DENVER (KDVR) — FOX31 is gaining insight into what things were like behind the doors at Summerbrook Dental Group, with former employees and patients reacting to the arrest of a dentist accused of poisoning his wife to death.
Angelia Baker has been a patient of James Craig, the dentist accused of poisoning and killing his wife, for more than 15 years.
“I can’t even think beyond this. This is just unbelievable,” Baker said.
Baker said he went out of his way many times to make her feel comfortable during her visits.
“I am still at a loss for words every time I keep hearing about this story, because that’s not indicative of the Dr. Craig that I knew,” Baker said. “I wouldn’t have anticipated, but again I wasn’t with him every day. I don’t know what he did outside. I know that in the office, I was treated fairly and somewhere I felt comfortable going.”
‘I just saw a downfall,’ the former employee says
Those behind the scenes say they saw more. A former employee, who wished to remain anonymous, said it was an ideal environment when she started working for him, but that changed over time.
“I still can’t wrap my mind around how he could have done this. Angela (his wife) was so amazing, such an amazing person. Kind of all the rumors that were circulating, now this is coming out and happening, it kind of makes sense in a weird way of what it was like to be there,” she said.
Craig filed for bankruptcy in August 2020, labeling his debt as primarily business-related. His estimated liabilities were between $1 million and $10 million.
The former employee described him as someone passionate about dentistry but who wanted to have it all: taking his team on trips, buying expensive equipment for the office so he didn’t have to send patients to specialists, and always looking for his next big investment .
“When he filed for bankruptcy, I kind of figured that it was just a whirlwind effect of a downfall for him,” the former employee said, “because he was buying microscopes and ‘toys’ for the dental office. Which is super cool if you are actually using them, but this equipment is expensive. So you’ve just spent so much money on this equipment. I just saw a downfall.”
Evidence of affair in email, police say
Also, according to the arrest affidavit in his case, there were sexually explicit conversations with a woman on Craig’s email, the same email related to multiple poison orders. The former employee spoke of rumors about past affairs as well.
Angela’s sister told police this alleged affair wasn’t his first, according to the affidavit.
“His demeanor seemed different, and it was weird and it was just uncomfortable to be there, which I mean, you gotta follow your gut, but I didn’t think it would spiral into this ever,” the former employee said.
Even with these allegations, this past employee feels he was a good man and a doctor whose mental health took him down a scary path.
“It’s monstrous and it’s heinous. The whole community is broken because of it. But at one point, like, I do want to say Dr. Craig was an amazing person who cared about what he was doing, and he cared a lot about his family. It’s just unfortunate that his mental health took him down this path.”
According to the affidavit, the office manager claimed similar instances about the office environment and how Craig’s behavior seemed strange.