Sex offender gets to keep license to practice child psychiatry
A Dallas-area child psychiatrist had to register as a sex offender after pleading no contest to charges of taking indecent liberties with a 10-year-old girl. But Dr. William Olmsted can still keep his medical license. The Texas Medical Board will allow Olmsted to practice as long as he does it in a group setting and stays away from kids. (It’s not clear how he’s going to practice child psychiatry if he can’t have contact with kids. Maybe teleconferencing?)
But now, a second family has come forward to say that Olmsted behaved inappropriately when he treated their 10-year-old daughter, the Dallas Morning News reports. In 2005, the family says, Olmsted dropped his pants in front of the girl. Her parents pulled the girl out of treatment and reported the incident to the medical board, but say there was no follow-up.
“To find that the state board knew of not one but two complaints of impropriety with young girls and yet allowed this doctor to continue his practice with children is unconscionable,” the father wrote in a statement. “I am severely disappointed with the state of Texas right now and doubtful of its ability to stand watch.”
At least one state legislator is looking into whether laws need to be changed so doctors don’t get to keep their licenses so easily. The Texas Medical Board says that currently, licenses are revoked only if a doctor is convicted. Although Olsted pleaded no-contest to the charges, he received a sentence of six years’ deferred adjudication in January, which means that judgment will not be decided until then. The victim was a neighbor of Olmsted’s who was visiting his kids when he touched her inappropriately and sucked her toes.
