[Watch previous FOX 8 I-Team coverage in the player above.]

CLEVELAND (WJW) — A former Cleveland Clinic doctor accused of groping patients during exams and indicted on dozens of charges has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity.

Dr. Omar Massoud, 67, of Chagrin Falls, faces 24 charges, including 18 charges of gross sexual imposition and six charges of unlawful restraint, the case docket shows.

Court records show he entered a plea of not guilty by reason of insanity prior to a Monday, Oct. 16, conference on the case in a Cuyahoga County court.

In such a plea, a defendant admits to the offense, but claims they were mentally disturbed at the time and that their intention was not criminal, according to Cornell Law School.

The Cleveland Clinic fired Massoud, a digestive system specialist, in late 2022 after multiple women told police he groped them during office visits, FOX 8 I-Team reported in January. He was arrested in December, court records show.

He posted a $60,000 bond in May, court records show.

Massoud’s indictment alleged he molested three victims over the course of more than six months, the I-Team reported in January. One woman who spoke to the I-Team at the time said she filed a complaint with the hospital, then a police report.

“It’s important so that it doesn’t continue to happen,” she said. “I just didn’t want anybody else to go through what I had went through.”

Massoud’s attorneys on Monday requested a competency hearing and also a new hearing to reconsider his bond, according to the case docket. His trial date was set for Nov. 13.

FOX 8 News has reached out to Massoud’s attorney, Ian Friedman of Cleveland, for comment.