A Michigan dentist accused of regularly touching dental assistants in a sexual manner has reached a plea agreement and is expected to be sentenced by the end of the year, according to a story published on October 30 by WNDU.
Dr. Charles William Howenstine, formerly of St. Joseph Dentistry in St. Joseph, MI, pleaded no contest -- a plea in which a person accepts conviction and punishment but doesn’t accept guilt -- on October 29 to one count of seduction and two counts of assault and battery. The seduction charge alone carries a punishment of up to five years in prison.
Howenstine is scheduled to be sentenced in December, according to the story.
In October 2025, Howenstine was arrested for allegedly engaging in multiple acts of sexual misconduct with dental assistants at St. Joseph Dentistry. The assistants accused him of regularly touching their buttocks. One of them claimed that Howenstine grazed one of their thighs while they were treating a patient, according to the story.
