2nd Trial under Way in Conn. Doctorsex Abuse Case, WTNH, June 14, 2011

2nd Trial under Way in Conn. Doctor-sex Abuse Case

WTNH
June 14, 2011

http://www.wtnh.com/dpp/news/crime/2nd-trial-under-way-in-conn-doctor-sex-abuse-case

-- File -- Dr. George Reardon.

Two men testified in state court Tuesday about being sexually abused by late Dr. George Reardon when they were children in the late 1960s and early 1970s as part of a bogus human growth study.

The witnesses took the stand in Waterbury Superior Court in another man's civil case against St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, where Reardon worked for three decades and was chief of endocrinology. Reardon, who police believe sexually abused at least 500 children and maybe as many as thousands, died in 1998 without ever facing criminal charges.

The trial is the second one against St. Francis, which has denied allegations by more than 90 plaintiffs that it was responsible for Reardon's crimes because it failed to properly monitor him. The hospital settled lawsuits with 32 plaintiffs for an undisclosed amount last month in the middle of deliberations in the first case to go to trial.

One of Tuesday's witnesses testified that Reardon took photographs of him and his siblings after having them undress, The Hartford Courant reported. He also said Reardon sexually excited him and took measurements of him during a private examination. He said he was 12 years old when he began taking part in the study at the hospital.

The plaintiff in the case, a middle-aged man known as Tim Doe 1, has made some of the most disturbing allegations against Reardon. Doe's lawsuit says that he was 9 when Reardon began abusing him, and that Reardon took pictures of him and his sister posed in simulated sex acts.

Those pictures were among tens of thousands of slides and videos showing children in sexual acts and positions found hidden in Reardon's former home in West Hartford after he died. The abuse became public in 2007 when the new owner of the home opened a basement wall during a renovation project and found the slides and videos.

West Hartford police say they've identified about 250 of Reardon's victims by name, but hundreds of other children in the images never came forward.

Jurors also heard opening statements in the second trial Tuesday.

Douglas Mahoney, Doe's lawyer, told the jury the hospital failed to oversee Reardon and hospital officials never asked for the results of his study, which was never published.

An attorney for the hospital, Ernest Mattei, said Reardon deceived both hospital officials and the victims' parents, and that there is no proof that hospital officials knew about the abuse.

Reardon resigned from St. Francis in 1993 amid molestation accusations, but he was never arrested.

In 1995, the state Medical Examining Board agreed to drop disciplinary proceedings against Reardon because of abuse allegations in exchange for Reardon agreeing to never practice medicine again in Connecticut or elsewhere.