Local dentist suspended over sexual abuse allegations

Saturday, June 25, 2016
Local dentist suspended over sexual abuse allegations
A New Caney dentist is accused of drugging and fondling a 16-year-old girl.

NEW CANEY, TX (KTRK) -- UPDATE: Oct. 8, 2018

Charges against Joshua Robbins were dismissed after a judge found no probable cause.

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Original story:

The state of Texas has suspended the license of a local dentist. The reason is shocking, especially to parents who have trusted this man with their children.

Dr. Joshua Robbins owns Southeast Texas Children's Dentistry in New Caney. He's accused of drugging a 16-year-old girl and fondling her after she passed out. According to paperwork from the Executive Committee of the State Board of Dental Examiners, he owned up to the allegation.

"It's unnerving, definitely," says Kristin Tripp.

Kristin Tripp's two daughters went to Dr. Robbins twice last year. She tells us on the second visit, he suggested using a concoction on her five-year-old called "Sleepy Juice." She was uncomfortable with one of the ingredients.

"He did tell me it's not on the market, that it's mixed up by a pharmacist friend of his."

They never went back.

"There was something about him that just made me feel like I needed to be a little more vigilant in being near him or talking to him," she says.

The Texas State Board of Dental Examiners temporarily suspended Dr. Robbins' license earlier this month. According to the order of temporary suspension, he admitted to a Clinical Social Worker during a counseling session that he drugged and sexually assaulted a 16-year-old girl in 2014 at her house. That paperwork does not specify what the connection was between the two.

"He didn't do anything to me. He didn't do anything to my children," Tripp explained to us. "But we also didn't continue care there. Hearing something like that makes me wonder."

The document shows he told the social worker that he took a drug called Lorazepam from his dental office, put it in a soda bottle and gave it to the girl without her knowledge. The document says once she passed out from the drug, he took her to her bedroom and fondled her.

There's no word on how long this temporary suspension will be.

"I think it's important to protect children and to protect the public until they can get events figured out," Tripp says.

Robbins has not been charged with any crime. The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office tells us they are not investigating him, at least right now.

We called several numbers listed for Dr. Robbins and his relatives. None called us back. The one call we did get back was from the number listed for his practice's dental emergencies. That woman hung up on us when we told her who we were.