Suspicions about Bradley not reported, plaintiffs’ lawyer says

By CRIS BARRISH • The News Journal • March 5,
2010

Lawyers who have filed 17 lawsuits against Dr. Earl. B. Bradley and Beebe Medical Center on behalf of
abused children have added new defendants: the Medical Society of Delaware and three physicians — all accused of knowing Bradley, a pediatrician accused of molesting patients, posed a threat for years but failing to report him to authorities.

The newest accusations are from parents of a 4-year-old girl and 5-year-old boy who filed suit Thursday, said their attorney, Bruce Hudson. The alleged victims are identified as Jane Doe 16 and John Doe 1.

The previous 15 complaints will be amended to include the society and three doctors, Hudson said. Besides the society, a trade group for physicians, the lawsuits name Dr. James P. Marvel Jr., former society president, and Dr. Carol Tavani, who chairs its Physician’s Health Committee.

Also sued was Dr. Lowell Scott, a Milford pediatrician who police said told them in 2005 that he referred to Bradley as a “pedophile” while speaking with medical colleagues, a remark he has since said was “taken out of context.”

Along with Beebe, where Bradley was employed or had privileges to treat hospitalized patients from 1995 until his December arrest, all are accused in the lawsuits of dereliction of duty and medical negligence for not reporting suspicions of Bradley’s “sexual abuse of young children” to the Delaware Board of Medical Practice, as required by law. The board licenses and disciplines physicians.

None have publicly acknowledged they suspected Bradley of abusing children. None would comment Thursday about the lawsuits.

Bradley, 56, who was investigated by police in 2005 and 2008 without charges being filed, now faces 471 counts of rape and abuse of 102 girls and one boy from 1998 through December. Graphic accounts of forced intercourse and oral sex have been documented in police affidavits, which say Bradley made videos of the assaults. He is being held in lieu of $2.9 million bail at the state prison near Smyrna.

The lawsuit did not detail the specific acts allegedly committed at Beebe by the society and the doctors, but Hudson said accounts from police affidavits, newspaper articles and interviews he and fellow attorneys conducted with clients and others formed the basis for the allegations.

“They could have prevented all of this from happening if they had just taken the appropriate steps in 2005,” said attorney Ben Castle, who represents the families with Hudson. “It would have saved all of the victims after that.”

Beebe officials have confirmed that in 2005, Milford police used a search warrant to try to get records about Bradley from the hospital and that they also became aware of vague allegations against him in Philadelphia, where he had practiced until 1994. Beebe officials also said Bradley was required to have a chaperone while treating patients for about a month that year.

The medical society has acknowledged getting a “communication” in late 2004 from Bradley’s sister and former officer manager, Lynda Barnes, about Bradley during that period, but Tavani has said Barnes did not report abuse of patients when she contacted the society.

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