Pediatric Dentist Gets 6 Years for Child Porn, Nice!

A St Charles, Mo. Pediatric Dentist, Dr. Anthony Rizzuti, has been sentenced to 6 years in prison for child pornography according to  the Stltoday.com (St. Louis Post Dispatch website.)  Obviously, this story is shades of  Delaware pediatrician Earl B. Bradley that I and about every other news and blawger reported on late last year.  This is from Robert Patrick:s story:

"A pediatric dentist from St. Charles caught in an Internet sex sting in 2008 was sentenced Thursday to six years in federal prison on a child pornography possession charge. Dr. Anthony R. Rizzuti was arrested in June 2008 by Maryland Heights police after driving there from his home to meet, and have sex with, what he thought was a 14-year-old girl, prosecutors say. The girl, 'Hannah' was really a Maryland Heights police officer. In an ensuing investigation, police uncovered child pornography on Rizzuti's computer.

The 2008 arrest followed the third time that Rizzuti corresponded with an undercover police officer online, according to court documents and testimony.  In March 2005, Rizzuti had similar conversations with a Dublin, Ohio, police officer pretending to be a 14-year-old girl. Rizzuti bought the girl a plane ticket to San Francisco so they could meet there and have sex, prosecutors say.  It was not clear what happened to the 2005 investigation and another investigation briefly mentioned Thursday.

Rizzuti's lawyers argued that he did not intend to have sex with either 'girl' and was engaging in fantasy online chats with people who could have been any age.  But Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob Livergood cited records of the Ohio chats in which the 'girl' mentioned her age five times. Rizzuti's psychologist, Luis Rosell, said Rizzuti was a low risk to commit other crimes, or have sexual contact with children. izzuti was sexually inexperienced, and his online chats were an outlet, part of his 'fantasy life,' Rosell said. But even there, Rosell said, Rizzuti met frustration.

'The adults don't talk sexual,' Rosell said, adding that only the 14- and 15-year-olds would engage in sexual conversations with Rizzuti.At least three of those 'teens,' of course, were police officers prowling for child predators.

Rizzuti pleaded guilty to the pornography charge in December. In addition to the six-year sentence, U.S. District Judge Rod Sippel placed Rizzuti on supervised release for life. He will also have to register as a sex offender. Rizzuti still faces a felony charge in St. Louis County of attempted enticement of a child in the Internet sting case."
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We kid ourselves when we think a professional certificate, white coat, or business card denotes something trustworthy especially when it relates to those we trust with our children.  As I have said, ad nauseum, pedophilia, sexual predators are not limited by wealth, education or social class.  I know this sound preachy, but it needs to be said, our job as parents is to be fully present with our children when they interact with adults. 

When I launched into that part of my law practice that was directed to tracking down these people I trusted that my awareness of the capacity for a black heart would instill in me a sense of who was lying when they denied doing these things to children.  How little I knew, how little I know!  The capacity for persons in these trust relationships to exploit and injure those in their care is startling.  It seems to me that there is no higher calling than to end the evil exploitation of children by adults.  This comes in many forms, in many places, none of it can be justified.