Dentist, 81, charged in 2nd fondling case

Dentist, 81, charged in 2nd fondling case


Northwest Side orthodontist jailed after accusation by girl, 15

By Jason Meisner, Chicago Tribune reporter
9:15 PM CST, December 13, 2011


A Northwest Side orthodontist awaiting trial on charges he fondled a teenage patient during an office visit last year has been charged with a similar assault last month of a 15-year-old girl while he was free on bond, Cook County prosecutors said Tuesday.

Dr. Ernest Panos, 81, who has practiced for 45 years, had been released on $200,000 bond and ordered by a judge not to have unsupervised contact with minors after he was charged last year with fondling a 13-year-old patient.

Panos was one of the first doctors in Illinois required to have a chaperone present during all "patient encounters" as a result of a new state law enacted in response to a Tribune series on doctors convicted of sexual abuse.

State regulators approved two licensed health care chaperones for Panos in August, said Sue Hofer, a spokeswoman for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation.

Prosecutors said Panos was examining the 15-year-old girl's braces in his office in the 4800 block of North Milwaukee Avenue on Nov. 28 when she noticed she was missing an earring. Panos told the girl's mother he thought she might have dropped it in the waiting room and asked her to go look for it. While the mother was out of the room, Panos allegedly fondled the girl, according to prosecutors.

If regulators determine Panos was seeing patients without a chaperone, the state could move for an emergency suspension of his license, Hofer said.

At a bond hearing Tuesday, prosecutors also alleged that Panos, of Harwood Heights, fondled the same girl during a visit in August 2010.

Panos' attorney, Brunell Donald-Kyei, questioned why the girl would have returned for more than 20 appointments after that alleged assault. The girl had already made another appointment for Monday, Donald-Kyei said, but by that time, Panos had been arrested.

"Why would you keep taking your child to someone who is accused of touching them?" Donald-Kyei said in a telephone interview.

Panos, who had never been disciplined before and has no criminal record, was ordered held without bond Thursday pending a hearing later this week before the judge presiding over his initial charge.

Please read complete article at link below:


http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-dentist-sex-abuse-20111214,0,5393530.story

Editor's note: This shark asks a silly question.  Why is this pervert loose and touching people? Who was paid off to allow this?  Lucius Verenus, Schoolmaster, ProbateSharks.com