Ep 53-Sedation, Secrets, And The Dark Web: Exposing A Predator In A Dental Clinic

A patient under anesthesia is supposed to be safe. What we uncovered is what happens when that safety is only assumed. We dig into the case of Cody Alan Stolfa, a dental assistant in Stillwater, Oklahoma, who pled guilty to 33 felonies for sexually assaulting sedated patients—crimes revealed not by a complaint, but by a dark‑web video that set off a digital breadcrumb trail. It’s a story about power, access, and how easily abuse hides in the gaps of outpatient care.

From there, we widen the lens. We talk victim psychology when trauma exists without a narrative, why disclosure still matters, and the concrete policies every clinic should adopt: two-person minimums in sedation rooms, auditable monitoring, tighter hiring standards, and transparent patient education. We also press pause on hype with a reality check on the viral “Russian cancer vaccine”—what therapeutic mRNA vaccines can promise, what current evidence can’t, and how to separate hope from headlines without losing either.

If you care about patient safety, medical ethics, true crime in healthcare, and critical thinking in the face of sensational claims, this one will stay with you. Listen, share with someone who books dental surgery, and tell us: what safeguard would you insist on before consenting to sedation? Subscribe, leave a rating and review, and send us your story ideas—we’re listening.

Resources: 

https://www.facebook.com/TheDemandProject/posts/sensitive-content-warning-aggravated-sexual-assault-in-stillwatera-position-of-t/1344754514361968/ 

https://www.newsnationnow.com/crime/former-dental-assistant-pleads-guilty-to-sex-crimes-with-sedated-patients/ 

Cancer breakthrough

Transcript

Catching Up And Family Plans

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Amanda Hey oh Hi Brian How you doing?

SPEAKER_00 0:52

How you doing, girl? Surviving. Surviving. No, I'm doing really good. Oh, good. How's the how's our little baby Ellie cat? Pam's doing good. Doing good. Thank you to everyone who has reached out to us on our social media telling me congrats on the baby. Very sweet.

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Oh, he's so cute. He's so cute. First of all, he looks like a little mini Adam. And second of all, he's no chubby cheeky. Drift one, grab him and kiss him. He's so snuggly.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

He's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

How are you doing up north? You know what? I I'm almost ready to break out open toes because it's uh it's 30 something. And and for our European listeners, we're not talking Celsius. Okay, don't get too crazy about it. We're talking Fahrenheit. But when you go to 30 above zero, it's honestly balmy compared to when you walk outside and your nose freezes shut. Yeah, that's my I call it my nosometer. When you go outside and your nose goes in your little narrays sections closed, you know, okay, well, we're below zero. And then when you go outside your nose sections and your body says, I don't think I can make it from you know 30 feet to the car. That's when you know it's like 40 below. So all these thresholds. Honestly, if you add 70 degrees to that, which is which it's amazing. So that's the obligatory weather report. I'm also excited because I get federal holidays off and Monday's a holiday, so I get to spend Valentine's Day with my my sister. It's her birthday on Valentine's Day, she's a little heart baby, and her boyfriend, and my parents, and my daughter, and my sister, and my son and his fiancee. So, you know, Valentine's isn't all about necessarily having a romantic love. I don't know, I hope that for you, but sometimes it's just about spending time with loved ones.

Super Bowl Reactions And Culture

SPEAKER_00 3:01

Yeah. Aw, I'm glad you get that extra time with your fam. Yeah. What are you planning on doing? I have no plans. Just uh Yawn. Me and my hubby and my baby and our little baby Raven, all of us at home. Everyone down here is kind of sick right now. Oh no. What do you mean everyone down here? In your house? I think the neurovirus is going around. Yeah, in in the area. It's like spreading like wildfire. So honestly, I don't really want to leave. I don't blame you. There's nothing nastier than something coming out of both ends. Oof, yeah. And new baby, we don't need him to get sick. No.

SPEAKER_02 3:43

No.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

Yeah. So no, we don't have any plans. It's we're kind of in that phase of like, what day is it? Yeah. Because we've just been at home. So it's like, oh, it's Valentine's this weekend. Got it. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 3:53

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 3:55

And you know what?

SPEAKER_01 3:56

Every day should is should be Valentine's Day in a in, you know, when you're with your loved ones. So, you know, forget about the commercialism, you know, you've got to have this, that, and the other. I'd rather have an experience and than a thing any day of the week. Yeah. And that experience is often just some of the most simple things, like just spending some quality time together. So yeah, that's good. On another note, I'm super happy because I I don't do sports. But I I was born in Washington State and have always been a fan of the Seahawks. Oh, yes, yes. Our football team. And for our overseas listeners, we know it's not real football. It's it's American football, which is real American football, but they've really only ever won the Super Bowl once. Yeah, 2014. Do you said that? I think you told me that. Yeah. And I don't think they even were invited to the Super Bowl any other time. I I might be wrong. We may have a correction next week. So this is momentous. And there's a guy on the team with hearing loss, and Kenneth Walker was so fast. And I just loved the whole thing. So I mean the Patriots have had a lot of wins. So I I was really, really happy. And first of all, I love Green Day. Second of all, Bad Bunny loved that whole cultural Puerto Rican experience. And you know, just knowing that America is rich in cultural diversity like that was really, really timely and really, really cool to see. Although I asked my mom what she thought of the halftime show. You know, because there was a lot of Latin dancing, you know, it's steamy, it's romantic. There were some butt cheeks a waving. Hey, shout out to my mom because she listens. Her first response was, Well, there was a lot of booties.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

There's a lot of booties moving around. I didn't see it because I'm a new mom. And so honestly, I slept through a lot of the Super Bowl. But I did see, like obviously on social media and stuff, videos. And so yeah, there was a lot of booty popping. But I'm telling you, I wouldn't be able to pop mine like that.

Corrections And Confessions

SPEAKER_01 6:12

So that was just the beginning, but no. But then then it was almost like a musical, like he went through the fields, like to represent like the harvest and cultivation that they do, and then like the barrio where like the old guys are playing card games or chess or whatever. And like it just kind of brought it through this whole cultural experience. I thought it was really cool. So and it was all in Spanish. And you know, if you think about it, more than 20% of America speaks Spanish. So I think it was really good for people to kind of stretch their comfort level. We tend to spoon feed people their experiences. And so this kind of challenged that. And I I love that. I love that for us. So, you know, when I was growing up, it was like all about the sports in school and the foreign languages and stuff like that. We're like, eh, whatever. But I mean, they're equally as important. So I enjoyed that. But this in no way reflects that, but we do have a correction section. We're gonna do the correction section now, or are you wanna talk about let's do the correction section now? So I have a confession. It should be the confession section. You're like, I don't know what she's going on about.

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Okay, I'm like, I'm just listening as everyone else right now because I don't know what is going on.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

Okay, so last week I talked about losing to a ninth grader. Yes. With my chili recipe. And I said, you know, I had to make what did I say? Like eight gallons of chili. Yeah, eight gallons on gallons. Get eight gallons of chili. Shout out to the metric system because I think it makes a lot more sense. Because I confuse gallons for quarts. Anyway, I made two crocs.

SPEAKER_00 8:13

Like, and you had how many people in this competition? Like, okay. Now do you see why I was so blown away? Like, wow, that's a lot of chili.

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Yeah. So yes. Okay, but can I just still get some credit for the fact that it's still a lot of chili? There's two large crock pots full of chili. But it was not, so it was probably eight quarts and still not eight gallons of chili.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

Yeah. Do you know how expensive would be expensive to make all that chili?

SPEAKER_01 8:39

Yeah. I mean, it wasn't cheap already, but can you imagine how it would have been? Yeah. No.

SPEAKER_00 8:44

So after your little Well, if anyone else was blown away by that, don't worry, guys. She had the wrong measuring system.

SPEAKER_01 8:52

Listen, listen, you can still be blown away. Because let's let's spill away that I didn't spill it like a Kevin in the office scene where he brings in the stock pot of chili and spills it in the lobby.

SPEAKER_00 9:06

They're probably like, that's how what Americans make for a chili cook-off, eight gallons a person. Like, no wonder everybody's open.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

No wonder everybody's fat. No.

SPEAKER_00 9:16

Everyone gets their own cute pan of cornbread.

SPEAKER_01 9:22

Yeah. So it wasn't super size, but in my mind it was a lot. So maybe it was a little hyperbole. Maybe it was a little me not understanding the math. So there you go. I don't math. So you you did well. No, I didn't. I lied, but I didn't mean to. So that's our that's my correction.

Sponsor: Handful Activewear

SPEAKER_00 9:39

Well, you had a confession session, so it's fine. Okay. Well, honestly, the sponsors and the confession session are gonna be the only fun part of this entire episode. Oh dear. Have fun with those. And then I tried to pick a more lighthearted medical mishap too. Because again, this is a doozy. So let's enjoy these sponsors while we have them. Sponsor numero uno, handful active wear. We've heard about them. We love them. I have their bras, love them. Thinking about dabbling into the old leggings, because you know, I'm now joining everyone in the New Year's resolution era of I don't know, New Year to me, working out, because I'm no longer pregnant. So, Handful Activewear has redefined what women's activewear should be. They are all designed by women, for women, and they have sports bras and compression leggings that are made to move with you, no matter how you work out or live your life. From yoga and running to strength training and everything in between, this is gear that adapts, supports, and performs. Each piece is crafted with moisture-wicking fabric, serious support, which we love, and a sleek, flattering fit that looks just as good outside the gym as it does inside. Can confirm with the bras. Upgrade your activewear and experience the freedom to move, perform, and live without limits. Shop handfulactiveware now at handful.com and use our code stay suspicious for a whopping 30% off.

SPEAKER_01 11:36

I love that 30% off. That's awesome.

Trigger Warnings And Case Setup

SPEAKER_00 11:38

I know. That's seriously like a Black Friday deal these days. Black Friday is what it used to be. No. Ugh. As always, resources will be in the show notes. Trigger warnings for this case are sexual assault, sexual assault of minors, abuse of unconscious patients, and animal abuse.

SPEAKER_01 12:01

Oh no, you weren't kidding that this is a dizzy. No, it's it's disgusting.

SPEAKER_00 12:07

It's horrible. It was yeah, it was hard to read about some of it. It's just it's gross. But um yeah, it's important. It's important to know about. Yeah. This case was sent to me by a friend to cover. I don't know if I should say their name or not. So, friend, I love you so much. Thank you for being a dedicated listener on the pod. So, shall we?

SPEAKER_01 12:34

Yeah, let's let's do it.

Who Cody Stolfa Is And Clinic Context

How Sedation Enables Abuse

SPEAKER_00 12:36

Okay. Imagine waking up from anesthesia. You're groggy, you're sore, you assume everything that happened to you while you were unconscious was medical, necessary, and professional. Now imagine being told years later that while you were sedated in a dental chair, someone violated you. And you never knew. No memory, no pain signal, no moment where your body could tell you that something was wrong. Because you were unconscious, because you trusted the people in that room, and because the system worked exactly the way it was designed to. This is the story of Cody Alan Stolfa, a former dental assistant in Oklahoma, in a case that forces us to confront one of the most uncomfortable truths in healthcare that sometimes the most dangerous moment for a patient is when they're completely powerless. Before we continue, I again want to be clear. This episode contains discussion of sexual assault, abuse of unconscious patients, crimes involving minors, and a brief mention of animal abuse. I'm not going to share any graphic details, but the material itself is very heavy. So listener discretion is advised. We cover a lot of medical crimes on this podcast, which includes negligence, fraud, cover-ups, etc. But this case is different. It's a tough one. Because these patients didn't even know that they were victims, and there was no moment where something felt wrong, no voice in the back of their head saying, I should report this. There were no red flags, and that's what makes sedation such a perfect weapon for a monster. Oh, that's so sad. Let's talk about who this monster is and why no one ever suspected him. Cody Alan Stolfa, a 36-year-old male who lived in Stillwater, Oklahoma, but he wasn't a dentist. He wasn't a surgeon, he didn't own the practice. He was a dental assistant at Central Oklahoma Oral and Maxillfacial Surgery Associates, a clinic where patients routinely underwent procedures requiring IV sedation. And that distinction matters because dental assistants occupy a very specific space in healthcare. They are trusted, they're familiar, they're the ones adjusting the chair, monitoring vitals, moving in and out of the room. They're close to the patient, but rarely questioned, especially when the patient is unconscious. Let's review what a dental assistant's role actually is. And as confirmed by friends and my sister-in-law who are in the dental field. So, a dental assistant is there to support the dentist, not to independently treat or manage patients. Their core responsibilities include chairside assisting during procedures, which includes handing instruments to the dentist, operating suction and keeping the field dry, retracing cheeks and tongue so the dentist can see, and mixing materials like fillings, cements, and impression materials. They do patient prep and support, such as bringing the patient back to the room, reviewing medical history, taking x-rays if they're certified to do so, placing bibs, topical numbing gels, and can monitor the patient for comfort. They have a hand in infection control by sterilizing instruments and turning over rooms between patients, a hand in documentation by charting procedures, materials used, and the dentist's instructions. And they also sometimes have post-operative tasks such as giving standardized after care instructions and scheduling follow-up appointments. Dental assistants do not diagnose, create treatment plans, or perform irreversible procedures on their own. They work under the dentist's supervision and legally the dentist is responsible for the care. So when someone is sedated, the power dynamic shifts completely. As we know, when someone is sedated, they can't speak, they can't move, they can't object. Anyone in the room is operating on the honor system. There are no body cameras, no consent updates, and often no continuous supervision. So when I say abuse of trust, this is exactly what this case was. Between June and September of 2021, that trust was violated over and over again. There were assaults that happened while patients were sedated for dental procedures. They were unconscious and completely incapacitated. According to court records, Cody Stolfa sexually assaulted them during that time. At least 15 victims have been identified. Some sources say there were 18 victims and some 16, I mean the numbers varied. Either way, it's too many. They were young men, and some of them were even minors. They ranged in age from 15 to 23 years old. And here's the part that's hard to wrap your head around. None of them knew. At this point, a lot of you may be asking the same question. Who were the victims? Because that question makes sense. And I wish I could highlight what wonderful humans they are, because in most true crime cases, names become part of the narrative. But in this case, there are no names. This is also a very recent case with Stolfa pleading guilty just last month in January, and sentencing scheduled for this upcoming March 3rd.

SPEAKER_02 18:14

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_00 18:15

As of now, none of the victims in this case have been publicly identified. There have been no names released by prosecutors, no names in court filings that were made public, and nothing reported to the media. And this is likely intentional because these were sexual assaults, and some of the victims, again, were minors at the time. They didn't even know they had been assaulted until law enforcement told them. Oh my gosh. Some of the victims being minors likely plays that key role of why the identities have not been released. But if they had, of course, we would be highlighting how wonderful they are. Because we love to highlight that instead of the monster, but in this case, we can't. The affidavits say Stolfa allegedly sexually assaulted, battered, abused, and or sodomized the victims. All of this happened while Stolfa was working as an assistant at Central Oklahoma Oral Maxofacial Clinic, like I mentioned, in Stillwater, Oklahoma, in 2021.

SPEAKER_01 19:21

So this is all so recent. Oh, it's recent, but and how horrible. It's absolutely unspeakable.

Discovery Through Dark Web Video

SPEAKER_00 19:28

What we do know is this there were at least 15 to 18 victims. Again, different sources yielded different information, but again, too many. One is too many. They are all male, they were all sedated during dental procedures, some of them minors at the time, none of them able to consent or even be aware of what was happening. What matters here isn't who the victims are, it's what was done to them and how the system allowed it. Because the responsibility doesn't rest with the people who were unconscious in the dental chair. It rests with the people or the person who abused that access. Yeah. We often talk about trauma as something that people remember, but what happens when trauma exists without memory? When the violation is real, but the body never had a chance to respond. These patients walked out of a clinic believing they received routine dental care and went on with their lives. For years no one known what had been done to them. This wasn't an isolated incident. It wasn't a momentary lapse of judgment. It was repeated, deliberate, and documented. But Stolfa didn't just assault the patients, he recorded it. Oh no. This case didn't come to light because a patient reported it, it came to light because of a video. In 2024, the FBI received a disturbing video via the messaging app Telegram. The video showed a man sexually assaulting an unconscious patient. The individual was identified as Cody Stolfa. According to reporting from the Independent, a person in Australia saw one of the videos on the Telegram app and alerted authorities there. Australian officials then passed the information to the U.S. law enforcement, including the FBI and local police in Stillwater, Oklahoma. The foreign investigators even used facial recognition and other techniques to link the person in the video to be Cody Stolfa, who was then arrested on July 10th, 2024, where he was held without bond. The video shared with the FBI showed one of the assaults, which then led to the discovery of additional videos in Stolfa's email. It's not publicly available who exactly sent the video to authorities or how it ended up on Telegram in the first place, but what we do know is that Stolfa uploaded the footage to the dark web for others to view. When he was arrested on what ended up being the first charge, the Stillwater Police Department got a search warrant and seized all of his phones and computers. What they found confirmed something much worse than a single crime. They found multiple videos and discovered there were multiple victims. Some of the material found involved minors, as you already know, up to seven minors as reported by some resources. This wasn't hidden in a back room. It was stored, cataloged, and kept. It was noted to be a very long process of going through it all. Authorities say that he recorded himself committing, quote, crimes against nature, end quote. Oh my god. Court documents say investigation. Found other disturbing things on Stolfa's computers, including a 3.2 terabyte folder containing more than 10,000 files of child sexual abuse material on his computer and cell phone. I obviously have heard the words gigabyte and terabyte, but I knew that my husband would know. Like, how big is that? So I asked Adam if a 3.2 terabyte folder was big, and he was like, Yeah, that's huge. He then put it into perspective for me that a DVD is 4.7 gigabytes, and there are 1,000 gigabytes in a terabyte. Oh my goodness. So when he did some quick math, he found out that a 3.2 terabyte folder would be equivalent to 698 DVDs. Holy shit.

The Scale Of Digital Evidence

SPEAKER_01 23:30

That would be about a thousand and seventy hours of video. So Amanda's audio distorted and then cut out. But I think the this data that she brought up is super important. So I'm just interjecting here. If we're talking about images, it would be 640,000 images that he had or could potentially have had. And if the images, that was if the images were set to high quality. If a normal camera, like a cell phone camera or JPEG camera, was used, it could be anywhere from 600,000 to 1.5 million images. I'm really glad that Adam was able to provide that perspective because it just sounds big, but when you think about how many movies worth or how many images.

SPEAKER_00 24:38

That's shocking. On one of his devices, investigators found a folder marked naughty, and that folder contained 115 additional videos showing Stolfa recording himself as he allegedly sexually assaulted the 15 plus other patients.

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Astronomical. Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 24:59

I know it's like my stomach just keeps turning over and over. Authorities also recovered Stolfa's communications from the dating app Grinder, as well as messages exchanged through Snapchat and Discord. Investigators allege that Stolfa offered individuals he spoke with access to this two terabyte online storage folder that contained the child's sexual abuse material. He is further accused of directly sharing such material through private messages, including a sexually explicit image of a 16-year-old boy whom Stolfa reportedly claimed he knew from Stillwater. Court records also detailed additional homemade videos located on Stolfa's devices. According to investigators, those videos allegedly show him repeatedly engaging in acts described as, again, crimes against nature involving an animal.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

This is like a nightmare. This can't be true. I know, this is like heavy. That there's a human being out there like this.

SPEAKER_02 26:02

Oh my god, I just don't even have words for how despicable this is.

Psychological Impact On Unaware Victims

SPEAKER_00 26:06

Yeah. It's like my stomach's turning right along with all of your guys's. So all this wasn't hidden in a back room somewhere. It was stored, cataloged, and kept, like I said, disgusting. That one video changed everything. It turned an invisible crime into an undeniable one, and it started a process that would eventually force victims to confront a truth that they never expected to hear. That while they were unconscious, they were not safe. How do you tell someone that they were assaulted when they have no memory of it? And what does justice even look like when the crime happened years ago in a place that was supposed to heal them? I think the truth is that there's no good way to tell anyone that. I cannot imagine. Imagine answering that phone and hearing a federal agent say the words, you were the victim of sexual assaults. I can't imagine. I'm sure the first response is confusion. It's awful. Because you wouldn't remember anything like that happening, most especially not at the dental office. But as far as you know, you went in for a dental surgery, you woke up sore and groggy, but you were fine. And then they explained to you that while you were sedated, someone in that dental office violated you. This kind of trauma is uniquely destabilizing. There's no memory to process, just a fact that you now have to live with. Your body was involved, but your mind was absent. That has got to create some kind of psychological whiplash. Victims have described feeling detached from their own bodies afterwards, questioning every medical experience they've ever had, wondering what else they might not remember. As I've mentioned over and over again, some of the victims were minors at the time of assaults, which adds another layer of gravity and another layer of legal consequence. These were young people placed under sedation by adults that they were taught to trust, and that trust was exploited in the most heinous way. Shall we just pop over to a chart note real fast? We should do a chart note to break up this sadness and disgust.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

We're going to do a chart.

Chart Note: The So‑Called Russian Cancer Vaccine

SPEAKER_00 28:35

Chart note. No, no, no, no, no. Chart note, chart chart, chart chart note. Just a little extra charty chart note. Oh my gosh. Because this sucky sucks sucks. I don't know if you've heard about this or not, but there's been a lot of buzz online lately about something called a Russian cancer vaccine. Have you heard about this? No, I haven't. No. Oh. Well, there's a lot of buzz online about it. Some headlines even calling it a breakthrough, others calling it a miracle cure. So let's slow this excitement down and talk about what's actually known and what isn't. Let's call this a possible medical misinformation instead of chart note. Because as we know, when someone is desperate, they'll go to great lengths to get what they need. First, when you hear the word vaccine, your brain probably goes to prevention, like a flu shot or the TDAP vaccine. But this is not that kind of vaccine. What Russia is talking about is a therapeutic cancer vaccine. That means it's designed to treat cancer after someone already has it, not prevent it from developing in the first place. The vaccine that's getting attention is often referred to as enteromyx. According to Russian health officials, it's an experimental treatment that uses mRNA technology, the same general platform used in some COVID vaccines, but applied in a very different way. The idea is this cancer cells hide from the immune system. A therapeutic cancer vaccine tries to train the immune system to recognize a person's specific tumor as a threat and then attack it. In theory, it's personalized medicine. In practice, it's extremely complex. Russian agencies have said this vaccine has shown promising results in early testing, including animal studies and very small human trials. They've claimed tumor growth has slowed and in some cases tumors shrank. And that is where the excitement comes from. But this is also where caution comes in. Despite some dramatic headlines floating around, including claims of 100% effectiveness, there is no publicly available peer-reviewed data backing those numbers up. As of now, there are no large phase two or phase three clinical trials published in international medical journals. There's no long-term data showing showing survival benefits across large patient populations, and there's no independent verification from outside researchers who can review the raw data. But that doesn't mean that the science is fake. It just means it's early. And early cancer research can look very promising until it isn't. I mean, how long have we been trying to cure cancer, guys? Forever. Forever. I wish it was cured. But cancer isn't one disease, it's hundreds of different diseases, each behaving differently in each body. A treatment that works incredibly well for one patient or one cancer type might not do anything for another. That's why researchers around the world are exploring therapeutic cancer vaccines. This isn't a uniquely Russian idea, but what is unique is how quickly this particular announcement jumped from early research to cancer cure in the headlines. Oh boy. Another important thing to understand is regulation. Even if this vaccine moves forward in Russia, that doesn't mean it's approved elsewhere. For something like this to be used broadly in countries like the United States or across Europe, it would need to go through years of additional testing and regulatory review. So where does this leave us? Here's the bottom line: there is no proven cancer cure here. There is an experimental therapeutic vaccine that might show promise in early stages, and there's a lot of hype racing far ahead of science. For patients and families dealing with cancer, that hype can be dangerous, as we've discussed on this podcast over and over again. I have personally lost someone that I loved so deeply to cancer, and I would have given anything to give them an opportunity for a miracle cure. So I get the hype. I get it. Hope is powerful, but false hope can cause harm. The story worth watching isn't whether this is a miracle cure, it's whether transparent, large-scale clinical trials happen and whether independent scientists can evaluate the data with results holding up over time. Because in medicine, especially oncology, the phrase promising early results is only the beginning, not the ending. If and when more rigorous data emerges, that's when the conversation truly changes.

SPEAKER_01 33:15

Thank you for bringing that up. That that this is something that shows a lot of promise, especially when people are desperate for a cure. And I can't say I wouldn't jump on it if it were my own family member or loved one. However, as you point out, it it can raise false hope, which as we've talked about in the past with false cancer promise, like cure promises. It delays like a person like wrapping up the necessary in their life, like saying goodbye to their loved ones, having those moments that they need in order to like basically have closure. But also some of these cancer cures that haven't been proven are actually worse for their health than if they hadn't undergone the treatment. So yeah, you know, it's I know the FDA seems to take longer than everybody else in the world, but there's a reason for that. I mean, we're trying to be rigorous and use actual scientific evidence that this is not only helpful, but it's not harmful. So yeah, thank you for for bringing that up. It's pretty poignant. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:18

Yeah. I was like, well, that's kind of a Debbie Downer.

SPEAKER_01 34:21

This is a Debbie Downer episode, but turn note too to add to the uh, you know, the freaking everything else, but listen, it's a it's it's actually a a a puff of sunshine and and happiness compared to the rest of the stuff you're talking about today. But this is why we do this. We we need people to be aware of what's out there and what's happened in healthcare. And so And not every exciting headline means that that's actually what it is. Yes, I think, I think we are learning how to be critical thinkers when it comes to healthcare. I mean, I'm learning every episode we do, I'm learning like, you know, how to look at something critically. Where are the resources? How do I know that this is something that I can trust? Because our motto, stay suspicious, isn't just a casual cavalier motto. It is, listen, there's stuff that you need to be critically thinking about. And then there's some wonderful things in healthcare.

SPEAKER_00 35:16

So yeah, I think and when we have quick access to everything at our fingertips all the time. And if you're scrolling on social media, and you know I follow like medical things on social media, I might just quickly scroll and like, oh, this came up. Oh my gosh, look, they have a vaccine for cancer now. Cool, and keep scrolling like without digging more into that. Yeah.

Critical Thinking About Medical Hype

SPEAKER_01 35:38

And then you recommend your relatives or your friends, oh, you gotta do this. And I will say increasingly, as we've talked about in the medical the chart note in episodes in the past, that AI is getting increasingly involved. But I will say one of my favorite podcasts, I think it was, I can't remember if it was morbid or if it was like, oh, I think it was my favorite murder. But basically she asked AI, what is because somebody had said they had a six-inch gash or something, some kind of cut or something. And so she's like, What is six inches look like? Like, give me a, you know. And so it's its first answer was like a baseball or a tennis ball. Like, what? And then its second answer was like the width of a dollar bill. What? That's not six inches. And then its third answer was it's almost worse than the rest because it said half a 12-inch ruler. Oh my god. So I mean, AI is you know, is promising and and we can guide it and and use it in ways that we supervise. But like when you ask it a question like that, which is a banal, like should be like a pretty easy answer, you're getting some flat out misinformation and then some like idiot, like yeah, it's half a ruler, but I needed an object to like reference it by. So I don't know. I digress, but thank you for bringing this up.

SPEAKER_00 37:10

Yeah, of course. Okay, well, unfortunately, uh, we're going back to the back to the story.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

Yeah, I think I was stalling.

SPEAKER_00 37:17

Yeah, yeah. Stall no more. We have to finish this. All right. In January of this year, 2026, Cody Stolfa appeared in Payne County District Court. Instead of taking this case to trial, he pleaded guilty. He didn't plead guilty to just one or two charges. No, no. He pleaded guilty to 33 felony counts. 33? 33. The charges included, but were not limited to 10 counts of sexual battery, five counts of forcible sodomy, six counts of child exploitation, four counts of clandestine recording, two counts of sodomy of a victim under 16, and one count of loot axe to a child. I also found some other charges that were listed. Many of these things, but another one had said first degree rape. I don't know where that fits in in the sexual battery, but in case that's something different, that was also mentioned.

SPEAKER_01 38:22

And can I just say if he volunteered these as his guilty please, there's gotta be so many more. Oh yeah. How sorry, I I should probably wait till the end. So many terabytes of things, right? Exactly. I mean the terabytes are enough to like throw him away for life, but how many years was he at this practice?

SPEAKER_00 38:43

It was just June to September. Oh my oh my god, had he ever worked anywhere? And he would and then he was fired. He was fired.

SPEAKER_01 38:52

Did he work as a I mean, is are some of these charges from other jobs?

SPEAKER_00 38:56

He a comp but I don't I got I can't say that for sure. I don't know that for sure. So I know that the video that was shared and sent to the US from the Australian officials that had taken place at this oromaxelf associates clinic.

Guilty Plea And Charges

SPEAKER_01 39:14

And he's quite young, right? He's in his 30s. Mm-hmm. 36. Prolific. Not a good sign. Yeah. I mean, not a good sign in any circumstance, but certainly somebody who is not gonna stop.

SPEAKER_00 39:27

My guess is that the 15 to 18 victims, that all happened at this dental clinic.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

In three months.

SPEAKER_00 39:34

But the in three months.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

Oh my gosh. Three months.

SPEAKER_00 39:38

And think like you started there. So you had your period of like, I'm getting trained in at my new job, and like the honey period.

SPEAKER_01 39:45

Yeah, where you're not left alone.

SPEAKER_00 39:46

Yeah. And it I didn't see what he was fired for or anything like that. That might be a lie. I think I did see like he just wasn't up to snuff, maybe. It's it had nothing to do with this. Yeah. Well, that we know of. Yeah, they just had a gut feeling. They had a gut feeling. Everyone knew he's a puke. Wait till you see his picture on social media, guys. You just you look at him and you know he's a puke. I can't wait.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

I gotta look at him.

SPEAKER_00 40:13

Okay, I'll wait. So, lot of counts. He pled guilty to all of them. Each of those counts represents a person, a moment, a violation. And Stolfa entered what's known as a blind plea, which I actually had no idea what that meant, but I'm gonna tell you. That means that there was no sentencing agreement, no deal with prosecutors, and no guaranteed leniency. He placed his fate entirely in the hands of the judge. Prosecutors argued that the severity of the crimes warranted the harshest possible sentence. I agree. They're seeking life imprisonment, pointing to the number of victims, the abuse of trust, and the fact that these crimes would never have been discovered without digital evidence. We could not come to terms on an agreement. We didn't think that there should be anything less than life offered. Payne County District Attorney Laura Thomas said. We just don't see that this guy should ever be released. It's just really gross, she said. He's a very brazen, scary guy. I agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 41:14

Yeah, yeah. I just laughed because she's like, it's just really gross. It's just really gross. I know.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

I'm like Laura, yeah, I get it. I understand.

SPEAKER_01 41:22

It's more than gross, but yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:24

It's just really gross. There were comments on social media posts about this. You know how it's like, oh, news channel breaking, but like on Facebook and stuff now. So I I was looking at one of those for in Oklahoma, and the the comments on this social media post on the story were some of them like, a dog gets put down for biting a child. Like, how is this guy at not at least going to get life right in prison? Right? Like he, well, a lot of them were like he should get the death penalty. I don't think he'll be treated very well while incarcerated. They don't tend to be, do they?

SPEAKER_01 42:04

There's that whole prison justice thing going on that I'm not mad about.

Public Outrage And Sentencing Stakes

SPEAKER_00 42:08

Right. So anyway, not here to argue death penalty or not, but I don't think he'll have a very pleasant time while incarcerated. I do think so. I do think so. Interestingly, as this case was brought to light and investigations took place, it was revealed that he was also named as a suspect in a case that dated back to some other time in 2021, where someone reported a peeping Tom on Oklahoma State University's campus who is secretly taking explicit images inside a bathroom.

SPEAKER_01 42:40

Oh, to quote Laura Thomas Gross.

SPEAKER_00 42:43

And it goes on and on and on. Let's take a step back because Cody Stolfa didn't operate in a vacuum. Sedation is meant to protect patients from pain, but it also strips them of autonomy. Once you're unconscious, your safety depends entirely on everyone else in the room, and that system assumes no one will abuse that power. Dental surgery centers often don't have the same oversight as hospitals, as they have fewer staff, less monitoring, and often no chaperone policies during sedation. This creates an opportunity for creeps like stolfa. In most cases, you must have at least, or not most cases, in most states, you must have at least two to three people in the room. But interestingly, in Oklahoma, you only need one if it's a child. That's so wild to me.

SPEAKER_01 43:32

Yeah. What? That's crazy. If anything, just to be able to assist in an emergency, like one person to call for help and the other person to secure the airway. Like, I don't know. Doesn't make a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_00 43:45

And I'm thinking too, like, if you even go to an appointment where there's any like like a a routine woman appointment, right? Yeah. Like and you get like a pap spring or something. There are always two people in the room. Yeah. And they're like, okay, now I'm touching your leg. Now I'm ready, you know, it's and the other person is there.

SPEAKER_01 44:01

You're like, just get on with it, all right. You know, but I know, I know, I'm like, yeah, I know the girl. How much more vulnerable is a child?

Systemic Gaps In Dental Sedation Oversight

SPEAKER_00 44:08

Yeah. Right. But also they're sedated. Yeah. Thomas said, so again, Laura, Thomas, each of the videos depicting the assaults only lasted a few seconds. He'll look at the video when he's making the video, she said. And this all takes place in seconds because someone else could walk into the room at any minute. If that video had never surfaced, would this case exist at all? Would these victims ever have known? How long would he have continued to do this? She questioned. This case fits into a disturbing pattern that we've seen across healthcare disciplines. Predators gravitate towards environments where patients are vulnerable, authority is assumed, and silence is built into systems. Sedation makes resistance impossible, and delayed discovery makes accountability unlikely. Most victims don't report what they don't know happened. Right. It's that old saying of you only know what you know. And even when or if something feels off, patients often doubt themselves, especially in a medical setting, because that's where we're conditioned to trust.

SPEAKER_01 45:11

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 45:12

Healthcare runs on trust, but trust without safeguards is dangerous. This case shows us what happens or what can happen when no one is watching and there are monsters lurking. The most unsettling part of this case isn't what Cody Stolf did, it's how easily that it could have stayed hidden. No patient complaints, no suspicious behavior that was caught in the moment, just unconscious people and unchecked access. If there's one thing this case teaches us, it's this consent doesn't disappear because someone is sedated and safety shouldn't either. The scariest of crimes aren't always the ones that leave visible wounds, sometimes they leave silence. I know, and whatever sadistic, weird, fucking fucked up that you had to then share it on the dark web. Those were his like trophies, like yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:07

They were even though yeah, so who knows? Even if he had recorded them and not shared them on the dark web, maybe they wouldn't have been caught, but at least there was irrefutable evidence, which was his undoing. Thank goodness for that.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

Yeah, just named naughty. Your whole computer's naughty.

SPEAKER_01 46:26

Are you lying right now? Somebody said he was naughty. Yeah, no, no, no. A thousand hours of illicit, disturbing, horrible, illegal content. And that's just what was on video. Imagine. Imagine what he got up to. And I do want to shout out episode 24, where I talked about Dr. Squarnik, who was the most prolific pedophile surgeon in France. And he did this, he did similar things where he would assault people in the operating room. I felt like he almost thought it was a challenge. Like these people are going through abdominal surgery. So obviously there are a lot of people there, and if someone turned around or they're closing up, that's when he would violate someone and he felt like it was a victory. He would go into their hot or their hotel, their hospital rooms when there wasn't anyone around to observe and violate them. And the reason he got caught is because he was showing his junk at a neighbor kid across the fence, like he lost his mind. And they started looking into him, and then they got a um a warrant. He had a whole house of horrors, but also he had a diary where he meticulously, so this is his equivalent to a video, meticulously outlined every assault he'd ever done on anyone who was unconscious. And when you say, should, you know, should the the it is a quandary, like should should the law enforcement open up a, you know, some kind of emotional trauma by telling patients they were assaulted when they didn't even know it. Well, a lot of these victims in this story with Dr. Squanick were were like relieved almost. I mean, obviously it's devastating news, but they were relieved because they were like, I've never been the same since the such and such surgery. Like I've always felt something, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:24

It's like a part of my mind knew something happened, but I had nothing to tie that to.

Why Disclosure To Victims Matters

SPEAKER_01 48:30

So you don't have to necessarily be conscious to have trauma from the assault. So I think they did the right thing. I think it's absolutely egregious, and I am so disgusted that if this is what we know about, how many times has this happened, not just with this person, but with others that we don't know about because people were unconscious and they go about their lives feeling unsettled or different in some way or traumatized, but they can't articulate it because they've never been given that information. And not everybody, maybe some people don't even know, but like, would you want to know?

SPEAKER_00 49:08

I'm like, I would work through it with my therapist. I'd have to.

SPEAKER_01 49:11

I would want to know. I would want to know. Yeah, I'd want to know. Like if you didn't think if you thought life was groovy and everything was fine, but this had actually happened to you, would you want to know? Or would you want to be blissfully ignorant? Because that you know, not knowing you had something.

SPEAKER_00 49:31

I think I would personally want to know, but I think like there's no right or wrong answer, which you know, you know, because if if you truly were blissfully unaware and not like, you know, some of the people from the Schwarneck case where they're like, Yeah, it just always kind of felt different, then like for sure I would want to know because I could tie that together. But if you were just like So I think living your best life, and then this would be what crumbles you, then maybe you wouldn't want to know.

SPEAKER_01 49:57

Ethically, knowing that you don't you aren't able to know who's blissfully ignorant and who's effective and affected in other ways that they don't realize why and can not connect the dots and validate their their feelings, I think you have to go with disclosure.

SPEAKER_00 50:12

Because you can't separate out those people either, because people aren't gonna be talking about that.

SPEAKER_01 50:18

That's just gonna be something they think about on the especially if there's no evidence or no like some vague sense of not being right. Like, how are you gonna even articulate that?

SPEAKER_00 50:27

So I think it's absolutely right ethically that all of them were notified. Just whether or not that person would have wanted to know or not.

SPEAKER_01 50:36

Yeah, I know. But oh my gosh. Fascinating. Thank you for bringing that up.

SPEAKER_00 50:42

Thank you for my friend for sharing it.

SPEAKER_01 50:44

Thanks, friend. Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:47

Thanks, Brian. We love you. So thank you. And so recent. So recent. Let us think positive thoughts on March 3rd when his sentencing takes place, that he gets the harshest possible sentencing.

SPEAKER_01 51:02

Yes. Can we do an update? Can you put it on your calendar or something that we do an update? What happened to him at our next podcast? Yes. Yeah. Awesome. Let's hope it is just and that he gets the maximum sentence.

SPEAKER_00 51:18

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unknown 51:49

Yum.

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SPEAKER_00 51:50

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SPEAKER_01 52:34

I mean, that's two sponsors with 30% off in one episode. I know. That's amazing. Come on, guys.

SPEAKER_00 52:41

We had to bring something positive to this episode. That is amazing. And a word about our sponsors. Producing a podcast isn't free. If you would like to support us, we earn commission when you use our promo code stay suspicious at checkout. It's a win-win. You get a great deal on a fabulous product, and we get to keep doing what we're doing because you're supporting our show. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 53:06

Oh, is it is it time for a medical miss hap?

SPEAKER_00 53:11

Did you like how it made it a little dirty? I didn't sing along because I was just looking at it and I was like, wow, this is very short. Medical mishap.

SPEAKER_01 53:20

My turn. Okay. Hi, Jenna and Amanda. I have mild asthma. Oh wow, it's really short. Hi, Jenna and Amanda. I have mild asthma and always carry my rescue inhaler. Oh, I get that same. One day I sneezed, grabbed my inhaler quickly, and took what I thought was a puff, except it was my partner's albuterol inhaler for their dog. Yep, the dog has its own prescription. I felt a little jittery. My heart raced for a few minutes, and then I realized what happened. Luckily, nothing serious occurred, just a very confused me, a slightly amused pharmacist, and a dog who never knew their inhaler had been yoinked. Now, every inhaler in our house has a giant label, human only, assigned to Robert. Robert, okay. Oh, Robert. Robert, you don't mince words, first of all. There's no compliments, there's no like entering into this email. And you know what? You get right to the point, and we appreciate that about you. Absolutely. Who knew dogs needed a different level of albuterol than humans? Because I have an albuterol inhaler, so very, very interesting.

Medical Mishap: The Dog’s Inhaler

SPEAKER_00 54:25

I will say we have we have filled our dogs prescriptions at like a human pharmacy before, just because location-wise, it would it was easier for us to get it where we were. So like it's a whole thing, like the human pharmacy, the Walgreens had to call the vet and dah-da-da-da, whatever. So when you go do that, yeah. Yep. And so when you go to Walgreens or wherever to fill up this prescription for an animal, it very clearly states on the label Here on Dog. It said dog raven. So yeah, I I thought that was really funny because it's like capital letters like dog raven. Like, don't take because I am pretty sure it was an antibiotic, like something that we Doxycycline. I could swear that's and it's like that's something that we would take. They're like, please don't take this. It's for the amino.

SPEAKER_01 55:15

It's for the animal.

SPEAKER_00 55:16

It's for the amino raven. Well, thank you, Robert. I feel like that's exactly what we needed to end on. So, Jenna, what can we uh expect to hear about next week?

Tease For Next Week And CTAs

SPEAKER_01 55:30

Listen, we're gonna learn about a psychopath test. Oh, it's gonna blow your effing socks off because you don't want to miss this. You have no idea what the what the experiments that arose to come to this conclusion for this test actually entailed. You will not believe it. You do not want to miss this. It is crazy. So I can't wait. Yeah. It's so exciting. I've got to finish a couple of books and write it. But you know, hopefully we'll be on board by next week.

SPEAKER_00 56:10

You know, minor details. You got one week to get your homework done.

SPEAKER_01 56:14

Ah all right, but meanwhile, Ellie Cats, we want you to not miss a beep. Subscribe or follow Doctoring the Truth wherever you enjoy your podcast for stories that shock, intrigue, and educate. Trust, after all, is a delicate thing. You can text us directly. Your story ideas on our website at Doctoringthe Truth at buzzbrout.com or email us your comments at Doctoringthe Truth at Gmail. Be sure to follow us on Instagram at Doctoring the Truth Podcast and on Facebook at Doctoring the Truth. We're on TikTok at Doctoring the Truth and ed odd pod, E-D-A-U-D-P-O-D. Don't forget to download, rate and review, please, please, please, because if you don't say anything, it looks like we're doing nothing. So please, we don't get credit for being our listeners being engaged unless you download. And we would love some ratings, only if they're good. And review our podcast so we can be sure to bring you more content. Until then, stay safe and stay safe.

SPEAKER_00 57:29

Bye. I think Jenna should put her blooper in from the beginning now. So maybe there'll be a blooper here, maybe not. But either way. Maybe not. It depends how embarrassed I am. Bye. LOL. Bye. Bye bye. Three, two, one. Goodbye.