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Molestation Suits Mount Against Hospital

Nearly 60 people have now filed suit against St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, claiming it failed to protect them from a staff doctor who molested them when they were children.

The lawsuits have been filed in the wake of the discovery of a huge collection of child pornography in a hidden storage space by the current owner of Dr. George Reardon's former home in West Hartford.

Reardon, who was a chief of endocrinology at the hospital and practiced medicine there for 30 years, died in 1998.

Initial lawsuits were filed within weeks after the disclosure of the discovery of the child porn collection in November.

Avon lawyer Susan Smith recently filed complaints on behalf of six plaintiffs, including two 44-year-old men, identical twins who allege the doctor touched and photographed them inappropriately in 1972, when they were 9 years old.

New Haven lawyer Joel Faxon last week filed a complaint on behalf of five new plaintiffs bringing the total to 59. In filing his previous lawsuits, Faxon and other attorneys in his firm claimed that the doctor photographed children naked in his office, raped one young boy and put masks and handcuffs on others.

The attorneys said the doctor lured the children into his office under the pretense of conducting a study on adolescent development, but there is no evidence that such a study was ever conducted.

Hospital officials say they continue to gather and review information about what happened while Reardon was practicing there.

The first complaints to surface while Reardon was at the hospital were filed with state health authorities in 1987, by a brother and sister who alleged Reardon abused them between 1956 and 1961, starting when they were 5 and 7, respectively, and the doctor was practicing in Albany. State health officials did not pursue the accusations.

"We acknowledge there are additional lawsuits and as they continue to come in we will work on our end to deal with these lawsuits," Barry Feldman, the hospital's general counsel and senior vice president, said last week.

Reardon resigned from the hospital in 1993 in the face of accusations that he molested and inappropriately photographed children for decades, starting in the 1950s.