Action Tied to Doctor Points Accusing Finger at St. Francis Hospital
By Daniel P. Jones
Hartford Courant
December 3, 2007
http://www.courant.com/news/custom/topnews/hc-reardon1203.artdec03,0,7011443.story?coll=hc_tab01_layout
Lawyers for a man who says that Dr. George Reardon molested and photographed him naked 30 years ago say they plan to go to court today to lodge what is believed to be the first lawsuit claiming that St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center shares responsibility for Reardon's alleged abuse.
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| West Hartford police Wednesday announced that in May a homeowner on Griswold Drive renovating the basement found a large quantity - 50,000 35-mm slides and more than 100 8-mm video reels - of child pornography hidden in a secret storage area in the home, which was previously owned by Dr. George Reardon, a former chief of endocrinology at St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford with a troubled history. |
The man, identified only as John Doe in the complaint the lawyers plan to file, was from Reardon's community, while a number of the alleged victims who came forward previously had been hospital patients of his. The plaintiff was between 12 and 14 years old when Reardon sexually abused him several times in Reardon's hospital office, according to Paul Edwards, a lawyer representing the man.
Now in his early 40s and living with his family in the Hartford area, the plaintiff in the lawsuit was among at least a half-dozen boys and girls the lawyers say Reardon recruited from the community and molested in his hospital office under a guise of conducting childhood sexual development studies at St. Francis.
Edwards and other lawyers in his firm and elsewhere are evaluating complaints from other people who say Reardon abused them, and more lawsuits against the hospital are expected. The Joe Doe lawsuit will also name Reardon's estate as a defendant.
Reardon, who died in 1998, was a doctor at the hospital from 1963 to 1993, when he resigned in the face of multiple allegations that he sexually molested children and inappropriately photographed children for decades, starting in the 1950s. He headed the hospital's endocrinology department and specialized in childhood development.
Lawyers at the Stratton Faxon law firm in New Haven, which handled lawsuits against the Catholic Church in the sex abuse scandal involving priests, say they want to get to the bottom of how and why Reardon was able to get away with the alleged misconduct at the hospital for so long.
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| Police are trying to identify victims pictured in a huge child pornography cache of slides and videos found at a home in West Hartford. |
"The deviant nature of Dr. Reardon's conduct, the duration of time for which it went on, and the overwhelming number of victimized children makes it difficult to believe that this occurred entirely unnoticed and unchecked by those in positions of authority at St. Francis Hospital," Edwards said.
The complaint, which lawyers say they plan to file today in Superior Court in Hartford, comes after last week's stunning announcement by West Hartford police that the owner of Reardon's former Griswold Drive home found a huge cache of child pornography hidden behind wall panels — 50,000 photographic slides and dozens of film reels — while doing basement renovations in May.
Since the announcement, West Hartford police have been contacted by nearly 80 people who say they were abused by Reardon, according to detectives.
In response to the anticipated lawsuit, the hospital's top lawyer said Sunday that officials at St. Francis are gathering and reviewing files to understand what happened while Reardon was there.
"With respect to allegations against St. Francis itself, based on what we know back in the early '90s we don't believe that St. Francis acted inappropriately in any respect," said Barry Feldman, the hospital's general counsel and senior vice president.
But Feldman also said that "if the allegations are true, then St. Francis' heart goes out to this victim and to any other victims of any inappropriate conduct by Dr. Reardon."
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| Dr. George E. Reardon, who died in 1998, listens to testimony in 1993 at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford that he had sexually abused a brother and sister. Photo by Michael McAndrews |
Feldman, who said it's not clear who supervised Reardon, said that until the early 1990s no one at the hospital knew the specifics of any complaints that had been made against Reardon. But the lawyers planning to go to court today say they are accusing the hospital of negligence. The complaint says the hospital failed to have policies barring doctors from having children in private areas alone after hours and on weekends, and failed to properly supervise Reardon to prevent sexual assaults on minors.
The plaintiff alleges in the complaint that Reardon took him from the community to St. Francis after normal weekday hours and on weekends.
Reardon sexually molested the boy and photographed the boy naked while the boy was sexually aroused, according to the complaint. The doctor forced the boy to use a lubricant and to masturbate, and forced him to remain naked for a prolonged period so Reardon could obtain sexual gratification, according to the complaint. The lawyers say the man for years has suffered embarrassment and emotional stress.
The police department's announcement last week of the discovery of the child pornography in Reardon's former home "has made [the plaintiff] feel extremely uncomfortable, embarrassed, shamed, angry and worried," Edwards said.
"He wants the truth to be revealed and wants to discover why this was allowed to happen," Edwards said, "and make sure that it never ever happens again."
The state extended the statute of limitations in civil child sex abuse cases in 2002. That change effectively allows people who are 48 or younger to sue the hospital if they believe they can prove the hospital knew of Reardon's conduct or should have known, according to lawyers working on the complaints.
Contact Daniel P. Jones at dpjones@courant.com
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