A Denver doctor who was accused of videotaping young, naked patients and posting child pornography on social media was sentenced to 23 years in prison, federal prosecutors in Colorado said Tuesday.
The man, Justin Neisler, now 32, pleaded guilty to production of child pornography in January. He was arrested in March 2019 on allegations including that he surreptitiously videotaped nude boys during physical examinations.
In a statement, Jason Dunn, the U.S. attorney for Colorado, called the sentence "wholly appropriate in light of the horrific acts committed by the one person besides a parent that a child is told to trust unquestionably."
An FBI investigation was launched in October 2018 when officials at Tumblr reported that Neisler had repeatedly posted child pornography to his account, according to court documents.
Neisler also admitted to secretly recording some medical exams of minors while serving as a doctor, using a spy camera and an iPhone, prosecutors said.
The videos were not distributed to others, and investigators interviewed the victims "to make certain that no other hands-on offenses occurred," the U.S. attorney's office said.
An attorney representing Neisler, Martin Stuart, declined to comment Tuesday night.
Neisler told authorities that he never touched any of his minor patients inappropriately but did record some of them, according to a plea agreement. He said he had been watching child pornography since he was 11 and had been worried about being arrested for 20 years, according to the document.
Federal prosecutors said that they have been informed that Neisler's Colorado medical license was suspended and that it would be forfeited after Tuesday's sentencing hearing.
In addition to the prison sentence, Neisler was ordered to pay $10,100 in what the U.S. attorney's office described as court assessments and into funds set up to assist victims of child exploitation crimes.
