Earl B. BradleyDOVER, Del. (WBOC/AP)- Prosecutors have decided not to pursue remaining charges against a former Delaware pediatrician serving life in prison for molesting scores of young patients.
Fifty-nine-year-old Earl B. Bradley of Lewes is serving 14 life sentences for child rape after being convicted in 2011. A judge convicted him after viewing more than 13 hours of homemade videos showing sex crimes against more than 80 victims. That conviction stemmed from a 471-count indictment based on those videos.
A subsequent indictment, based on interviews of possible victims, accused Bradley of more than 50 additional criminal counts.
Delaware Attorney General Beau Biden said Monday his office would not pursue those charges, saying, "A trial on these charges would require the young victims and their parents to take the stand and testify publicly, in the presence of Earl Bradley himself, about their abuse. "We cannot expect or demand that they relive their pain and be victimized all over again."
Biden said that because Bradley has already received the maximum punishment available under the law – multiple life sentences without the possibility of probation – he has decided that ending the remaining case by withdrawing the indictment is in the best interest of the victims and their families.
Deputy Atty. Gen. David Hume says prosecutors met with the victims and their families last week to explain the decision.
"This gives everybody a chance to begin the healing process," he said. "While these charges are out there, they're obviously something that would preoccupy the families and the children. They all wondered what the next step was going to be. This gives them a chance to breathe and a chance to heal and begin moving forward as best they can."
Hume said the families understood and were supportive of the attorney general's decision.
"They all want justice for their children. But they also understand that
even those there were two indictments, it was one case. The 14 life
sentences and 164 years are for all the children. They're even for the
children who may have been Bradley patients that weren't necessarily
named in an indictment."
