Hundreds of victims? Dr. EARL BRADLEY - Dover DE

DOVER, Del. — Dating back almost a decade, there were
complaints and investigations involving Dr. Earl Bradley, a well-known
Delaware pediatrician who authorities say may have molested more than
100 children.
There were jokes among colleagues, who thought Bradley had an
unusual practice with his carnival-like office filled with toys and a
merry-go-round. Even Bradley's own sister, who worked for him, heard
parents' concerns.

Despite the warnings, Delaware's medical board only recently suspended Bradley's license — after he was arrested.

"The system failed. What I don't know, and what we must find out, is
where and how," said Delaware Gov. Jack Markell, who plans to order an
independent review of the state's handling of the case.

Outraged parents have complained that children could have been spared had officials acted sooner.

"If he was under investigation for over a year, why didn't someone
speak up?" a tearful mother said at a community forum last month. "All
of this could have been avoided."

Bradley, 56, is being held in lieu of $2.9 million bond after being
charged with more than 30 felonies, including rape. After years of
suspicions, his arrest came when a 2-year-old girl told her mother that
Bradley hurt her last month when he took her to a basement room after
an exam.

Authorities have said Bradley videotaped some of the attacks, some of which occurred in exam rooms with Disney themes.

Bradley faces a preliminary hearing on Thursday. His attorney,
Eugene Maurer, did not immediately return telephone messages left at
his home and law office Saturday.

The case has shocked the close-knit coastal community of Lewes and
the central Delaware town of Milford, where he closed an office in 2005
after police investigated him. The case is even more chilling because
some alleged victims are no more than 6 months old.

The governor is not the only one calling for a review. The state attorney general's office also has asked for an investigation.

What they are likely to find is a lot of fingerpointing, but few willing to accept much, if any, responsibility.

For example, officials who oversee the Board of Medical Practice
claim they never received any complaints until after the arrest. State
law requires all medical professionals, state agencies, and law
enforcement agencies to report to the licensing board in writing within
30 days if they believe a doctor is or "may be" guilty of
unprofessional conduct.

State police said they didn't notify the board of a 2008
investigation because they worried about jeopardizing their case. The
attorney general's office was involved in a 2005 investigation, yet
apparently didn't tell the board.

Milford police said they tried to file a complaint with the board in
2005, but were rebuffed by an investigator who told them it needed to
come from the victim or her parent.

Even two pediatricians interviewed in 2005 told investigators about complaints from Bradley's former patients.

Dr. Lowell Scott told police he referred to Bradley as a "pedophile" when talking to colleagues.

"I probably shouldn't comment on that. ... We would refer to him that way as more of a joke," Scott told The Associated Press.

"We all felt that he practiced differently than we did. ... None of
us had any actual knowledge of him doing any potential harm," Scott
said.

Bradley was described as a quiet, unkempt man who had trouble
looking adults in the eye but nevertheless gained parents' trust.
Police allege that after finishing exams at his Lewes office, he would
molest children in the basement or an outbuilding, where they would be
given toys or candy.

Scott said he never had any proof, only accusations.

"You're talking a 3-year-old against a 50-year-old. I figured if
there was something behind it, then the police would lead to the
medical board," he said.

Bradley's own sister, who worked for him as an office manager, told
police she had complained to two officials with the state medical
society, but again, nothing came of it. The society officials deny
receiving any complaint from Linda Barnes.

Barnes told police in 2005 that her brother was bipolar and taking
medication from the office, and that several parents had complained to
her about Bradley inappropriately touching patients.

An initial review by Attorney General Beau Biden's office indicates
a prosecutor recommended the 2005 matter be referred to the medical
board, but there is no evidence that his agency notified the board.

"That's part of what I've asked the state solicitor to review," Biden said.

Delaware prosecutors are moving to freeze the assets of a pediatrician suspected of sexually assaulting several patients.A
spokesman for Attorney General Beau Biden says his office filed a civil
racketeering lawsuit late Wednesday against Dr. Earl Bradley.The
lawsuit is intended to protect the doctor's personal assets for
potential victims. State law allows the Department of Justice to put a
lien on those assets and seek forfeiture.Officials plan to ask that the civil lawsuit be put on hold pending resolution of the criminal case against Bradley.Bradley is being held in lieu of $2.9 million bail on charges of sexually assaulting several patients at his office last year.

As a mother, Im very disturbed by this...Not only because this dr. comitted these acts, but WTH were the parents when he was examining their children.....Yes he's a pervert and a pedophile but why did the parents leave their children alone with this dr....

I have never left my son alone with any dr. or for that matter, with anyone. I am disgusted at what this dr. has done but also with the thoughtless brainless parents...JMO

DOVER, Del. — A Delaware
grand jury returned a sweeping indictment Monday against a pediatrician
accused of serial child molestation.
The indictment returned by a Sussex County grand jury charges Dr. Earl
Bradley of Lewes with more than 400 counts of criminal conduct. More
details about the charges were to be released at an afternoon news
conference.
Bradley was arrested in December and initially charged with 29 felony counts for allegedly
abusing nine children, but state prosecutors have said there could be
as many as 100 victims.
Investigators have said Bradley videotaped some of the attacks with which he is charged,
some of which occurred in exam rooms decorated with Disney themes.
Some alleged victims were no more than 6 months old.
Bradley is being held with bail set at $2.9 million. His medical license was
permanently revoked by the state Board of Medical Practice last week.
Attorney General Beau Biden scheduled a news conference Monday afternoon to
discuss what his office described as "progress made in the
investigation and prosecution of the case ..."
Biden, who was in Dover presenting his agency's budget proposal to the
legislature's finance committee, declined to discuss the indictment
with reporters before the news conference.
After years of suspicions among parents and questions about his strange
behavior from colleagues, Bradley was arrested after a 2-year-old girl
told her mother that the doctor hurt her in December when he took her
to a basement room after an exam.
The case has shocked the close-knit coastal community of Lewes and the
central Delaware town of Milford, where Bradley closed an office in
2005 after police investigated him.
Biden and Gov. Jack Markell have ordered reviews to determine whether
doctors, hospitals, state agencies or law enforcement authorities
failed to comply with a state law that requires all such entities to
report to the medical licensing board in writing within 30 days if they
believe a doctor is or "may be" guilty of unprofessional conduct.

I recently read a book, BOY ON A PONY, by George Abagnalo, published in 2002, that is about rampant sexual abuse within the medical field. The author may be the first person ever to have noted that pediatrics is a perfect specialization for pedafiles.

JimW wrote:Last year I read a book, BOY ON A PONY, by George Abagnalo, published in 2002 that was about rampant sexual abuse within the medical field. The author may be the first person ever to have noted that pediatrics is a perfect specialization for pedafiles.

Welcome to the forum JimW Thanks for the info. I completely agree. Same with child psychologists IMO.
A long time ago I fostered a 3 year old girl. I had to take her to a psychologist appointed by the child welfare authorities. He said the sessions would be about an hour and was talking as though I wasn't going to be there too. He confirmed he wanted to see her alone. I said no way, that's crazy. He said it was ridiculous for me to object but I said tough. I said if he didn't want me in there with them then his female secretary at least had to be there. He said MY strange behavior about it raised his suspicions that I was sexually abusing her!!!!!
I refused to take her to him and the authorities placed her with another family. The authorites used that guy all the time and I've always been suspicious about that incident. Something very wrong IMO.

kiwimom wrote:

JimW wrote:Last year I read a book, BOY ON A PONY, by George Abagnalo, published in 2002 that was about rampant sexual abuse within the medical field. The author may be the first person ever to have noted that pediatrics is a perfect specialization for pedafiles.

Welcome to the forum JimW Thanks for the info. I completely agree. Same with child psychologists IMO.
A long time ago I fostered a 3 year old girl. I had to take her to a psychologist appointed by the child welfare authorities. He said the sessions would be about an hour and was talking as though I wasn't going to be there too. He confirmed he wanted to see her alone. I said no way, that's crazy. He said it was ridiculous for me to object but I said tough. I said if he didn't want me in there with them then his female secretary at least had to be there. He said MY strange behavior about it raised his suspicions that I was sexually abusing her!!!!!
I refused to take her to him and the authorities placed her with another family. The authorites used that guy all the time and I've always been suspicious about that incident. Something very wrong IMO.

---I don't know what the current situation is but I don't think it would be a bad thing to report it, even now.

LEWES, DEL. -- Every day this week, a team of State Police detectives
has arrived at a different front door in this seaside resort on the
same heartbreaking mission. They bring with them a captured video
image, carefully cropped to show nothing but a young face, that
confirms another family's nightmare: Their child might be a victim of
Earl Bradley, a popular local pediatrician who now stands accused of
sexually molesting scores of young patients.


More than 100 victims have been identified from the 13 hours of
video Bradley allegedly made of the assaults. And Delaware Attorney
General Beau Biden this week announced a 471-count indictment
against the physician. But as one of the largest sex-crime
investigations in U.S. history works through more than 7,000 case files
removed from Bradley's office, hundreds of other parents remain
suspended in an agony of waiting.

"There are definitely more to come," said Patricia Dailey Lewis, the
deputy attorney general who runs the victims' service office the state
has set up a few doors from Bradley's cluttered frame house. "I had a
woman call yesterday just screaming, 'I want to know right now if my daughter is on a video.' It's horrible for them, just horrible."

Winter is normally a tranquil time in Lewes, a town known to summering
Washingtonians as a sleepy ferry port. But residents say the alleged
betrayal of trust has shattered that calm and threatens to split the
small town over questions of blame.

Lewes's off-season of anguish began two months ago when police,
acting on a complaint from a young patient, arrested Bradley, 56, and
searched the garishly decorated office he maintained on Route 1 near
the border with Rehoboth. Amid the miniature carnival rides and
elaborate toys, investigators found a network of video cameras,
computer files and other evidence they said documents a history of
brazen and systematic pedophilia dating back as least 11 years.

Since 1998, according to the indictment and interviews with
attorneys, Bradley violated children ranging in age from 18 months to
14 years of age, many of them on multiple occasions. The charges
include rape, sexual exploitation, continuous sexual abuse of a child
and reckless endangerment. All but one of the victims identified so far
are girls.

Bradley is being held with bail set at $2.9 million. His attorney did not return a call seeking comment.

Many of the alleged assaults reportedly occurred in the presence of
parents, disguised as part of an examination under a privacy sheet.
Bradley might have also used a camera concealed in a penlight or a
cellphone he was known to place on the exam table, according to one
couple briefed by investigators.

At other times, Bradley would take the child on a brief visit to the
basement or a nearby outbuilding, ostensibly to fetch one of the
post-exam toys he was famous for giving his patients.

"He took her down to the basement one time, but it was for less than
two minutes," said one distraught mother whose 7-year-old daughter had
been a patient of Bradley's since birth. This woman and husband, who
asked not to be identified to protect their family's privacy, agreed to
meet at a library to talk about the case. "He told me it was too messy
down there," she said. "I waited right at the top of the stairs."

The couple said investigators have told them that several of the
counts in the indictment relate to crimes against their daughter.
Bradley said he was treating the child for a recurrent urinary tract
infection, which they now see as a ruse.

"It was just a way for him to examine her private parts every time
we took her," said the husband. "We have laid in bed until 3 o'clock in
the morning to review every visit from birth to now, looking for
clues."

In retrospect, they said, there were some: He lavished hugs and nose
rubs on their daughter while being businesslike and perfunctory with
their son, now 2 years old; the kisses on the cheek that their daughter
had lately begun to complain of; that quick visit to the basement.


But at the time, Bradley struck them as accommodating and competent.
He frequently met them at off-hours and sometimes didn't charge for
minor consultations.

"He had a very good reputation," the mother said.

Broken trust

There were always two schools of thought about the doctor who buzzed
around town in a series of bright yellow Volkswagen Beetles. To some,
he was a disheveled oddball, socially awkward and overly ostentatious
with an office that featured a statue of Buzz Lightyear on the roof.

But to others, including many medical professionals who put their
kids in his care, he was a talented doctor with a unique gift for
relating to children.

"They all said he didn't talk well with parents but with kids he was
the best they'd ever seen," recalled the mother of the 7-year-old, who
said she chose Bradley based on the recommendation of nurses at the
hospital the day her daughter was born. "I look back now and realize
that was the day I could have changed a lot of things."

The charges against Bradley have rocked the town of 3,100. Public
meetings have been filled with angry accusations that authorities
should have uncovered Bradley's alleged crimes earlier (there
reportedly were complaints dating back many years). Other
professionals, from teachers to preachers, say a new wariness affects
every contact with a family.

"You second-guess going to a dentist office now," said Anna Moshier,
who did not take her two children to Bradley. "My son had to go back
for an X-ray, and I said, 'No way he's going without me.' This has
always been like a village, but our sense of trust has been broken."

Biden, who was elected attorney general in 2006 and is the son of
Vice President Biden, said his office has poured unprecedented
resources into the case. More than 20 prosecutors and staff workers,
along with agents borrowed from other departments and the
Alexandria-based National Center for Missing and Exploited Children,
are working in Wilmington, Lewes and a crime lab in Dover. In Lewes,
the temporary office is fielding calls from victims' families,
overseeing Bradley's medical records and counseling children, parents
and even grandparents.

"Anytime you have a case when so many victims were subjected to what we
indicted on Monday, it's going to be hard to process," Biden said. "As
concerned as I am about the children, I'm equally concerned about the
caregivers."


Spreading the blame


Margaret Drury, a retired nurse from Lewes, has been picketing
Bradley's former office, facing the busy traffic on Route 1 with signs
that call for officials to remove the amusement park trimmings from the
site. Two weeks ago, state workers dismantled the Ferris wheel, moved
Buzz Lightyear to a side yard and covered the carousel with plywood. A
Mickey Mouse riding toy is still visible through the front door window.

Drury, standing near one of the idled yellow Volkswagens, said the
local medical community should have known what Bradley might have been
up to within the doors that some locals reportedly referred to as
"Neverland."

For victims and their parents, it might be years before
recriminations give way to healing. The 7-year-old's parents said it
was impossible to shield their daughter from talk of the case, which
has saturated local media and sidewalk gossip. It adds to their agony
when bloggers, strangers and even friends who don't know their
involvement blame parents for being careless guardians.

The father recently had to hold his tongue when he was in front of
two chattering strangers in line at Dick's Sporting Goods, both of them
heaping blame on "those kids' parents."

"I wanted to turn around and say, 'If that monster could fool me, he
could fool you,' " the father said, tears in his eyes. "You hear that
stuff, it's like an arrow in your heart."

LEWES, Del. — Every day last week, a team of State Police detectives
has arrived at a different front door in the seaside resort town of
Lewes on the same heartbreaking mission. They bring with them a
captured video image, carefully cropped to show nothing but a young
face, that confirms another family's nightmare: Its child might be a
victim of Earl Bradley, a popular pediatrician who stands accused of
sexually molesting scores of young patients.

More than 100 victims have been identified from the 13 hours of
video made of the assaults. Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden last
week announced a 471-count indictment against the physician.

But as one of the largest sex-crime investigations in U.S. history
works through more than 7,000 case files removed from Bradley's office,
hundreds of other parents wait to find out if their child was
victimized.

"There are definitely more to come," said Patricia Dailey Lewis, the
deputy attorney general who runs the victims-service office the state
has set up a few doors from Bradley's frame house. "I had a woman call
yesterday just screaming, 'I want to know right now if my daughter is
on a video.' It's horrible for them, just horrible."

Lewes residents say the case has shattered the town's typical calm and threatens to split it over questions of blame.

Lewes' anguish began two months ago when police, acting on a
complaint from a patient, arrested Bradley, 56, and searched the
garishly decorated office he maintained.

Amid the miniature carnival rides and elaborate toys, investigators
found a network of video cameras, computer files and other evidence
they said documents a history of systematic pedophilia dating back at
least 11 years.

Since 1998, according to the indictment and interviews with
attorneys, Bradley violated children ranging in age from 18 months to
14 years of age, many of them on multiple occasions. The charges
include rape, sexual exploitation, continuous sexual abuse of a child
and reckless endangerment. All but one of the victims identified so far
are girls.

Bradley is being held with bail set at $2.9 million. His attorney did not return a call seeking comment.

Many of the alleged assaults reportedly occurred in the presence of
parents, disguised as part of an examination under a privacy sheet.
Bradley might have also used a camera concealed in a penlight or a
cellphone he was known to place on the exam table, according to one
couple briefed by investigators.

At other times, Bradley would take the child on a brief visit to the
basement or a nearby outbuilding, ostensibly to fetch one of the
post-exam toys he was famous for giving his patients.

"He took her down to the basement one time, but it was for less than
two minutes," said one distraught mother whose 7-year-old daughter had
been a patient of Bradley's since birth. This woman and husband, who
asked not to be identified, agreed to meet at a library to talk about
the case. "He told me it was too messy down there," she said. "I waited
right at the top of the stairs."The couple said investigators have told them several of the counts
in the indictment relate to crimes against their daughter. Bradley said
he was treating the child for a recurrent urinary-tract infection,
which they now see as a ruse.

"It was just a way for him to examine her private parts every time
we took her," said the husband. "We have laid in bed until 3 o'clock in
the morning to review every visit from birth to now, looking for clues."

In retrospect, they said, there were some: He lavished hugs and nose
rubs on their daughter while being businesslike and perfunctory with
their son, now 2; the kisses on the cheek that their daughter had
lately begun to complain of; that quick visit to the basement.

But at the time, Bradley struck them as accommodating and competent.
He met them at off-hours and sometimes didn't charge for minor
consultations.

"He had a very good reputation," the mother said.

Oddball or talented?

There were always two schools of thought about the doctor who buzzed
around town in a series of bright yellow Volkswagen Beetles. To some,
he was a disheveled oddball, socially awkward and overly ostentatious
with an office that featured a statue of Buzz Lightyear on the roof.

But to others, including many medical professionals who put their
kids in his care, he was a talented doctor with a unique gift for
relating to children.

"They all said he didn't talk well with parents but with kids he was
the best they'd ever seen," recalled the mother of the 7-year-old, who
said she chose Bradley based on the recommendation of nurses at the
hospital the day her daughter was born. "I look back now and realize
that was the day I could have changed a lot of things."

The charges against Bradley have rocked the town of 3,100. Public
meetings have been filled with angry accusations that authorities
should have uncovered Bradley's suspected crimes earlier because there
reportedly were complaints dating back many years. Other professionals,
from teachers to preachers, say a new wariness affects every contact
with a family.

"You second-guess going to a dentist office now," said Anna Moshier,
who did not take her two children to Bradley. "My son had to go back
for an X-ray, and I said, 'No way he's going without me.' This has
always been like a village, but our sense of trust has been broken."

Beau Biden, who was elected attorney general in 2006 and is the son
of Vice President Joseph Biden, said his office has poured
unprecedented resources into the case. More than 20 prosecutors and
staff workers, along with agents borrowed from other departments and
the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, are working in
Wilmington, Lewes and a crime lab in Dover.

In Lewes, the temporary office is fielding calls from victims'
families, overseeing Bradley's medical records and counseling children,
parents and even grandparents.

'Neverland' trimmings

Margaret Drury, a retired nurse from Lewes, has been picketing
Bradley's former office, facing the traffic on the road with signs that
call for officials to remove the amusement-park trimmings from the
site. Two weeks ago, state workers dismantled the Ferris wheel, moved
Buzz Lightyear to a side yard and covered the carousel with plywood. A
Mickey Mouse riding toy is visible through the front-door window.

Drury, standing near one of the idled yellow Volkswagens, said the
local medical community should have known what Bradley might have been
up to within the doors that some locals reportedly referred to as
"Neverland."

For victims and their parents, it might be years before
recriminations give way to healing. The 7-year-old's parents said it
was impossible to shield their daughter from talk of the case, which
has saturated local media and sidewalk gossip. It adds to their agony
when bloggers, strangers and even friends who don't know their
involvement blame parents for being careless guardians.

The father recently had to hold his tongue when he was in front of
two chattering strangers in line at Dick's Sporting Goods, both of them
heaping blame on "those kids' parents."

"I wanted to turn around and say, 'If that monster could fool me, he
could fool you,' " the father said, tears in his eyes. "You hear that
stuff, it's like an arrow in your heart."

TomTerrific0420 wrote:

kiwimom wrote:

JimW wrote:Last year I read a book, BOY ON A PONY, by George Abagnalo, published in 2002 that was about rampant sexual abuse within the medical field. The author may be the first person ever to have noted that pediatrics is a perfect specialization for pedafiles.

Welcome to the forum JimW Thanks for the info. I completely agree. Same with child psychologists IMO.
A long time ago I fostered a 3 year old girl. I had to take her to a psychologist appointed by the child welfare authorities. He said the sessions would be about an hour and was talking as though I wasn't going to be there too. He confirmed he wanted to see her alone. I said no way, that's crazy. He said it was ridiculous for me to object but I said tough. I said if he didn't want me in there with them then his female secretary at least had to be there. He said MY strange behavior about it raised his suspicions that I was sexually abusing her!!!!!
I refused to take her to him and the authorities placed her with another family. The authorites used that guy all the time and I've always been suspicious about that incident. Something very wrong IMO.

---I don't know what the current situation is but I don't think it would be a bad thing to report it, even now.

Thanks Tom, but he was the authorities pet psychologist and they backed him to the hilt. As he hadn't actually done anything wrong to my knowledge or that I could prove there was nothing else I could do. This was in Australia. I lived there for 3 years and came home with a very bitter taste in my mouth.

At the time, it seemed like an innocent enough request. The Sussex
County parents brought their infant daughter to see Dr. Earl B.
Bradley, and the pediatrician asked if he could hold her.
They were cautious parents, protective of their baby, the kind who
didn't easily give in to these kinds of requests, especially from
people who weren't family.But Bradley was no stranger.They
had known him since their older child was a baby. Over the years, he
had given them his personal pager number, showed up for emergency-room
visits and accommodated same-day appointments.And
even though he was running late with a waiting room full of patients
wanting his time, Bradley still wanted to hold her. Impressed by his
interest, the baby's mother handed the girl to the burly doctor dressed
in blue scrubs. Bradley bounced the infant in his arms, gave her a
quick hug and handed her back. The exchange lasted only a few seconds.The
hug -- and later, a peck on the cheek -- became a habit. Nearly every
visit, Bradley carried the girl as he walked down the hall, popping
into an exam room to show her a picture of Ariel from "The Little
Mermaid" in one room or a Buzz Lightyear ride in another. When she was
old enough to walk on her own, he held her hand.The
girl's parents didn't consider anything unusual because they watched
Bradley do the same with nearly all of his female patients. Considering
their daughter was a frequent patient in his office because of a minor
but chronic health condition, they appreciated his concern. To them and
other parents, the attention seemed a validation of Bradley's
dedication.They
didn't realize that over a period of several months, the Lewes
pediatrician was slowly separating their daughter from them, using
excuses about taking her to get a toy or a popsicle to be alone with
her, first for a few seconds, then stretching it out to a couple of
minutes at a time."I've
been to different doctors, dentists and specialists over the years.
Never would I let them walk around with my kid. It wouldn't have
occurred," said the girl's father, who asked to not be identified
because his daughter is one of Bradley's victims. "But he was
conditioning us. It was a progression, and the increments kept getting
longer. At the time, it wasn't something I saw as sexual. Seeing him
with the kids -- and it wasn't just mine -- gave me a sense of comfort
in the office. And our child always came back happy."
Allegations that Bradley sexually abused more than 100 patients in his
practice have become a horrifying national story, with some
commentators saying the 56-year-old physician could be among the worst
child molesters in recent U.S. history. But Bradley is the last thing
many people in Delaware want to talk about, especially parents whose
children are among his victims.
"It's been horrifying. I'm living a nightmare in the daytime and
night," said the Sussex County father, who discovered his daughter had
been abused after police contacted him as part of the investigation.
"Even during the day, you're just devastated by it."He
doesn't want to talk about the crimes committed against his daughter.
He's already worried about what people in his small town have heard.
Meeting at a local library, the father speaks quietly. He smiles only
once during the 75-minute conversation -- when he shows a picture of
his daughter."I have to protect her," he said, his eyes focused on her face.
'"You have to understand that."But
for victims stalked by a sexual predator, it's hard to know what's
coming. They're unwittingly going up against offenders willing to go to
extreme lengths to make people trust them, said Earl Hickey, a San
Francisco psychologist who studies violence and serial crime. On the
surface, they appear concerned, kind and interested in the people
around them. They often devote time, money and effort to activities
important to the community in order to win trust and defuse suspicion."People
at that level, they know they're bright. They use their profession to
gain access to their victims," said Hickey, director of the Center for
Forensic Studies at Alliant International University in California. "We
make assumptions about medical professionals. If a doctor is using his
profession to groom parents, they would assume that what's happening is
supposed to be done. Who would ever challenge a doctor? It becomes a
perfect storm, if you will, for such an event."

An amusement park for an office

To those who visited, Bradley's office was the scene of a busy, often chaotic, operation.
Outside, the place more resembled an amusement park than a doctor's
office. A Buzz Lightyear statue perched on the roof. Down below, a
white VW Beetle with racing stripes and the No. 53 from the Disney
movie "The Love Bug" was parked in the lot. The kid-sized
merry-go-round and Ferris wheel made the office something of a landmark.
In the waiting room, parents often jostled for a place to sit, squeezing
onto a long bench while their children played on kid-sized cars,
hammered at a workbench or watched cartoons in the kid-sized movie
theater. Exam rooms appealed to younger patients, with images of
Pinocchio, Dumbo the elephant and The Little Mermaid on the walls."The
office is a tiny, little claptrap," said one mother whose infant son
was seen by Bradley three times. "It's a small, small place, probably
as big as my living room and kitchen."In
recent years, Bradley operated a solo practice, making him the only
face of BayBees Pediatrics. Turnover among nurses and office staff was
high. There was usually a long wait to see the doctor, sometimes 45
minutes or more, especially if the office squeezed in several same-day
appointments. Bradley's reputation for being flexible with scheduling
made him popular with parents who were grateful for his
later-than-usual office hours. And because he seemed to take an
interest in their children's well-being, many parents were willing to
overlook the cluttered waiting room and fingerprint smudges on the
movie theater's screen."It was pretty uncomfortable, but everyone waited,"
the Sussex County father said.Although
some parents found Bradley standoffish, one Rehoboth Beach mother with
two daughters who saw the doctor said over time he warmed up to the
family, asking about their lives and sharing details about his own
children."He
made it seem like he was interested in you more than just a patient,"
said the woman, who switched pediatricians in part because she thought
the office wasn't as clean as it should be. "I wouldn't say it was a
friendship, but he definitely wasn't just professional in the sense of
being a doctor."
Unlike other kids who cried at the prospect of going to the doctor,
Bradley's patients didn't seem to have the same apprehension. Much of
that had to do with the ornate toys he gave out at the end of
appointments : race cars, clothes and other trinkets adorned with the
Disney princesses and other popular characters. They weren't
dollar-store trinkets, but gifts that cost several dollars apiece.
The Sussex County father said he once asked Bradley about the
extravagant nature of the gifts. "I told him, 'You don't have to give
them anything.' He said, 'I want to. I love the kids.' "
'An element of trickery'

The Sussex County father believes Bradley was able to hide what he was
doing to patients under the guise of providing ongoing medical care.
Many parents, especially those with their first child, took his
recommendations and diagnoses without question.On
more than one occasion, he told the girl's parents that she probably
had a urinary-tract infection and that she might complain of discomfort
because of that. If her complaints persisted, he told them, they should
bring her back to the office for further evaluation."If
your child is sick with a fever, you're not thinking about there being
something wrong there. You are a concerned parent," said the father. "I
saw this person in a year more than I saw aunts or uncles or some
friends. I trusted him."When
another parent of an infant son pulled out her cell phone in the middle
of an appointment last fall to ask her husband whether their son should
get the H1N1 vaccine, Bradley told her cell phones weren't allowed
inside the office. He made her go outside to make her call -- which
lasted for about a minute -- while he stayed with the infant in the
exam room with the door open until she returned."To
me, it was like how it was in a hospital," said the first-time mother,
who switched doctors after a month because of what she called Bradley's
gruff demeanor. "It's like there was an element of trickery and
deviance in order to manipulate."
The Sussex County father said he once asked Bradley about the
extravagant nature of the gifts. "I told him, 'You don't have to give
them anything.' He said, 'I want to. I love the kids.' "

Poster's Note: There are more details to this story. For the rest of the article, go here:
http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100307/NEWS/3070349

A Delaware pediatrician pleaded not guilty Wednesday to 471 felony
counts in the alleged child abuse of his patients, according to a
spokeswoman for the state Department of Justice. Dr. Earl
Bradley, 56, was arrested in December on charges that include rape,
sexual exploitation of a child, endangering child welfare and assault.
Bradley, who had a practice in Lewes, Delaware, is accused of
victimizing 103 children -- all girls except for one boy. Delaware
Attorney General Beau Biden has said the charges are based on "video
and digital evidence" seized from Bradley's home and medical practice in
December. Bradley also has medical licenses in Pennsylvania, New
Jersey and Florida. Authorities have said they have contacted officials
in those states.
The next step in the
proceedings is a case review May 17, according to Kerry Angell, a
spokeswoman for the Delaware Department of Justice.

A Delaware hospital has revealed that it investigated a 1996
complaint against a pediatrician now accused of molesting more than 100
patients, but the doctor was cleared of any wrongdoing.A nurse
reported in 1996 that Dr. Earl Bradley may have inappropriately touched
young girls in his care.Officials at Beebe Medical Center said
after Bradley's December arrest that they were not aware of any past
problems with him. They have since acknowledged that Bradley was
investigated by Milford police in 2005, but no charges were filed.
Officials said in a statement that they were revealing the 1996
complaint now because they could do so "without jeopardizing the
criminal case."Police and prosecutors found out about the 1996
investigation after they charged him in December.Bradley faces
471 criminal counts including rape, sexual exploitation of a child and
continuous sexual abuse of a child. Authorities say he videotaped the
assaults of his patients, including infants and toddlers, some of whom
screamed or tried to get away. The recordings date back to 1998.Beebe
CEO Jeffrey M. Fried said he regrets not being able to stop Bradley in
1996."Once you know what happened, you see what a diabolical
person he was," Fried said. "It makes your stomach turn."The 1996
complaint came from a nurse who worked with Bradley. She raised several
concerns, chiefly about his practice of using a catheter to obtain
urine samples from young girls. The nurse questioned why Bradley needed
girls to undress before an exam and the way he positioned girls while he
examined their genitals. She was also concerned about his kissing and
hugging of patients.The complaint eventually reached Fried, who
has been Beebe's CEO since 1995. He said he considered it a "clinical"
concern and not a complaint of a sexual nature.An internal
investigation concluded there was nothing unusual about Bradley's
clinical practices, and while Fried said Bradley's hugging and kissing
of patients was "quirky," the hospital did not consider it to be a
violation of policy. Bradley was not disciplined.Chase T.
Brockstedt, an attorney who represents one alleged victim's family, said
Beebe missed a golden opportunity to stop Bradley."Think of all
the children who would have been spared," Brockstedt said.Fried
also told The News Journal of Wilmington that the hospital did not
disclose the 1996 complaint during the 2005 investigation into
allegations of patient abuse by Bradley, which ended without any charges
being filed. The hospital had received a subpoena seeking any
complaints and disciplinary actions against Bradley.But hospital
officials were not obligated to report the complaint because Bradley was
cleared after an internal review, Fried said, adding that the hospital
believed police were pursuing a case related to Bradley's financial
troubles.In a statement, Beebe said there "has never been any
attempt to hide Bradley's behavior. There was simply no reason to do so,
nor would anyone at Beebe Medical Center protect a doctor, or anyone,
at the expense of the children in our community. Remember that members
of our staff and physician community continued to use Bradley to treat
their children and grandchildren until publicly informed of his abuse."Bradley
is being held in lieu of $4.7 million bail. A status conference in the
case is scheduled for May 17.

A Delaware pediatrician charged with sexually
assaulting more than 100 of his small patients has been hit with another
58 counts of sex offenses, boosting the total against him to a record
529 charges. Dr. Earl Bradley, 56, has pleaded not guilty to 471 felony
counts involving sex assaults on 102 girls and a boy. The new charges,
including rape and continuous sexual abuse, involve 24 other girls. Some
of his victims were just months old, according to authorities. One
investigator called the assaults "the most brutal on a child I have ever
seen."


Much of the evidence against the
6-foot, 224-pound pediatrician comes from videotapes of the assaults
created by Bradley himself, say police. "It's kind of hard to argue with
videotapes," said his attorney, who plans a mental instability defense.
Bradley is charged with attacking his patients in special "play rooms,"
where parents were not allowed. He was cleared of wrongdoing by a
Delaware hospital just 2 years before his arrest late last year when a
nurse reported inappropriate touching of his young female patients.

CALLS FOR JUSTICE

Earl Bradley, Monster Pedophile – Trial Date Set

http://callsforjustice.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/earl-bradley-monster-pedophile-%E2%80%93-trial-date-set/

The allegations against Lewes
pediatrician Earl B. Bradley might be the most heinous in U.S. history,
but he's far from the only pediatrician accused of being a pedophile.In the past 10 years, dozens of
doctors have been accused of abusing hundreds of children. Many of those
cases took decades to uncover, and experts believe many other
pedophiles are operating undetected.Bradley's case stands out because of
the depravity of his alleged crimes, said Dr. Eli Newberger, a professor
at Harvard Medical School and a pediatrician who has studied
child-abuse cases for almost 40 years. "It's the worst pediatrician
abuse case I've ever heard of."Some of Bradley's actions alleged by prosecutors --
videotaping himself forcing oral and vaginal sex on children as young as
3 months old -- were "incredibly traumatic" and violent, he said."The fact that the children tried to
escape is an unassailable negative," said Newberger, who has agreed to
testify in a civil case filed by families of Bradley's alleged victims."The fact that he caused children to
lose consciousness during these acts -- these are profoundly hurtful
acts, and frankly I've never heard of anything that's been so
assiduously documented as it was here," Newberger said.But Bradley's methods, as alleged by
prosecutors, are not new in a profession offering steady access to children.


For the complete article: http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20100502/NEWS01/5020364/Pedophile-doctors-not-new-not-rare

It
is being called the pedophilia case of the century. Allegations against
Dr. Earl Bradley have outraged many and displayed possible flaws in
Delaware's system when dealing with child abuse.
Law School Dean, Linda Ammons of Widener University says there are holes
in Delaware's handling of child abuse cases. She completed a four month
review at the request of Governor Jack Markell following the arrest of
Lewes pediatrician Dr. Earl Bradley. "The allegations against Bradley
are breathtaking, in there violent nature, in there sheer numbers and in
there duration," said Ammons.
Bradley was arrested in December 2009. Police say he assaulted more than
100 children in his care, over the past 10 years.
The question now is how something of this nature could have been hidden
for so long, especially since concerns about the doctor's conduct were
raised as early as 1996, by a nurse at Beebe Medical Center. "People in
positions of trust are given certain deference and we just suspend the
belief that they can be involved in anything as sinister as child abuse,
and sexual child exploitation, so I think many flags were missed," said
Ammons.
The Dean says no one can fairly predict whether the alleged sex crimes
could have been prevented. However, she presented a 62-page report
filled with several recommendations she believes are key to making
agencies more alert to pedophilia.
A total of 68 recommendations were given to Governor Markell that
involve, Child Advocacy Center Centers, hospitals and the Board of
Medical Practice. The Governor will now look at ways to strengthen laws
and create more accountability for agencies. One would establish clear
disciplinary action for agencies failing to report abuse. "I'm very
saddened for the families and the children who had to go through this.
If one child can be saved from child sexual exploitation because of this
particular process, then I'll be very happy ," said Ammons.

For a full report of the independent review, click on http://law.widener.edu/NewsandEvents/Articles/2010/de051110bradleyreport.aspx

As the allegations of child sexual abuse became more horrible and the
number of alleged victims grew, psychologist Joe Zingaro knew the
community would need to heal.
His immediate concern was not for the children. He worried first
about their parents."I
knew that if you don't provide support for the parents, that affects
the health of the children," said Zingaro, clinical director of People's
Place Counseling in Milford.In the aftermath of Dr. Earl B. Bradley's December
arrest, Zingaro and other mental health professionals in Sussex County
have engaged the community, hoping to minimize the traumatic effects.Zingaro sought and
received funding from the state, then formed a support group in January
for Lewes-area parents coping with the emotional shock of the Bradley
case. The nonprofit group, Survivors of Abuse in Recovery, hosted
sessions earlier this year.Another local therapist, Beth Joselow, has provided
training sessions in three local school districts for school counselors
and nurses, teaching them about working with sexually abused children.
Several mental health professionals also said they've discussed with one
another how to treat Bradley's alleged victims, their families and the
community as a whole."It
dominates the discussion among [mental health] professionals," said
Paula Varrassi, a therapist and clinical social worker in Milton. "The
whole community has been caught up in this."Most tend to agree on one particular point: Often,
children are not the ones in need of the most support."Children are very, very resilient and they're able
to put incidents behind them," said Joselow, a Lewes therapist who has
treated some of Bradley's alleged victims or their parents. "It's the
parents that have more problems putting it behind them."The group Zingaro facilitates meets monthly, covering
a range of topics from "How do I know if my child was abused and what
do I do?" to "Dealing with judgmental people," all aimed at parents
feeling criticism for allowing Bradley to examine their children alone.
The state has contracted with La Esperanza, a Georgetown-based community
organization, to provide mental health services for Spanish-speaking
families who might have encountered Bradley, said Charles Webb, a child
psychologist with the Division of Child Mental Health Services.
Many parents feel frustration, anger and, most of all, guilt for
failing to protect their children."One of the things that's important to say to parents
is that sexual predators are very, very smart," Joselow said. "And you
can't see them coming, so they should not feel guilty."Children take cues from their parents, Varrassi said,
and they will quickly see the experience as traumatic if a parent
treats it that way."The
parents feel an irrational burden of guilt and shame," Varrassi said.
"If the parent can work things out and not feel ashamed, the child won't
feel shame."Most
children cannot comprehend the idea of sexual abuse, Zingaro said.
They will view the incident as simply unusual, uncomfortable or
momentarily painful. Many others -- especially those as young as those
Bradley is accused of assaulting -- will forget the experience entirely,
several therapists said. In some respects, children might cope more
easily with Bradley's alleged abuse than more chronic molestation by a
relative or family friend, therapists said.Joselow and others said they believe more alleged
victims will emerge as the children age and become more aware of the
allegations against Bradley. She has taught staff members in the Indian
River, Cape Henlopen and Milford school districts how to respond if a
student alerts them to previous abuse."It needs to be handled in a very calm and
matter-of-fact way," agreed Carl White, a Milton therapist.If a child does
remember the incident, he or she mostly needs reassurance that what
happened was wrong but that it wasn't the child's fault, therapists
said."Many of
these parents are very concerned that my child has been damaged in such a
way that they are a ticking time bomb," Zingaro said. "You can't worry
about that until it happens. You're careful about who your child
interacts with, and you go on with your life."

No charges will be filed against any agencies or individuals who failed
to report former Lewes, Del. pediatrician and suspected child molester
Dr. Earl Bradley because the statute of limitations is up on all of
them.

The state civil statutes include sanctions for people who fail to
report suspicions of child abuse within the medical field, state Chief
Deputy Attorney General Charles Butler said at a Department of Justice
press conference in Wilmington Monday, May 17. But the statute of
limitations is three years.

“That’s what the law says,” Butler said after releasing a 72-page
report conducted as a result of Bradley going undetected for so long.
The report documents that the statutes regarding the report of such
abusive behavior are in need of “some serious overhaul,” he said.
However, from the law enforcement standpoint, in the last few months
state officials never have been more focused on the statutes and
procedures written to protect children from sexual predators, he added.

Bradley was arrested by Delaware State Police in December 2009
following a year-long investigation by police and the state Department
of Justice. He was charged with sexually molesting more than 100
children who were patients of his pediatric practice in Lewes.

It became apparent to state investigators that between Bradley’s
arrival in Delaware in 1994 and the beginning of their investigation in
December 2008 that multiple individuals, entities and agencies failed to
report Bradley’s criminal or unprofessional conduct, as required by
state law, to any of the state agencies that regulate the practice of
medicine or protect children from abuse. They include the Delaware Board
of Medical Practice and the state Department of Services for Children,
Youth and their Families.

Attorney General Joseph R. "Beau" Biden III ordered State Solicitor
Lawrence W. Lewis to conduct this review in January in order to
determine if any individuals or agencies failed to comply with this
statutory duty. Butler released the report on behalf of Biden, who is
recovering and doing well after suffering from a mild stroke last week.
(He is expected to be released soon from Thomas Jefferson Hospital in
Philadelphia.)
Although the Department of Justice indeed found that many people and
agencies failed to report Bradley, there was no evidence of a cover up,
Butler said.

“I think it’s fair to say – and I don’t mean to make excuses for anyone
– that no one understood or appreciated what was going on,” Butler
said. “Were there missed flags or signs or what have you?

“We’re not trying to second guess people. We don’t think that anyone’s
failure to report was conspiratorial or malicious or intended somehow to
enable Dr. Bradley to commit offenses against anyone,” he said. “There
were mistakes made along the way that didn’t help but we are not in the
position to accuse anyone of deliberately enabling Dr. Bradley.”

As detailed at great length in Lewis’ report, there are real structural
problems in the statute and the way it works, Butler said.
When asked if the Attorney General’s Office did not suspect anyone of
turning his head, Butler said no evidence was uncovered that indicated
anyone ignored strong evidence of physical abuse of children.

“The standard is, ‘Did you have reasonable suspicion that someone was
engaged in unprofessional conduct?’" he said. "That is there, but
understand that there is some subjectivity in all that and some
objectivity. Is the evidence clear? Is it not clear? Are the facts
ambiguous or not? In the pure objectivity of the facts as they actually
happen, it’s a bit more ambiguous.”

The Department of Justice’s 72-page report contained similar findings
to the 62-page, independent report released by Widener University School
of Law Dean Linda L. Ammons last week. But the major difference was
that DOJ had and used power to subpoena as well as the power to have
witnesses testify under oath, Butler said.

“We cooperated 100 percent with Dean Ammons and met her several times
to produce witnesses from our staff to her,” Butler said. “She is
independent and we are independent, but we certainly have known what
each other is doing all along.”

The state solicitor report’s looked more at structural and statutory
issues, Butler said.

It is not altogether clear how to go about enforcing such failure to
report abuse of children, Butler said.

“On its face, it has some real problems,” he said. “It seeks to impose
fines on jurisdictions or on entities over which it has no jurisdiction.
The fines themselves are, frankly, ridiculously low. I think they start
at $250 and go to $5,000. It seeks to impose these fines on any person
who doesn’t report, but never defines who or what a person is under the
statute.”

One of the subsections in the statute says that law enforcement shall
report any conviction or admission of guilt, which is easy enough for
law enforcement to follow, Butler said. But, what happens if there is no
admission of guilt or if an investigation does not result in an arrest,
as happened with Bradley in 2005?

“The statute simply doesn’t answer the questions,” he said.

Lewis’ report took a detailed look at happened in 2005, when a mother
complained about her daughter asking her why Bradley kissed her on a car
ride home from Bradley’s office. The Department of Justice and the
Milford Police Department investigated the incident, but the little girl
failed to repeat her claim in front of interviewers until her mother
was present, leading DOJ to conclude it had little to go on.

“Milford PD, to its credit, ran down other witnesses and other leads as
to what was going on with Dr. Bradley,” Butler said. The officer,
identified as Detective Kenneth Brown in Ammons’ earlier report, also
subpoenaed records from Beebe Hospital about any complaints against
Bradley. Beebe told the officer that there were no other complaints, but
Brown pressed on and spoke to other witnesses and doctors.
He ended up with "a lot of innuendo and strange stories," but not a
prosecutable case, Butler said. However, during Brown’s investigation,
he learned of and interviewed two physicians who expressed concerns
about Bradley’s “unprofessional behavior towards [sic] his young female
patients,” with one of them referring to Bradley as a “pedophile.” That
led the state solicitor (Lawrence), to conclude that other doctors had
ample reasons to report Bradley but failed to do so.

In the end, due to a lack of clear policies and procedures and vagaries
in the statute, neither the Milford Police nor the Department of
Justice submitted a written report to the state Board of Medical
Practice, Butler said. (Ammons went into some more detail on this matter
and other findings in her report.)

“Under the broadest possible reading of the law, law enforcement failed
to act,” Butler said. “So, we’re dealing with a statewide statute that
has some structural flaws and … needs some serious overhaul.”

The Delaware Department of Justice began with the complaint made by a
Philadelphia woman who alleged Bradley had his hand in her daughter’s
diaper to fondle her after claiming he was taking her into a room to see
a Barney dinosaur toy. She reported Bradley to both the Pennsylvania
Bureau of Professional and Occupational
Affairs, which oversees the medical profession, and the Philadelphia
Police Department.

“‘I want to do everything in my power to stop this man,’” the woman
wrote in a letter to the Pa. bureau. “‘I know what I saw.’”

Both the Pa. bureau and the Philadelphia PD closed their investigations
without anything being done, Butler said. Then, the Delaware Medical
Board did not conduct its own investigation, instead relying on its
counterpart in Pennsylvnia.

“We think that the board is not privileged to defer its investigation
to the Pennsylvania corollary for board investigation,” Butler said.
“The other thing that struck us as we did the investigation was that we
learned what we learned about Pennsylvania from Pennsylvania. We did not
learn that from our own Delaware Board of Medical Practice despite our
own quest for records relating to disciplinary actions related to Dr.
Bradley. The Delaware board was not able to produce the records that the
Pennsylvania board was able to produce.”

In 1996, a Beebe Hospital executive should have reported allegations to
the Board of Medical Practice that Bradley performed excessive
catheterizations of female patients, excessively kissed little girls and
required only girls to be naked during sports physicals, Butler said.

“There is some evidence that Beebe tracked the catheterization question
to some degree,” Butler said. “There is no evidence, at least it’s not
apparent to us, that it did anything else with respect to any of the
other complaints.”

In addition, notes produced by Beebe in 1998 of a meeting detail
complaints of Bradley photographing young children and performing a
gynecological exam on a patient against the expressed wishes of her
mother, Butler said.

“We don’t know what happened after that complaint was lodged,” Butler
said. “There is no record, certainly, that a complaint was made to the
Board of Medical Practice. The solicitor finds that one should have been
made.”

In another “glaring breakdown,” the Medical Society of Delaware’s
Physicians Health Committee failed to report Bradley to the Delaware
Board of Medical Practice despite the fact that it voted to do so based
on a letter sent by Bradley’s adopted sister, Lynda Barnes. In the
letter, Barnes documented accusations of excessive time spent with
patients, mood swings and inappropriately touching girls, among other
things. The committee said a problem with the facsimile machine the
sister used caused an error that cut off the portion of the letter
alleging inappropriate touching of girls.

Even so, the Physicians Health Committee voted to report Bradley to the
Board of Medical Practice, “but inexplicably” never sent the
information nor followed up, the report said. The chair of the
Physicians Health Committee also failed to live up to the “individual
duty to personally report Bradley after receiving the sister’s letter
and follow-up call.”

The Board of Medical Practice is responsible for investigating
complaints of unprofessional conduct by physicians by law, Butler said.
The Medical Society is a trade association composed of practicing
physicians. Within the Medical Society is a panel called the Physicians
Health Committee, which assists doctors with “rehabilitation.”

By statute, the Board of Medical Practice is permitted to defer the
investigation and rehabilitation of physicians who are impaired to the
Physicians Health Committee, he said. After Bradley’s sister complained
to the PHC, it failed to notify the Medical Board.
"But had the board in fact gotten the complaint from the PHC, it’s
entirely likely that the board could have, would have deferred
investigating it in favor of the PHC handling Dr. Bradley," Butler said.
"We see that as a structural conflict that resides within the statute.”

Within the 72-page report are 28 statutory and procedural changes,
including:

• 
  Require all doctors to be supervised when with minor patients
  
• 
  Sharply increase financial penalties for failure to report suspicious
  and unprofessional behavior by physicians
  
• 
  Make the Board of Medical Practice’s disciplinary hearings more
  transparent by removing needless “protect the doctor” provisions (the
  board is the only such public body permitted to conduct closed
  disciplinary hearings)
  
• 
  Change the Board’s investigation process so that a specially trained
  investigator –not a fellow physician –decides whether to turn a case
  over to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation
  
• 
  Require the Board to notify law enforcement agencies when it receives
  complaints of criminal misconduct by doctors
  
• 
  Require the Board to investigate verbal complaints, allow it to
  investigate anonymous complaints, and streamline its emergency license
  suspension process
  
• 
  Mandate that hospitals report all investigatory actions taken against
  employees
  

The Department of Justice plans to meet this week with leadership from
the Delaware General Assembly and Gov. Jack Markell’s office.

The full report is available at www.attorneygeneral.delaware.gov.

A Superior Court judge is considering lifting
an order halting discovery in patient lawsuits against pediatrician
Earl B. Bradley and doctors and institutions who failed to stop him from
allegedly abusing patients despite complaints.

Judge Calvin Scott did not outline his
reasoning for his one-sentence order staying discovery when it was
issued last month or during a hearing to consider attorneys' objections
on Tuesday. Scott did not issue a ruling.

Attorney Bruce Hudson, who represents 18
patients who have sued and nearly two dozen who plan to sue, says Judge
William Carpenter, who is handling the criminal case against Bradley,
told attorneys last month he was worried about Bradley's right to a fair
trial.

Carpenter says judicial rules prohibit him
from commenting.

Bradley, 57, of Lewes, was arrested in
December, 2009, and faces more than 500 charges. Police said the former
pediatrician sexually assaulted more than 100 young children over a
10-year period in what could be the worst case of child sex abuse in the
nation's history.

In Delaware, legislators have swiftly passed a package of bills that
would toughen oversight of the state's medical practitioners and those
who monitor them. The new laws were prompted by the case of a
pediatrician who was charged with abusing patients as young as 3 months
old. The rules have been called the Bradley
Bills, after Earl Bradley, the pediatrician currently behind bars on
charges of abusing nearly 130 young girls and a boy. Bradley operated
out of an office on the coastal highway in the beach town of Lewes.
He'd worked there for years before a complaint
last year by one girl's mother prompted police to investigate.
"These are the right steps," says Gov. Jack Markell.
"This is certainly nothing to celebrate, but I think it's a positive,
that a bipartisan group of legislators came together to do the right
thing." When Markell signed the bills in
Dover, he was flanked by Attorney General Beau Biden, whose office
helped draft the legislation. Earlier this year, Markell ordered an
independent investigation into how Bradley might have been able to
operate for so long. Linda Ammons, dean of
the law school at Widener University, investigated for four months and
issued her report in May. "People weren't
scrupulously following the law," Ammons says. "It says that if you think
a physician is impaired or should not be practicing for a variety of
reasons, there are certain actors who are supposed to report that to a
certain entity — so balls were dropped all along the way."
Ammons made 68 recommendations in her report, many of
which made it into the final legislation. The bill was approved
unanimously in both houses. The changes
include requiring that doctors be fingerprinted every 10 years, to help
with background checks. Everyone applying for a medical license in
Delaware will have to say whether they've been investigated in the past.
And every six months, the medical licensing
board will check the criminal histories of every licensed doctor in the
state. One of the red flags in the Bradley case that authorities might
have used against him was that he'd been investigated when he practiced
in Philadelphia — more than a decade before he arrived in Delaware.
"We think the way the bill's written now will
allow for appropriate protections and appropriate chaperon policy," says
Wayne Smith of the Delaware Healthcare Association, which represents
the state's seven medical centers. Smith is
talking about another change mandated by the law: Children may be
physically examined by doctors only when a chaperon is present. Smith
says hospitals are working out individual policies that will go into
effect later this summer. Much of the
scrutiny into the Bradley case has focused on the local Lewes hospital,
where Bradley served as an on-call pediatrician. The hospital is also
being investigated for not following up on complaints against him. Smith
says any action against the Beebe Medical Center will affect the whole
town of Lewes. "Beebe hospital is and will
remain the lifeblood and the core of the Lewes community," Smith says.
And there is real concern that lawsuits will
hurt the hospital's finances, something all of its employees rely on.
And that is just another example of how the fallout in the Bradley case
has affected everyone in this small town.

Monster Pedophile, Earl Bradley’s Attorneys File Challenge

07/13/2010 donchais

Excerpt:

My heart lurched because the headline read: Defense challenges key evidence – Lawyers say illegal search led to discovery of damaging files

State police spent two days searching Dr. Earl Bradley’s office complex and recovered video recordings of Bradley abusing or raping some of his young patients.
. . . .

Now his defense attorneys have claimed in court all evidence seized from his office building and two outbuildings last December should be thrown out because the building in which video recordings were found was not covered by the search warrant.
. . . .

The challenge also alleges the police illegally searched Bradley’s computers, there was no authorization to open video files and the search and seizure of paper and computer files was only for materials relating to eight specific patients.


READ MORE: http://callsforjustice.wordpress.com/2010/07/13/monster-pedophile-earl-bradley%E2%80%99s-attorneys-file-challenge/

A judge has scheduled an Aug. 31 hearing on claims state police
illegally searched a building where they found critical computer
evidence in the child sexual abuse case against pediatrician Earl B.
Bradley.

Public defender Stephanie Tsantes declined comment Monday on the defense
motion pending before Superior Court Judge William Carpenter, which
seeks to suppress evidence seized from an outbuilding at Bradley's
medical office in the Lewes area.

The defense claims evidence seized in a search of the doctor's office
and two outbuildings last year should be thrown out because the search
warrant didn't cover the entire area.

Prosecutors haven't yet filed a response.

Authorities have said Bradley is suspected of abusing more than 100 children over 10 years.