St. Francis Hospital failed to prevent the molestation of scores of children at the hands of one of its doctors from the 1960s through the 1980s, a lawyer told a jury Tuesday. But the hospital’s attorney said no one told officials about the abuse when it was occurring, The Associated Press reports.
The lawyers made their opening statements in Waterbury Superior Court at the trial for the first of about 90 people who say they were victims of Dr. George Reardon, who died in 1998 without ever facing criminal charges.
The plaintiffs are suing St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, where Reardon worked. Reardon practiced at St. Francis for three decades. Police believe he abused hundreds, possibly thousands, of children under the guise of a bogus growth study. The abuse was uncovered in 2007 when the owner of Reardon’s former home in West Hartford cracked open a wall during a renovation project and found thousands of videos and slides showing children in various sexual acts and positions.
The plaintiff in the case that began Tuesday 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. His lawyer, Michael Stratton, told the jury that his client suffers from anxiety, depression and has trouble with personal relationships because of Reardon.
Stratton said St. Francis officials failed to check if Reardon’s growth study was valid, failed to monitor it and failed to protect children. Stratton said Reardon never published the study’s results, and he accused the hospital of essentially giving Reardon access to countless victims in a “private playground.”
The hospital’s attorney, Paul Williams, told the jury that any anger should be directed at Reardon, not the hospital. He said no one told hospital administrators about the abuse when it was happening.
