By Ramon Antonio Vargas
The Times-Picayune
April 20, 2011
http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2011/04/louisiana_state_medical_board.html
Before pleading guilty to attempted possession of child pornography last week, Covington psychiatrist Dr. Steve Taylor at one point admitted to intentionally downloading sexually explicit images of juveniles in 2008, but only in an effort to study the "kind of material examined by pedophiles," according to documents from the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners.
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| Dr. Steve Taylor |
Later on, however, Taylor, 71, reversed course. He denied ever having intentionally downloaded sexually explicit images of children, claimed to not recall having ever said he did for any reason; and entered a guilty plea to the reduced charge in Covington's 22nd Judicial District Court.
The St. Tammany Parish district attorney's office has declined to extensively discuss the plea bargain, which resulted in a two-year prison sentence for Taylor, a well-known north shore psychiatrist who for years had been working part-time. He is scheduled to begin serving it Friday.
But documents generated by a State Board of Medical Examiners inquiry into the charges against the psychiatrist shed light into developments that preceded the case's resolution.
Sheriff's Office deputies began investigating Taylor three years ago after receiving a tip that sexually explicit images of children existed on his computer. The tipster was an information technology expert Taylor had hired, the doctor said during a telephone interview Monday.
They found 1,771 sexually explicit images on the doctor's hard drive, medical board documents show. An investigator determined that 24 of those photos displayed 107 sexually graphic images of children, according to the documents.
Deputies searched Taylor's home, office and other electronics, and they found a number of adult magazines. But they did not find any other sexually explicit images of juveniles, the medical board found.
Taylor was arrested April 9, 2008, and booked with 107 counts of child porn possession, each of which was punishable with a $10,000 fine and two to 10 years in prison. He posted $50,000 bond to await the outcome of his case outside of jail, court records show.
In July 2008, the medical board ordered Taylor to enroll in a behavioral rehabilitation center in Atlanta for examination. According to a report by Dr. Gene Abel, the center's director, Taylor for two days denied intentionally downloading sexually explicit images of children.
However, on the third day, Abel confronted Taylor with a lie detector test. Taylor said he purposely downloaded the juvenile nudity in an effort to study pedophilia, Abel reported.
But Taylor then testified to a different story at a subsequent hearing in front of the board. He said he liked downloading sexually graphic images of adults, and in the process he must have inadvertently gotten sexual pictures of children on his computer, he said.
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| St. Tammany Parish Justice Center, Covington |
Taylor also claimed to not recall ever having told Abel that he downloaded sexually explicit images of children on purpose.
The board's documents make a point to supply a possible explanation for the inconsistency. The inquiry had by then concluded that Taylor suffered two serious brain traumas in the past -- a closed head injury in 1968 with loss of consciousness, and a coma after a gallbladder surgery. As a result, the board had determined that Taylor could not practice medicine more than four hours a day without becoming "confused or (exercising) poor judgment" and should not be allowed to prescribe medication.
Abel testified that his testing with Taylor would take up to 5 1/2 hours a day. "We do not doubt what we were told by Dr. Abel, but there is little doubt that Dr. Taylor's judgment becomes impaired after four hours per day of work," the medical board wrote.
Eventually, in 2010, board members determined that Taylor intentionally downloaded photographs of adults and only inadvertently downloaded the explicit images of children. It put Taylor's medical license on five years of probation, declaring that he was guilty of "unprofessional conduct" and practicing in an unapproved setting.
Taylor was also fined $3,000 as well as administrative costs and ordered to install software preventing pornography downloads. His practice was placed under the supervision of two licensed physicians, and his computer was subjected to periodic monitoring, documents show.
The board supplied a number of justifications: "There were only a few child pornography images on the computer; ... Dr. Taylor consistently denied that he intentionally downloaded such material; ... no other child pornography material, such as magazines, was found by the Sheriff; and ... Dr. Taylor tends to exercise poor judgment and become confused after four hours of work." It did not return a request for further comment Monday.
It was not the first time the state board had placed Taylor's license on five years' probation. In 1999, as a result of substance abuse, a sleep disorder and history of such problems as dementia and attention deficit disorder, officials required Taylor to abstain from alcohol and recreational drug use for the rest of his life and enroll in continuing medical-education courses, among other things.
Nonetheless, Taylor believed a jury would be unsympathetic, and he opted against having his lawyer, Ralph Whalen, use of any of the inquiry's findings as a courtroom defense. He agreed to plead guilty to the attempted possession charge in hopes that he would be spared imprisonment.
"The preponderance of the evidence is that I did not download the child pornography intentionally," Taylor told The Times-Picayune. "Now my job is to do my time ... and come out and find a way to be useful."
Previously, Taylor had served on St. Tammany Parish Hospital's Ethics Board. He counseled residents after Hurricane Katrina and ran a support group for survivors of suicide.
Late in the month during which he was arrested, he was supposed to receive an "Angels Among Us" award from the Hospice Foundation of the South. But organizers canceled the event.
He also collaborated with the Louisiana chapter of the Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. His wife, Lyn Taylor, is the group's founder.
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Ramon Antonio Vargas can be reached at rvargas@timespicayune.com or 985.898.4827.
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