Sex Offender At Medical Clinic Prompts Concern

Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2006 5:37 am

Sex Offender At Medical Clinic Prompts Concern

POSTED: 6:38 pm EDT July 31, 2006
UPDATED: 11:45 pm EDT July 31, 2006

A Problem Solvers investigation uncovered a convicted sex offender who has access to the private medical records of children working at a pediatric office and it is perfectly legal.

Sanford resident Octavia Bryant recently recognized Walter Muth, 50, working at Aneesa Ahmad's Altamonte Springs, Fla., clinic after bringing her children for treatment.

Muth pleaded guilty to lewd and lascivious behavior with a 14-year-old girl in 1995 and served probation, according to the report.

Bryant was concerned that Muth was working near Central Florida children.

"He is out there where all of the childrens' personal information is," Bryant said. "He has access to the computers. Children are in the room and he is walking up and down the hallway and I think that is unfair."

Local 6 News reporter Chris Trenkmann tried to talk with Muth when he was trying to leave from the clinic's back entrance.

"Do you work here?" Trenkmann asked.

"No, I do not," Muth said.

"Muth nearly backed into us with his SUV," Trenkmann said.

Dr. Aneesa Ahmad told Local 6 News that she was satisfied that Muth was not a danger to children even though he worked part time on the office computers with access to the medical records of children.

Bryant contacted law enforcement after she found Muth was working in the clinic and was told that he was not breaking any laws.

"I do not know of any statute that is violated by a doctor hiring someone who is a sex offender but has completed all of the conditions of any supervision they had," Seminole County state attorney's office Chris White spokesman said.

"Bryant said she is frustrated that the laws don't cover doctor's offices where children are present," Trenkmann said.

"They are not allowed in the parks, churches or day cares, any where, so why are they allowed to work in pediatricians' offices?" Bryant said.

The Seminole County sex offender ordinance does not allow offenders to live within 1,000 feet of schools, public parks or day care centers but does not prevent private employers from hiring them as long as they have met the terms of their punishment, Local 6 News reported.

Watch Local 6 News for more on this story.

http://www.local6.com/money/9604835/detail.html?rss=orlpn&psp=news