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	Ex-Patients Alleging Doc Abuse Seek up to $8m Albany Times Union May 5, 2011 http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Ex-patients-alleging-doc-abuse-seek-up-to-8M-1366524.php WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) — The attorney for a former patient of a late doctor suspected of molesting scores of children has asked a jury for up to $8 million in damages against a Hartford hospital where the physician worked for three decades. Final arguments were heard Thursday in the first of 93 civil cases alleging Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center failed to prevent the abuse by Dr. George Reardon. Investigators believe Reardon abused hundreds of children under the guise of a fake growth study. He died in 1998 without ever facing criminal charges. The hospital has argued Reardon successfully hid the alleged abuse from administrators. On Thursday attorney Michael Stratton argued his client deserves between $5 and $8 million, the Hartford Courant reported Thursday. "If you don't have the growth study, you don't have the abuse," Stratton said in his closing arguments. But Saint Francis' lawyer, Paul Williams argued that Reardon's study was not research and therefore was not required to be supervised by the hospital. "The whole system was set up for people to act in good faith," Williams said. "It was not set up to uncover criminal conduct, and George Reardon was a criminal." The alleged abuse was revealed in 2007 when the owner of Reardon's former home in West Hartford cracked open a basement wall during a renovation project and found tens of thousands of slides and videos showing children in sexual acts and positions. The jury was shown some of those graphic images during the trial. From all outward appearances, Reardon was a respected endocrinologist who trained many fellow physicians and was involved in legitimate research and publications, Williams said. The hospital's lawyers also pointed out that Reardon did take scores of measurements of the children that appeared to lend credibility to the study, although he never published his findings. The plaintiff in the case is a firefighter in his early 40s who says he and his brother were molested by Reardon at least 75 times when they were boys in the 1970s. Stratton told the jury in his opening statement that his client suffers from anxiety, depression and has trouble with personal relationships because of Reardon. The jury received its instructions Thursday afternoon and was expected to begin deliberations on Friday.
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