Pediatrician Charged With Child Porn To Be Released

A pediatrician charged with possessing more than 3,000 pornographic images of children will be released on bond, with his father acting as a third-party custodian, a judge ruled Monday. Federal prosecutors in Chicago said Dr. H. Marc Watzman was arrested and charged with child pornography after thousands of pornographic photos of children were found in his home. "Agents paint a very distrubing picture," according to NBC5`s Anna Davlantes, of a doctor who allegedly paid for pictures of children being sexually exploited and used sophisticated technilogical knowledge to access the pornography and then cover his tracks. Watzman was arrested Saturday when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and Chicago police executed a search warrant at his apartment at 1454 N. Wieland St., according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court. Authorities had been investigating Watzman at least since late September, according to information in the complaint. Watzman was charged with one count of possessing child pornography.On two laptop computers in the apartment, agents found between 3,000 and 5,000 images of young girls and boys and more than 200,000 erased images, according to the complaint. The images contained nudity as well as sexual activity. Additionally disturbing to prosecutors are questions that arise from a collection of drugs they say Watzman had in his possession. Investigators found Viagra and drugs commonly used to induce unconsciousness in a drawer in his apartment and in a secret side panel of his sport utility vehicle. The 37-year-old physician was practicing at Edward Hospital in Naperville until Oct. 8. He also worked at hospitals in Peoria and Rockford and in Wichita, Kan., Philadelphia and in Maryland. A spokesman for Edward Hospital, Brian Davis, confirmed that Watzman was an independent, part-time contractor who had been on the medical staff since Aug. 21. He said the hospital was unaware of any allegations against Watzman until Monday and added the "charges are extremely disturbing." "We have received no patient complaints about Dr. Watzman and he has no further shifts scheduled at Edward," Davis said. "We are investigating his medical staff status." A spokesman for the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation, Tony Sanders, said Watzman had never been disciplined. He said the department was searching to see if it had any records concerning him. Watzman has been held in federal custody since his arrest Saturday, and a bond hearing is scheduled for Monday afternoon. The agents investigating Watzman intercepted parcels sent to a post office box in the doctor`s name that contained pornographic videos and encrypted software that was commonly used to hide pictures within pictures and to encrypt computer files, ICE Special Agent Jose Nieves said in the complaint. Watzman also was a paying member of several Web sites featuring child pornography, according to the complaint. One of the doctor`s computers was equipped with a program called "Evidence Eliminator," which is used to erase images stored on computers. Authorities also impounded DVDs found at Watzman`s home that required special software and "secret passwords" to open, and the contents of which were still being examined, according to the complaint. Federal authortities say, according to Davlantes, that there is no evidence that Watzman exploited his relationship with any of his patients or created his own pornography. If convicted, Watzman could face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a fine of $250,000, according to the release.