A longtime California pediatrician has surrendered his medical license after dealing with greater than 20 years of accusations that he sexually abused his sufferers, foster youth and boys in his residence.
The event within the case of Dr. Patrick Clyne, 63, settled drawn-out authorized proceedings with the state Lawyer Common’s workplace, which was set to put out its proof to bar him from training drugs.
Accusations in opposition to Clyne, the previous chief doctor for Santa Clara County’s little one welfare system and a former foster and adoptive guardian, date again to 2001. 4 years in the past, the state legal professional common filed a grievance accusing him of “unprofessional acts” and “gross negligence” based mostly on his remedy of six sufferers, ages 6 to 16. In a subsequent amended submitting, the variety of alleged victims elevated to 12, together with youngsters who the AG’s workplace reported had been inappropriately touched, usually whereas their caregivers weren’t current. The state additionally accused Clyne of improperly approving prescriptions for the remedy of ADHD.
Clyne has lengthy maintained his innocence and has by no means been arrested or criminally charged. He continued to observe pediatric drugs in rural Santa Cruz County whereas the AG’s workplace sought to have the Medical Board of California pull his license.
However a doc signed Thursday by Medical Board Government Director Reji Varghese finalized an settlement during which Clyne “shall lose all rights and privileges as a physician and surgeon in California as of June 13, 2025.”
Clyne and his legal professional Ian Scharg, who focuses on medical malpractice instances, declined to remark to The Imprint, a nationwide nonprofit information outlet overlaying little one welfare and youth justice. The state Medical Board, which might droop a doctor’s license after an arrest or a discovering of quick hazard to a affected person’s security, additionally didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark.
Decision of the state’s case won’t finish the authorized jeopardy Clyne faces.
A separate civil case earlier than the Santa Clara County Superior Courtroom is scheduled to go to trial subsequent month. In that lawsuit, first filed in 2020, Clyne is accused of committing “multiple acts” of kid sexual abuse in opposition to a boy recognized as Kyle in courtroom paperwork. He was positioned at age 8 in Clyne’s residence by the native little one welfare company greater than 20 years in the past, and later was adopted by his doctor foster father.
Reacting to the information that Clyne has surrendered his medical license, Kyle’s legal professional, Wyatt Vespermann, described it as “long overdue,” however nonetheless missing.
“Given what this man has done, the childhoods that he has stolen, we’re happy for this, but we’re in no way, shape or form satisfied,” Vespermann mentioned. “It’s just not enough.”
The Lawyer Common’s grievance, expert-witness studies and police investigations involving Clyne describe the alleged victims as youngsters who reported discomfort with routine well-child checks and bodily examinations.
One 8-year-old foster youth, who was a affected person of Clyne’s whereas dwelling in a bunch residence in 2009, mentioned in a police report that she didn’t like how he repeatedly touched her non-public elements throughout exams. She described Clyne’s medical care as “weird.” One other mentioned he was “extremely traumatized” by the well being examinations given by Clyne when he was a boy within the early 2000s.
A pair of medical doctors employed by the state to assessment dozens of instances over time discovered a number of examples indicating that Clyne’s remedy of sufferers amounted to an “extreme departure from the standard of care,” in accordance with an professional witness report submitted to the courtroom.
These included analyzing youngsters and not using a caregiver current, failing to make use of gloves and insisting youngsters take away all their clothes unnecessarily and touching sufferers throughout genital exams, the report acknowledged.
A more moderen case in 2014 centered on a grievance by a mom, who reported that Clyne “told her he would have to put his fingers in the patient’s vagina in order to examine her stomach,” the professional witness report states. “There is no rationale for this kind of examination.”
Dr. Brian Blaisch, who was one in every of professional witnesses, acknowledged that the affected person’s mom ended the examination when she realized of Clyne’s intentions, however even the suggestion of such an act was “nonsensical and inappropriate.”
Clyne’s trial set to start in Santa Clara County Superior Courtroom on June 23 locations the physician once more below public scrutiny. Particulars on this case heart on abuse that allegedly occurred within the late Nineteen Nineties, admissible in courtroom following passage of a state regulation that broadened the statute of limitations for sexual assault instances.
Kyle, the plaintiff, was positioned in Clyne’s residence in 1995 after being faraway from his mom. A fourth grader on the time, he was one in every of a number of younger boys taken in by Clyne, who fostered youth whereas working on the Santa Clara Valley Medical Middle and within the native county shelter treating abused and uncared for youngsters.
Kyle’s lawsuit accuses Clyne of abusing him over a four-year interval whereas he lived in his residence, and that has resulted in lasting results together with “post-traumatic stress disorder, significant shame and guilt, low self-esteem, lack of self-worth, lack of trust, anxiety, depression, lack of intimacy in close relationships, nightmares, and hyper-vigilance.”
Santa Clara County is called as a defendant within the lawsuit for failing to correctly monitor and supervise the boy’s care. County officers didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Kyle is now a father in his mid-30s. In 2019, he advised The Mercury Information that he nonetheless wrestled with the ache of childhood abuse, and wished Clyne to be saved from youngsters.
“If I could prevent him from hurting one more kid, that’s my mission accomplished,” Kyle mentioned.
This story is being co-published with The Imprint, a nationwide nonprofit information outlet overlaying little one welfare and youth justice. Jeremy Loudenback is a workers author for The Imprint. He may be reached at jloud@imprintnews.org. Learn an extended model right here.
