A Brownwood, Texas, doctor who pleaded guilty in October to aggravated sexual assault of a child has been allowed to continue his practice - with restrictions - but state medical board officials could soon revoke that privilege.
Donald Delmer Pope entered the plea in Tarrant County and was ordered to serve eight years' probation and stay away from the victim, who was a friend of Dr. Pope's daughter.
Following his conviction, the Texas Medical Board took its own action, restricting the doctor's medical practice by prohibiting him from seeing female patients under the age of 17. In addition, the board required Dr. Pope to undergo medical and psychiatric evaluation.
The length of the board's censure is indefinite, but an official with the agency said last week that it could decide to add to the punishment by revoking the doctor's license, or it could remove its restrictions altogether and restore him to full practice privileges.
"The panel makes its determination based on the evidence it has and what it deems to be appropriate to provide protection for the public," said Jill Wiggins, spokeswoman for the medical board.
Ms. Wiggins said Dr. Pope could be summoned before the board for a hearing at any time to review the status of his temporary restriction. Such hearings, she said, are typically scheduled within a few months of the board's sanctions against a doctor, but she said those proceedings are not open to the public.
Dr. Pope, 55, declined to comment, said a woman who answered the telephone at his Brownwood office last week. His attorney, Kirby Roberts of Brownwood, also declined to comment.
The October guilty plea by Dr. Pope, a family practice physician, came in the same month that a similar charge against him in Brown County was dismissed. The details about that case were not immediately available.
Two months before, in August, a Tarrant County jury deadlocked on whether the doctor sexually assaulted an 8-year-old friend of his daughter in 2000. At the time the girl, who is now 16, accompanied Dr. Pope and his daughter to Six Flags and other tourist spots in Arlington, police said.
The three stayed at an Arlington hotel, and, according to police reports, that is where the abuse took place. The girl kept quiet for six years before telling a counselor in 2006 that she had been molested, police said, and that ultimately led to the doctor's guilty plea and felony conviction.
"I think communities are still outraged when they hear these things, particularly when they hear it is a person of trust like a doctor or teacher who's involved," said Torie Camp, executive director of the Texas Association Against Sexual Assault in Austin.
"Sexual predators come in all shapes and sizes, and we shouldn't be surprised that doctors are sexual molesters," said Ms. Camp, whose organization represents 80 rape crisis centers, including one in Fort Worth.
