Two attorneys hired by a Delaware pediatrician charged with raping or sexually abusing 103 patients are leaving the case because the attorney general is seeking to freeze their client's assets.
Former pediatrician Earl Bradley faces 471 counts of sexual crimes against 103 children. All of the alleged victims, including one boy, were caught on more than 13 hours of video recordings, some dating to 1998, that were seized from Bradley's office and home, Attorney General Beau Biden said in February.
Gene Maurer told The News-Journal of Wilmington on Wednesday that he and fellow attorney Paul Kania cannot defend Earl Bradley. Maurer, who was pursuing a mental health defense, says the cost of expert witnesses is "astronomical."
Maurer says he offered to stay on the case "pro bono'' but the state won't pay for expert witnesses if a defendant has private lawyers.
Public Defender J. Brendan O'Neill says unless other private counsel steps in, his office will represent Bradley.
The change will mean a scheduled March 24 arraignment will be delayed.
Bradley was arrested in December after a 2-year-old girl told her mother that the doctor hurt her. The indictment alleges that the abuse of child patients goes back as far as December 1998, though there is a gap from October 2004 to June 2006, in which no alleged abuse is listed.
Bradley is being held on $2.9 million bail.
