Broward pediatrician to stay in jail before trial

A child pornography prosecution against a Broward pediatrician is now in federal court, which on Monday found he is too dangerous to remain free before a trial.

Dr. Michael Mizrachy, whose original arrest Jan. 12 by state authorities shocked and frightened parents of his young patients, was re-booked Friday on one federal count of possessing child porn.

The allegations in the new charge are identical — that Mizrachy used a Yahoo email account to keep a disturbing video showing a naked 5 or 6-year-old girl getting abused by a man. Also, search warrants led investigators to find photographs of “small children” and teens in their underwear, taken without their knowledge, on his iPhone and computer.

At a hearing Monday, United States Magistrate Judge Alicia O. Valle agreed with government prosecutors that Mizrachy posed too much of a danger to receive bond, records show. The 49-year-old Parkland resident is due to be arraigned March 12 on the charge, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

At the same time, state Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation, sent a letter to state Surgeon General Scott Rivkees urging him to take immediate action to suspend Mizrachy’s medical license.

Book, a mother of 4-yearold twins who were Mizrachy’s former patients, noted that he has been able to hold himself out as a doctor even after he was originally charged with three child porn charges in state court. Mizrachy

had wanted to practice telemedicine and have virtual visits with children while his case is pending.

“It is abundantly clear that Mizrachy’s actions — of which there is clear proof — pose ‘an immediate, serious danger to public health,’ and I therefore urge you to issue an emergency order against his license,” the senator wrote. “Mizrachy’s deviant predilections and illegal actions pose a unique and targeted threat to the children

of Broward County as well as children in 66 other counties of our state.”

Book has also proposed legislation that calls on the state Department of Health to immediately suspend health practitioners who face criminal charges including sexual assault, possession of child pornography, and murder.

Mizrachy became a suspect last June after Yahoo tipped off the federal Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, records show. Detectives, who searched Mizrachy’s devices in October, have said they have not found evidence the doctor exploited children in his medical office at West Broward Pediatrics.

Defense lawyer Richard Merlino could not be reached for comment despite calls to his office, cellphone and an email over the past week. Mizrachy “has been and remains eager to defend himself against these charges,” Merlino wrote last month.

In a federal arrest report unsealed Monday, Homeland Security Special Agent Eric Stowers wrote that Mizrachy agreed to speak with detectives Oct. 20. At

that time, Mizrachy said he kept the Yahoo email account for several years as his “hidden secret,” and that based on his experience as a pediatrician, the girl in the video was “a prepubescent minor.”

During the same interview, Mizrachy “admitted to being sexually excited by the photographs and admitted to being sexually attracted to children as young as 13 years old,” Stowers wrote.

Mizrachy