DOVER, Del.- The appeal of convicted pedophile pediatrician Earl Bradley rests with the Delaware Supreme Court.
Bradley's public defenders appeared before the state's highest court for a second time Wednesday. Defense attorneys want the former doctor's conviction tossed, arguing police went beyond the scope of a warrant during a 2009 search of Bradley's old medical office in Lewes.
Bradley is serving 14 life sentences after a judge convicted him of sexually abusing young patients in a bench trial last year.
Public defender Robert Goff told a full bench of the court that the warrant limited police to the medical files of eight children; police left with digital storage devices called "flash drives" that eventually revealed videos of sexual abuse.
"It did not authorize them to take thumb drives that were not organized with, or in, or like a medical file that were not stored in a building that resembled a medical practice," Goff said.
A panel of justices heard the original appeal in June. A full bench of the court sat in on Wednesday's hearing. Bradley was not in court, a standard practice for this type of hearing. About five parents of former patients sat in the gallery along with the attorney general, lawyers and law clerks.
Defense attorneys said police went too far in deciding what constitutes a patient file and which format it could be stored.
"They've decided, when they're executing the warrant, that the medical file is any picture or depiction of a child," Goff said.
Prosecutors disagreed, arguing police acted within the scope of the warrant and had reason to believe medical files may have included images.
"Recited in there was that he had a habit of taking pictures of the children," said deputy attorney general Paul Wallace.
The attorney general's office noted police obtained a second warrant after discovering the images were not medical records.
"Seeing what was much more horrific than he anticipated finding, immediately shut it down. Immediately went and got a search warrant," Wallace said.
The two sides also dispute which buildings police were allowed to search. The defense said the warrant limited officers to certain buildings at the medical office. Prosecutors said the warrant allowed police to search the entire site.
The judges directed most of their questions to the defense, asking why the term "files" would limit police to traditional paper files and whether use of the word "place" allowed police to search the entire property.
Legal observers said it is rare for the court to hear a case twice. It is unclear when the court will rule.
Members of the Delaware Supreme Court at an appeal hearing for Earl Bradley. (Photo: WBOC)
Earl Bradley
