In court, man accuses Ohio pediatrician of molesting him as a child, paying him as an adult

Accuser testifies in Ohio doctor’s sex-crime trial

HAMILTON, Ohio — A man who claims a southwest Ohio pediatrician molested him as a teenager testified Wednesday that the doctor gave him prescription drugs and payments of up to $15,000 in exchange for keeping the sex abuse quiet.

The now 24-year-old man said he was 13 when he was first sexually assaulted by 53-year-old Dr. Mark Blankenburg, one of two twin brother pediatricians accused of sex crimes involving minors in Hamilton, about 30 miles north of Cincinnati.

The accuser said Blankenburg performed a sex act on him and gave him $200 when he first went to see the doctor in 1998 after being hit in the knee with a baseball. He said similar incidents happened three more times by the time he was 16, and caused him to end up in drug treatment, attempt suicide and be admitted to psychiatric care.

The slight man, wearing jeans and a golf shirt, kept his head down and appeared solemn, rubbing his eyes when he mentioned two additional sexual encounters with Blankenburg as an adult.

The defense maintains there is no evidence linking Blankenburg to the alleged crimes and that he was a victim of extortion, paying the accuser about $250,000 over several years.

On Wednesday, the alleged victim testified he had lost his job in May 2004 and visited the doctor, asked him if he remembered what he had done and asked him for money. He said Blankenburg gave him $3,000. He said he returned to Blankenburg for money several times, receiving prescriptions and payments ranging from $500 to $15,000 that were used to pay bills and buy the drugs.

The witness said he called the doctor’s office using a fake name to request money and was eventually given Blankenburg’s cell phone number. He said money was sometimes left for him in the doctor’s car and once in a bush.

He testified that Blankenburg had him write a note in 2004 saying a $15,000 payment settled all personal and professional claims and Blankenburg had not engaged in any illegal or improper conduct.

The man acknowledged that he was interviewed by a detective in October 2007 and said nothing, but said he told investigators about the abuse in a subsequent interview after he was asked if his infant son was a patient of Blankenburg and replied, “He will never go there.”

The witness also explained that he told a grand jury he was molested only three times as a minor because he was 16 during the fourth incident and was embarrassed to discuss it because he felt he might have let it happen.

He also said drug use was a factor in his arrest on a 2006 endangerment charge in Kentucky, and that Blankenburg paid his legal bills and gave him money for phone calls made from jail.

Blankenburg is charged with bribery and money laundering involving another man, who also testified Wednesday. The 36-year-old said Blankenburg sexually molested him when he was a teenager and paid him money. Prosecutors say they could not bring sex charges against the doctor in these instances because of the statute of limitations.

The trial is expected to continue into next week. Blankenburg’s twin, Dr. Scott Blankenburg, faces trial in April.