Surgeon climbs through hatch into yacht and rapes woman in bedroom, FL cops say
.jpg "A Florida doctor has been convicted of sexual battery following allegations he raped a woman on her yacht in 2023.")
A cardiovascular surgeon was accused of lowering himself through the broken hatch of a yacht and raping a sleeping woman, Florida authorities said.
A jury has now convicted 54-year-old Francis Herrbold of sexual battery, the State Attorney’s Office for the First Judicial Circuit of Florida announced April 14.
Herrbold’s attorney declined to comment to McClatchy News on the case, but Herrbold denied to law enforcement that he raped the woman on her yacht, saying they had consensual sex.
A group of friends and acquaintances were drinking and partying on the woman’s yacht docked at a marina during a fishing tournament in June 2023, investigators said.
According to the woman and witnesses, Herrbold kept coming up to the woman and trying to put his hands on her hips, but she repeatedly rebuffed him, according to documents filed in Walton County.
The woman eventually lowered the swim platform on her boat, then she was dancing to a song with a friend when she slipped and fell on the wet platform, she said during a deposition.
She asked her friend to clear everyone off the boat and lock it up as she dried off and went to sleep, she recounted to attorneys.
Her friend put the woman to bed in the state room and enlisted a man with the group to lock the doors to the yacht from inside and climb out through the front hatch of the boat, according to an affidavit.
The man locked the doors and climbed out the hatch but told the woman’s friend he couldn’t lock the hatch because it was broken, documents show.
Meanwhile, Herrbold appeared to be passed out on a bench on the yacht, outside the area that had just been locked, witnesses recounted.
Everyone got off the boat, other than Herrbold, who appeared to be asleep, and the woman who owned the yacht sleeping in the state room inside, according to witnesses.
The woman told law enforcement she later woke up to Herrbold raping her, then she kicked him off her, saying he had a girlfriend and she had a boyfriend, documents show.
He walked out of the room, and she locked the door behind him, she said. She reported the incident to law enforcement the next day.
Prosecutors said Herrbold climbed through the hatch leading into another cabin on the boat, then he went into the woman’s room.
He’s set to be sentenced June 3.
Walton County is in the Florida Panhandle.