Maryland pediatrician who sexually assaulted female patients throughout his medical career convicted
A Maryland pediatrician, who sexually abused an 18-year-old patient whom he had been treating since she was a baby, has now been convicted.
Dr Ernesto Torres was convicted on Friday of second-degree assault and fourth-degree sexual offense of a patient. However, he was found not guilty of a second-degree rape charge, ABC News reports.
The judge ruled that Torres didn't use force during the assault, and so found him not guilty of the rape charge, Prosecutor Charles Smith said, adding that sentencing is scheduled for next month.
According to police, 11 more victims were inspired to come forward after Torres' initial indictment over the April assault. This led to the pediatrician being indicted on 65 other charges, including 43 counts of third-degree sex offenses and nine counts of child sex abuse.
The allegations were found to span Torres' entire medical career, which started in 1979, WBAL reports.
All the 12 victims are female and were, at some point, Torres' patients. The youngest victim is just 11 years old.
On May 3, Torres was indicted by a grand jury after the 18-year-old patient brought on the sexual assault allegations.
"We really thought with these 11... additional victims, (Torres) could be a public safety threat and the judge (would) hold him without bond. It didn't happen," Smith said at the time after Torres' bond was set at $500,000. "Some of the allegations with regard to these victims is that it occurred in the presence of a parent or in the presence of one of his office employees who were there at the time."
Amber Gunder, a mother of two of Torres' former patients, said he was wonderful to her kids. However, she said she always had her suspicions.
"You always seem very nice, but there's just something sometimes your intuition is just like somethings not right," she said. "He had his back to you a lot and as a parent you just you don't think about what you're not seeing on the other side."