Baystate placed Martin on administrative leave as a result of the incident, which occurred in the late afternoon of Nov. 21, 2023, after he had seen six patients for the day. He signed an agreement with the board not to practice medicine exactly a month later.
The consent order, which he also signed, concluded that he “lacked good moral character and engaged in conduct that undermines the public confidence in the integrity of the medical profession.”
Martin resumed practicing medicine at Baystate around the time the board approved the consent order, according to his lawyer, Paul R. Cirel, of Boston.
Cirel said Martin, who specializes in the treatment of movement disorders, had no idea that employees of the D’Amour Center for Cancer Care, which Baystate opened in 2004, could see him masturbating.
“He was not aware that he was visible or that anyone was watching, and the door was locked,” Cirel said. “He was behind his desk on the far side of the room. This was not exhibitionism. He was not intending for anyone to see him. This was poor judgment.”
However, an employee on the second floor of the cancer center who saw Martin through his two windows disputed Cirel’s account. She shared a video with the Globe that she shot that appeared to support her claim.
The employee, who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisals, said Martin was standing in the center of his office partly undressed and facing the windows as he held his penis with one hand and his cell phone with the other.
“He was definitely not behind his desk,” she said.
She was so shocked, she said, that she filmed it with her phone as multiple coworkers also watched him. The episode lasted about an hour, she said, during which she left her office, went to Martin’s building, and told a worker at the front desk of the neurologist’s office what was happening. Shortly after she returned to her desk, she said, Martin stopped what he was doing.
The employee said she reported the incident the same day to her supervisors, who relayed the information to Baystate Medical Center executives. The next day, she said, the director of neurology and a lawyer for the hospital came to her office to meet with her.
“His director suggested that I was confused and that 20 of us did not see what we saw,” she said. “And I said, ‘Well, I have a lengthy video of it if you’d like to see.’ They refused to look at anything.”
The employee said she repeatedly tried to get Baystate officials to look at the video, parts of which the Globe reviewed. Not only did they rebuff her, she said, they sent an information technology worker to her office to show her how to delete it from her phone. She refused to do so, she said, fearing that the incident would be swept under the rug.
Soon afterward, she said, she reported Martin’s actions to the state medical board.
“I questioned his ability to provide safe care … that there may have been an underlying sexual issue that could cause him to harm others,” said the employee, who provided a copy of the video to the board.
Heather Duggan, a Baystate Health spokesperson, declined to comment on Wednesday about the incident except to say that the health system makes sure doctors follow requirements imposed by the medical board.
“We do not comment on any personnel matters,” she said.
Cirel, Martin’s lawyer, said his client did not want to be interviewed by the Globe. The lawyer said Martin is “without question” fit to practice medicine.
“Not only do I believe it, the [medical] board believes it,” the lawyer said. “The board has said that by its deeds, and the Massachusetts Medical Society [Physicians Health Services] has vouched for him.”
Another employee at the cancer center first informed the Globe about the incident to illustrate what he characterized as poor leadership by the health system. The employee, who also insisted on anonymity, was upset that Baystate executives cast doubts about the other employee’s description of what she and coworkers saw.
Dr. Mark Keroack was chief executive of Baystate Health at the time of the incident. Peter Banko succeeded Keroack in June 2024, four months before Martin was put on probation and allowed to resume practicing medicine.
Details of the incident, including what Martin allegedly did in his office, were originally redacted from the consent order posted online by the medical board. The redactions cited exemptions to the state public records law, including the disclosure of medical information. When the Globe inquired about the episode this week, the board removed the redactions and reposted the consent order on the state website.
“In this case, information was redacted erroneously,” said Ann Scales, a board spokesperson.
Martin graduated from the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2017, completed his residency in neurology at Boston Medical Center in 2020, and a fellowship in movement disorders in 2022, according to his profile on the board’s website.
Jonathan Saltzman can be reached at jonathan.saltzman@globe.com.