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	Victim Recounts Abuse at Hands of Former St. Francis Doctor By Edmund H. Mahony Hartford Courant June 24, 2011 http://www.courant.com/health/connecticut/hc-timdoe-testifies-stfrancis-0625-20110624,0,6848902.story A middle-aged insurance salesman, the second victim to go to trial with an abuse suit against St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, testified Friday about being molested and photographed by hospital endocrinologist Dr. George Reardon. The victim, identified in court as Tim Doe 1, said he can recall four experiences with Reardon beginning in about 1969, when he was 9 years old. On one of those occasions, the victim said, he was about 11 years old and hospitalized at St. Francis with rheumatic fever. As is the case with dozens of other Reardon victims suing the hospital, Doe said Reardon used a sham study of child growth patterns as a pretext to abuse and take obscene photographs of him and a sister, who is about 18 months older. Reardon ran the study — and abused the children — in his hospital office. Reardon is believed to have used the study as cover to abuse and photograph as many as 500 children. In 2007, the new owners of Reardon's former West Hartford wall found more than 50,000 pornographic photographs of children behind a false wall. Many of those photographs showed the victims of Reardon's so-called study, including Tim Doe 1. The Doe photographs were taken from 1969 to 1972 St. Francis hired Reardon as its chief of endocrinology in 1963 and his abuse is believed to have extended into the 1980s. His victims have said they were too young to realize that what Reardon told them was scientific research was, in reality, abuse. Reardon died in 1998. About 93 victims qualified under Connecticut's statute of limitations to sue St. Francis. Tim Doe 1 and the others are arguing that Reardon's abuse was the result of hospital negligence. In its defense, the hospital asserts that it was deceived by Reardon, just as were the parents of his victims. St. Francis also contends it had no legal obligation to monitor Reardon's so-called growth study because it wasn't the sort of sophisticated research that presented a danger to subjects — at least as described by Reardon. Twenty-nine victims, all represented by the same law firm, reached a settlement with the hospital in May after jurors began deliberating in the first case to go to trial. The jury was dismissed before reaching a verdict. Tim Doe 1 testified Friday that a physician who was acquainted with his parents urged them to enroll their children in Reardon's study. It became apparent through the questioning that the physician knew of Reardon's so-called study because the physician had a child with a growth problem. Reardon held himself up among his colleagues as a child-growth expert. On two occasions, Tim Doe 1 testified, Reardon photographed him and his sister after instructing the children to engage in intimate behavior. When he was suffering from rheumatic fever, the victim said, he recalled Reardon arranging to have him transported to the doctor's office in a wheelchair. But he testified that he could not remember what happened afterward. On the fourth occasion, the victim said, Reardon abused and measured him in the company of another boy whom he did not know. Pressed by his lawyer, Douglas Mahoney, the victim said he suffers from an array of problems such as anxiety, depression and difficulty concentrating, and attributes those problems to abuse by Reardon. He also said the abuse contributed to the failure of his marriage and to the strained relationship he has had with his sister since their teenage years. On cross-examination, hospital lawyer Ernest Mattei implied with his questions that the victim's problems had causes unrelated to Reardon. The victim acknowledged to Mattei that living on commissions from selling life insurance and annuities can cause stress and anxiety. And he admitted that he separated from his wife after she learned he was having an affair with their baby sitter. The trial was interrupted for an hour Friday morning after a criminal defendant in another case used a cellphone to make a bomb threat from elsewhere in the courthouse. The police traced the phone number and quickly arrested a suspect, court security officers said. The trial will continue Tuesday and could continue into the first or second week of July. Dozens of more Reardon-related suits against St. Francis ready for trial. emahony@courant.com
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