Former Orange County doctor sentenced to more than 3 years on child pornography charge

SANTA ANA, Calif. — A physician formerly employed by Southern California Permanente Medical Group in Anaheim was sentenced Monday to 41 months in federal prison for downloading and possessing child pornography depicting the sometimes sadistic abuse of young children.

Robert Harold Dolin, 55, of Irvine, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography in January. He was sentenced Monday morning by U.S. District Judge James V. Selna, who wrote in his sentencing memorandum that "possession of child pornography – especially material that involves prepubescent minor and masochistic or violent conduct is a real crime with real victims. It is serious and it must be deterred."

The case is the result of a probe by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and the Orange County Child Exploitation Task Force, with assistance from Kaiser Permanente.

"This case is particularly egregious given that the defendant, a physician, had taken an oath to 'never do harm,'" said Claude Arnold, special agent in charge for HSI Los Angeles. "Instead he chose to hurt and exploit innocent and vulnerable children through his consumption of Internet child pornography. This case shows that HSI works with the private sector as well as our law enforcement partners to investigate those who sexually exploit our children to ensure these individuals feel the full weight of the law."

In March 2008, Kaiser Permanente alerted HSI that its routine monitoring of employee-assigned computers indicated that a computer assigned to Dolin was being used to access child exploitation websites. HSI special agents subsequently executed search warrants at Dolin's Irvine home and Anaheim office, seizing multiple computers and electronic storage, both corporate and personal.

The investigation revealed that from January through April of 2008, Dolin received over 1,000 electronic images of child pornography via his work computer. The images depicted the abuse of prepubescent children – often sadistically – in addition to images of infants, toddlers and pre-school-aged children being sexually abused.

This investigation was conducted under HSI's Operation Predator, an international initiative to protect children from sexual predators. Since the launch of Operation Predator in 2003, HSI has arrested more than 10,000 individuals for crimes against children, including the production and distribution of online child pornography, traveling overseas for sex with minors, and sex trafficking of children. In fiscal year 2013, more than 2,000 individuals were arrested by HSI special agents under this initiative.

HSI encourages the public to report suspected child predators and any suspicious activity through its toll-free Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2-ICE or by completing its online tip form. Both are staffed around the clock by investigators. Suspected child sexual exploitation or missing children may be reported to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, an Operation Predator partner, via its toll-free 24-hour hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST.

For additional information about wanted suspected child predators, download HSI's Operation Predator smartphone app or visit the online suspect alerts page.