BishopAccountability.org
	Dr. Reardon's Depravity Hartford Courant December 3, 2007 http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/editorials/hc-reardon.artdec03,0,126871.story From beginning to end, the case involving West Hartford physician George E. Reardon was sordid and unsatisfying. Once chief of endocrinology at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, Dr. Reardon resigned in disgrace in 1993 as a series of witnesses testified before the state Medical Examining Board that he had photographed and molested them as children. The case dragged on for years; incredibly, the board dropped the matter in exchange for a promise from Dr. Reardon, who had already retired, that he would no longer practice medicine. The arrangement was a sham. Dr. Reardon denied the allegations of sexual misconduct, but the charges against him went back more than four decades and involved dozens of accusers. Yet the board essentially entered into a gentleman's agreement in which he was politely escorted from the examining room with no finding of wrongdoing. Dr. Reardon maintained his pretense of innocence until his death in 1998. Now, that past has come spilling into the present. A homeowner renovating Mr. Reardon's former house on Griswold Drive in West Hartford uncovered a cache of child pornography hidden inside a basement wall. During a months-long investigation, police say they have recovered about 50,000 35mm slides and more than 100 8mm video reels. The number of Dr. Reardon's victims appears to be in the hundreds. For these victims, the discovery must come as an awful and painful vindication. Some of the children were Dr. Reardon's patients; others were being hospitalized for various ailments or were children living in his neighborhood. The discovery is likely to generate additional lawsuits against Dr. Reardon's already diminished estate and the hospital. Officials there issued a statement Wednesday expressing sympathy for the victims but declined to answer questions about what steps were taken to protect children after the first allegations against Dr. Reardon surfaced in 1987. State officials' mishandling of Dr. Reardon's case is reminiscent of the Roman Catholic church's long-standing practice of insulating clergy members from allegations of sexual misconduct and its consequences. In recent years, however, church leaders have widely acknowledged the wrongheadedness of that practice and have instituted reforms. We hope and believe that, in part because of the clergy scandals, state officials would have handled Dr. Reardon's case more rigorously today. His actions were undeniably criminal. Yet the extent of this cache reveals an astonishing depth and breadth to Dr. Reardon's depravity. These weren't the actions of a simple criminal. They were the product of a compulsive and unsound mind.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.