he said it just it never had to happen.
He sort of made the analogy of when there's, you know, an incident involving police brutality or, you know, a police officer may kill someone who he's maybe pursuing or has under investigation, that officer is almost always put on immediate suspension while an investigation occurs. And the lawyer's point was why didn't that happen in this case? When you have sexual assault, that should always happen.
And there isn't an automatic assumption of guilt, but what it does do is it protects the patients from any other future harms or potential harms in case that investigation proves that there actually was an assault and a problem.
Saliby: What's next in the case? We're waiting on that extradition process for Saxena. Is that what's next?
Shamus: Yes. So Saxena, it's interesting, he was charged on September 3 on multiple counts of criminal sexual assault, but authorities didn't really know where he was. They had a mailing address for him, the most recent mailing address in Alabama, and it wasn't until September 11 that they got a call from U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Georgia.
It was at the Atlanta Airport, the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport, where Customs and Border Protection officers found Saxena trying to board a plane to flee the country to Amsterdam, and so that's when he was detained, and he remains in a jail in Georgia, awaiting extradition to Michigan to face these criminal charges.
Saliby: Kristen Shamus reports for the Detroit Free Press. Thank you for joining us.
Shamus: Thank you so much for having me.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and conciseness.
