APNewsBreak: Delaware files racketeering lawsuit against accused pedophile pediatrician

Delaware files suit against accused pediatrician

DOVER, Del. — Delaware prosecutors are seeking to seize the assets of a pediatrician accused of sexually assaulting several of his patients and use the proceeds for the benefit of his alleged victims.

A civil racketeering lawsuit against Dr. Earl Bradley of Lewes was filed late Wednesday. The lawsuit seeks to preserve the assets of Bradley, his medical practice, BayBees Pediatrics, and Bradley Family LLC, a single-member entity that holds the deed to Bradley’s medical office.

“This is something that is an important component of this overall investigation,” Attorney General Beau Biden told The Associated Press on Thursday. Biden said he did not know the value of Bradley’s assets.

Bradley is being held in lieu of $2.9 million bail on charges of sexually assaulting several patients at his office last year.

Delaware’s criminal code allows the Department of Justice to put a lien on the assets of a defendant and seek forfeiture on behalf of the victims. Officials plan to ask that the civil lawsuit be put on hold pending resolution of the criminal case against Bradley.

Prosecutors note in their complaint that the racketeering statute is intended to prevent the infiltration of legitimate economic enterprises by racketeering practices, which in Bradley’s case is the sexual exploitation of children, and the use of legal and illegal enterprises to further criminal activities.

In the complaint, prosecutors allege that Bradley used proceeds from illegal activity to acquire real and personal property that is subject to seizure.

“Dr. Bradley used his business, BayBees Pediatrics, to procure his victims,” the complaint states. “His victims were some of his patients — children who came to BayBees Pediatrics to get medical care. He also used his medical services business as a cover for getting his victims alone and away from their guardians in order to perform and videotape unlawful sexual acts.”

Bradley was arrested in December after a 2-year-old child complained to her mother that Bradley had hurt her after an office visit. The mother then learned that the child had made a similar complaint to her father after getting a flu shot in October.

Investigators subsequently seized video recordings from Bradley’s office allegedly showing him raping and molesting children as young as 6 months old during a period from August to December of last year. Prosecutors charged him with sexually assaulting nine children but have said he may have attacked more than 100 children over the past decade.