Federal Pen for Creepy Doctor

Someone who definitely hasn't been nice got an appropriate early Christmas present last Friday.  From yesterday's Redding Record Searchlight...

A former Alturas doctor was sentenced to three years in federal prison Friday after being convicted of using hidden cameras to film teen patients during breast and pelvic exams in his Modoc County office.

Dr. Owen Murphy Panner Jr., 60, was accused of using a microscopic camera in his shirt to film a 15-year-old patient as he gave her a pelvic examination in 2001 inside the Modoc Medical Clinic, said Rosemary Shaul, a spokeswoman for U.S. Attorney McGregor Scott.

Later that year, another camera Panner hid in the air vent above an examination table captured frames of a 16-year-old girl as a nurse practitioner gave her a breast and pelvic exam, Shaul said.

He'd illicitly filmed a number of female patients of various ages and states of undress.  For a variety of reasons (previous blog here), local authorities had to settle upon him pleading no contest to two misdemeanors.  The subsequent federal charges offered a means of providing a more appropriate punishment.  As his medical board record shows, Panner surrendered his medical license in April of '06.

In 2004, a pair of hunters found the videos in a Tupperware container buried in a sage brush-covered field.

The hunters notified the Modoc County Sheriff's Office, which filed the original charges.

...

After Panner serves his prison time, he will be required to serve three years parole, and he's ordered to stay away from the two victims. He also must register as a sex offender.

Modoc County, in the rural northeastern corner of California, has struggled to keep its small medical center viable for years.  This nasty situation certainly hasn't helped.