Fox News
For years, pediatrician Craig Spiegel worked out of a medical building near DePaul Hospital in Bridgeton, where patients reported the doctor offered prescriptions for sex or for sexual pictures.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge John Ross listened to devastating impact statements from victims, then looked at the former pediatrician and said, ‘What you did was a horrendous breach of trust.’
‘You kind of get sick of talking about the defendant,’ U.S. Attorney Thomas Albus said. ‘…And frankly, words kind of fail you when you’re trying to talk about what he did. It’s enough to just survive being treated like this as a victim, but what we need in the criminal justice system is for the victims to not just survive it, but to say, ‘Look, I’ve got to see this through.’’
Albus said those victims did.
‘That’s the heroic thing that went on today. That there was accountability and that the victims were heard,’ he said.
Prosecutors asked that Spiegel, now 69, get 20 years in prison. Spiegel’s defense requested 12 years. But the former doctor did not help himself when he was caught lying under oath. Spiegel claimed he never consented to a search of his phone, even though he’d signed a consent form.
Bridgeton police worked the case, with detectives Bradley Cash and Matt Paxton working with the very first victim. They gave her the credit.
‘The courage is always greatly appreciated. And again, in cases like this, not all victims come forward. It takes a lot of courage to do so,’ Paxton said.
One of the victim impact statements was from a mother who said Spiegel illegally dispensed prescriptions to her daughter – who she eventually found dead of a drug overdose.
Spiegel blamed his behavior on losing distant family members in the Holocaust.
The judge said that was an offensive excuse and sentenced Spiegel to 20 years in prison.