Former pediatric surgeon pleads guilty to child porn charges

Oct. 20—A former pediatric surgeon at an Albuquerque hospital pleaded guilty in federal court last week to distribution and possession of sexually explicit photos of children.

Guy Rosenschein, 68, faces more than 17 years in prison and five years of supervised release. He will be required to register as a sex offender, according to a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New Mexico.

"Additionally, Rosenschein has agreed to pay $125,000 in restitution, which will be distributed to requesting victims depicted on the material recovered on his seized devices," spokesman Scott Howell wrote in a news release.

This is far from the end of his legal journey.

At this point 32 families have filed lawsuits against Rosenschein and Presbyterian Healthcare Services.

Rosenschein — who is from France, completed two fellowships overseas and was licensed in Arkansas from 2001 until 2012 — worked at the hospital from 2012 until November 2016 when he was arrested. His attorneys did not respond to requests for comment.

The suits, filed in 2nd Judicial District Court, present a spectrum of allegations, which include that he was alone with their child and shouldn't have been, that he touched or photographed their child, and that he raped teenage patients in Arkansas after earning their trust through presents and expensive trips. In some cases, plaintiffs also allege surgeries were botched.

The suits allege Presbyterian was negligent in its hiring and supervision.

A spokeswoman noted that Rosenschein's guilty plea wasn't related to illegal activities in Presbyterian's facilities or to taking photos. She did not answer questions about whether protocols were changed after Rosenschein's arrest or how he was able to be alone with patients.

"Presbyterian is deeply committed to safe, quality care for our patients," said spokeswoman Melanie Mozes. "We've worked closely with law enforcement in their ongoing investigation of this physician and reserve comment on legal proceedings for the appropriate venue."

Alan Funk, an attorney representing many of the families, said they had been prohibited from collecting documents or conducting depositions with Rosenschein while the criminal case was ongoing.

"This guilty plea is great in that not only do my clients have that closure from the criminal side of things, but now we can actually proceed on the civil side against him and actually get a trial date and proceed to take his deposition and so forth," Funk said.

He said each one the families has a slightly different set of circumstances. The latest case was filed as recently as December 2020, and Funk said he got a new call from a former patient on Monday.

"Literally every time this pops up in the news more people see it," Funk said. "They feel safe now and prepared to tell their story, or they just happen to hear about it and make the connection that this guy once treated them."

According to a criminal complaint filed in federal court, Bernalillo County Sheriff's Office detectives got a tip about a user who had uploaded an image of a child under the age of 18 involved in a sexual act. The detectives were able to trace the IP address to Rosenschein's Northeast Albuquerque home and his user address was rosenscheinguy, according to the complaint.

When detectives executed a search warrant at his home, Rosenschein was wearing a bath robe and armed himself with a gun before surrendering peacefully.

In his bedroom was a 16-year-old boy who was wearing only boxer shorts.

Rosenschein denied a sexual relationship with the boy, a former patient of his referred to in the complaint as John Doe, but said he often stayed overnight.

"Rosenschein owns two airplanes and a helicopter and has flown John Doe to Florida, Nevada and Arkansas for vacations," an agent wrote in the federal complaint. "Rosenschein also stated he flew another boy, who was a former patient of his, around the Albuquerque area."

Howell said when detectives executed a search warrant they found numerous devices with images of child sexual abuse.

"Investigators identified over 19,000 images and 2,000 videos of child pornography in Rosenschein's possession, of which law enforcement confirmed that 3,000 images and 197 videos depicted previously identified minor children engaged in sexually explicit conduct," he said.

Lawsuits filed in the case state that plaintiffs heard Rosenschein had a "secret room" in his house with photos of "genitalia of patients of his in a hospital setting."

Two lawsuits against Rosenschein allege he raped teenage boys who were former patients of his in Arkansas after gaining their trust, taking them on trips and letting them stay the night.

Funk said it was important for the civil suits to be brought individually since Rosenschein's patients were affected in different ways.

"For some folks they're adults now, for some folks they were children of an age where they couldn't even remember," Funk said. "Some folks were effected by this much more than others and everybody's damages are very different."