A physician and executive is on leave from Summa Health after being arrested for allegedly sharing an explicit image of a woman, making her fear for her safety.
On Oct. 18, Summa Health Medical Group President Vivek Bhalla was charged with dissemination of an image of another person, a fifth-degree felony. If convicted, he could get up to a year in prison and a $2,500 fine. Already, he posted bond on $5,000.
This is one of the first times Case Western Reserve University criminal law professor Mike Benza said he has seen Ohio’s 2018 revenge pornography law in action.
"They have consensually shared these images with each other — the revenge porn part comes in when the relationship is over, that the person who now has those images, in order to get back at the person they used to be in a relationship with, then puts it out into the ether," Benza said.
Copley Police reports show Bhalla and the woman were going through a separation. Police advised the woman multiple times throughout two days to leave the state, because a 911 call News 5 obtained showed that she said she was “in fear for her safety.”
Once she was away from the doctor, police documents indicate that the explicit picture of the woman was sent around to her colleagues and family.
News 5's Morgan Trau spoke with the victim, Heather Bhalla, who said she felt comfortable with her name being shared with the public.
Heather said she is safe with family out of state with her two children.
"Just support from people that hardly even know me, and it's been beautiful and so sweet," Heather Bhalla said. "And I hope that in a year I can look back and think, 'Wow, I had so many people behind me.'"
She also said all of this has been overwhelming for her.
These cases can be hard to prosecute, Benza said, since they require motive.
"It's difficult unless the defendant says something like, 'I did it to get back at my partner,'" the professor said.
While arresting Bhalla, police reported that he said, “'Oh yea, I don't know about that. It wasn't necessarily me, my phone was in other people’s hands.'”
Police told us he was only with his parents at the time, and he tried to hand off the phone to his mother when being detained.
Documents show that police took it, but Bhalla wouldn’t give them his passcode.
Prosecutors could use his history to paint a picture of his motive, Benza said.
Along with the earlier calls from Heather to police, we discovered that in 2013, Bhalla was charged with domestic violence and took a plea deal.
Statehouse reporter Morgan Trau reached out to him, and he told her over the phone that he had "no comment at this time."
State senator and former prosecutor Nathan Manning (R-North Ridgeville), who wrote the revenge porn statute, said vengeance should be hard to prove — but that improvements to the law can always be made.
"We don't want loopholes out there that people are able to get away with this with having too high of a burden to show that they were indeed trying to hurt someone or have that revenge," Manning said in an interview Friday.
The physician is on leave from Summa Health, whose spokesperson gave us a statement.
“We are aware of the allegations against Dr. Bhalla and take them very seriously. We are in the process of gathering additional information and he is currently on leave from the organization. This is a private matter and out of respect for the legal process and all parties involved we will have no additional comment,” spokesperson Maureen Nagg said.
In 2021, Bhalla was promoted to President of Summa Health Group, leading a network of more than 300 physicians.
He is not the president or CEO of the Summa Health System, who oversees the operations of the entire hospital network.
We asked Summa Health if they were aware of his earlier charge, but they didn't address the question.
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