Boston Pediatrician Accused of Buying and Owning Hundreds of Child Pornography Pictures and DVDs
A pediatrician from Boston Children's Hospital is currently facing charges that he had hundreds of photographs and DVDs containing child pornography. If convicted, he faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Richard Keller was charged in court yesterday. He is a pediatric endocrinologist for Boston Children's Hospital and teaches pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. He was also the medical director at the elite Phillips Academy in Andover for 19 years before stepping down this year.
Prosecutors said that Keller bought more than 50 child pornography DVDs online. A search of his house turned up 500 photographs and between 60 and 100 DVDs.
The case reportedly began with an investigation into an unnamed overseas production company that provided streaming video and DVDs of child pornography films. The films included nude young boys participating in food fights, showering, wrestling in bed and playing Twister. Reviewing the record of sales made by the company led them to Keller. Officials said that the films were delivered to his home, a P.O. Box and his office at Phillips Academy.
In court, Keller pled not guilty. He mouthed "I love you" to an unidentified woman who he named as his wife. Though they were not allowed to speak, she reportedly blew him a kiss in the courtroom. She declined to identify herself or speak to the press.
In an article written about Keller's departure from the Phillips Academy, it said that he was expecting a child with a teacher at the school and that they were expecting to marry. The couple moved with their son to a house near the campus last year, but calls to the home remained unanswered.
Boston Children's Hospital said that they received no complaints from parents about him, and said that they placed him on administrative leave once they found out about his charges yesterday. He has since been scrubbed from the hospital's website.
Phillips Academy declined to say why Keller left the school last year, only saying that they had denied the renewal of his contract. The school, founded in 1778, was declared the third-best prep school in the United States by Forbes magazine in 2010. The school boasts alumni like Humphrey Bogart, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.
It is not the first time that the Andover school has seen a teacher accused of sexual crimes. David Cobb, an English teacher at the academy, was found guilty of molesting a 12-year-old boy in 1996. The boy did not go to the school.
Alumni from Phillips Academy reported Keller as being profoundly normal.