SOMETIMES, ACCUSED DOCTORS NEVER FACE POLICE

While suspended Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta pediatrician José A. Rios faces misdemeanor charges over allegations he groped his patients’ mothers, some physicians accused of sexual abuse can avoid police and prosecutors altogether.

That was among the troubling findings from a nationwide investigation into doctors and sex abuse by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution this year. The AJC identified several cases where state medical regulators had knowledge of doctors committing criminal acts against patients, yet never turned the information over to law enforcement. In most states, including Georgia, state medical boards can act as gatekeepers if a victim turns to regulators without filing a criminal complaint.

Disciplinary cases might be handled in secret. Doctors might be cleared to practice again after going to recovery centers where they work through their issues through art, yoga or equestrian therapy and other treatment. Or a doctor might be forced to retire and returned to communities through a vaguely written board order. Doctors may have committed heinous assaults, yet avoid appearing on their state’s sexual offender registry.

Only 11 states have a law requiring medical authorities to report to police or prosecutors when they suspect a sexual crime has been committed against an adult, and even in some of those states, the AJC found cases that hadn’t been turned over.

To explore the AJC’s Doctors & Sex Abuse series, go to doctors.ajc.com.