Coral Gables doctor surrenders license after pleading guilty to child sex abuse

A former pediatric emergency room doctor for Miami’s largest children’s hospital surrendered his medical license Friday after pleading guilty in September to charges of attempted felony child abuse in North Carolina.

Robert Kemp Crockett, 64, pleaded guilty to the charges in September for allegedly taking “indecent liberties” with a 15-year-old boy while on a family trip to Brunswick County, North Carolina, in July 2014.

In exchange for his guilty plea, the former emergency room physician at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital was sentenced to three years of supervised probation and 50 hours of community service. He served no time in jail.

Crockett, who lives in Coral Gables, could not be reached at home, and his attorney, Allen Grossman, declined to comment on Friday while his client’s case was taken up by the Florida Board of Medicine, which met in Miami.

A board-certified pediatrician, Crockett was fired from the former Miami Children’s Hospital in December 2014, after administrators first learned that he had been charged with a sexual offense and statutory rape.

Police in North Carolina were alerted to Crockett’s child abuse in August 2014, after receiving a call from Professionals Resource Network or PRN, a voluntary program for physicians and other healthcare professionals with substance abuse, psychiatric or physical illnesses that interfere with their ability to practice medicine safely.

According to investigative records, Crockett told a PRN counselor at the time that he had fondled a boy during a trip to North Carolina the prior month. Police then issued an arrest warrant for Crockett, who turned himself in.

At the time that PRN reported Crockett to police, he had been on a four-month leave of absence from the children’s hospital in Miami. Counseling between medical practitioners and PRN is typically confidential, except for mandated reporting of issues involving the abuse of vulnerable adults and children.

PRN sees about 900 doctors and other practitioners each year, with the majority of clients seeking help with substance abuse and combined substance abuse and psychiatric issues.

This story was originally published August 4, 2017 at 2:24 PM with the headline "Coral Gables doctor surrenders license after pleading guilty to child sex abuse."