On March 18, 2019, the court sentenced former pediatrician Dr. Johnnie Barto to serve a minimum of 79 years up to a maximum of 158 years in prison after he pled guilty to the sexual abuse of two minor family members. Over the course of a career that lasted more than 40 years, Dr. Barto engaged in systemic sexual abuse of an unknown number of primarily female patients ranging in age from infancy to early puberty. The sentence he received at the age of 71 virtually guarantees that he will spend the rest of his life behind bars.
However, criminal prosecution can only provide a fraction of justice and closure for the hundreds, and potentially thousands, of people whose lives were forever changed by this now-disgraced doctor’s predatory behavior. As a result, victims filed the first Dr. Johnnie Barto sexual abuse lawsuits just a few weeks after his conviction and sentencing. If you were abused by Dr. Barto when you were a child, a sexual abuse attorney from Phillips Law Group can very likely help you pursue such a claim yourself.
The first allegation of sexual misconduct made against Dr. Johnnie Barto dates back to September 1994 by a then-four-year-old, whose mother reported the matter to both local police and Child Protective Services. In 1998, other patients made further allegations against Dr. Barto, resulting in the revocation of his medical license. Despite these claims, in 2000, both the state Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs and the state Board of Medicine claimed that Dr. Barto’s alleged behavior was inconsistent with his professional reputation, and the Board subsequently reversed the revocation of Dr. Barto’s medical license.
As a result, Dr. Barto was able to continue practicing and abusing vulnerable children until January 2018, when he was arrested and criminally charged for allegedly inappropriately touching a 12-year-old patient in December of the previous year. This ultimately led to victims bringing forth dozens of more sexual misconduct suits against Dr. Barto, culminating in his criminal conviction and sentencing in March 2019.
Dr. Johnnie Barto’s conviction and sentence should ensure that he is never able to harm another child for the rest of his life. However, that still leaves the matter of his civil liability, as well as that of the various medical organizations that enabled his decades of abuse, for the immense harm he has caused his victims.
Fortunately, Pennsylvania is one of many states that have substantially expanded the statutory filing deadlines for people who experienced sexual abuse as minor children. Under the current statute of limitations for claims of this nature, victims of childhood sexual abuse, such as those of Dr. Barto, have until their 55th birthday to file a lawsuit for damages such as medical expenses, physical pain, and psychological distress, regardless of how old they were when that abuse occurred.
Money alone cannot erase all the lifelong effects that childhood sexual abuse can cause. With that being said, joining those who have pursued Dr. Johnnie Barto sexual abuse lawsuits could help you maximize your future quality of life and achieve some amount of closure from his illegal and unjustifiable actions against you.
Phillips Law Group can help you understand your legal options and offer preliminary guidance about next steps during a confidential, free, no-obligation consultation. Schedule yours by calling today.
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