Posted on 07/19/2006 4:45:15 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES
A jury convicted world-renowned geneticist William French Anderson on Wednesday of molesting the daughter of a colleague.
Anderson, 69, is widely credited as the "father of gene therapy," a promising but controversial experimental medical treatment that involves injecting healthy genes into sick patients. He was the first person to successfully treat a patient this way in 1990, launching the field.
The white-haired Anderson sat stoically, staring straight ahead, his head held high. He showed no reaction as the verdicts were read.
His wife, a renowned surgeon, sat in the front row of the spectator section behind him with her eyes downcast and fists clenched in her lap.
At one point, he turned, looked at her and smiled slightly.
Superior Court Judge Michael E. Pastor said he was ordering a psychiatric study of Anderson before he decides on the sentence.
"I believe Dr. Anderson is statutorily eligible for probation," the judge said.
The prosecutor disagreed.
Anderson was convicted of one count of continuous sexual abuse of a child under age 14 and three counts of committing a lewd act upon a child.
Prosecutors accused him of molesting the girl over a period from 1997 to 2001, with the abuse beginning during Saturday morning taekwondo lessons at his home in San Marino, a wealthy suburb east of Los Angeles.
"There was the secret dirty side to that relationship," prosecutor Cathryn Brougham told jurors in her opening statement at the three-week trial.
Anderson had been placed on leave from his position as director of the Gene Therapies Laboratories at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine.
A pioneer in his field, Anderson published hundreds of articles in scholarly journals and won numerous awards for his work. He was Time magazine's runner-up for Man of the Year in 1995 and launched the scientific journal Human Gene Therapy.
His lawyer, Barry Tarlow, had argued that his client was a kindly mentor to the girl and was being smeared by her mother, whom he said wanted to assume Anderson's position at USC.
Tarlow said that while Anderson was brilliant in the lab, he did not have great social skills, as evidenced by e-mails introduced at trial in which he wrote about pondering suicide if the girl's allegations were to become public.
"Nothing about having a 176 IQ means you have good judgment," Tarlow said.
Neither side disputed that Anderson and his accuser had a close relationship. Anderson bought the girl and her twin sister bicycles for Christmas. He helped them get into a summer program at Stanford University, bought the accuser's prom dress and allowed her and her sister to host a sleepover party for their friends at his house.
I can't figure out people like this. They think they're going to get away with it?
Yes.Money talks,S%%t walks.Justice as usual.Nothing to see her,just keep moving along.
I am also trying to figure out why parents would allow their daughter to have a sleepover at his house....
There was a PhD here in Philly who was found guilty of rape but got house arrest because he was too vital to research to be put in jail. The DA blew a gasket and petitioned to reconsider the sentence. He still wound up getting a slap on the wrist.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.