Broward doctor sentenced to 8 years after pleading guilty to possessing child-porn images
A Broward County pediatrician who pleaded guilty to possessing images of child pornography on his computer was sentenced Thursday to eight years in prison.
Dr. Michael Mizrachy, 50, of Parkland, was charged with possessing a video of a girl under 12 years old who was engaged in “sexually explicit conduct” with an adult male, according to an indictment and other court records.
Mizrachy was arrested in Februrary 2021 by federal Homeland Security Investigations agents as he was making an appearance for his state case in Broward Circuit Court on charges of two counts of possession of sexual performance by a child and one count of using a computer to solicit a child to commit an illegal act. Those charges were dropped, and the case was turned over to federal prosecutors.
His defense attorney, Richard Merlino, argued that his client should receive a sentence of time served so far in custody, but U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon rejected that request in Fort Pierce federal court on Thursday. In addition to incarceration, Cannon also ruled that the pediatrician be placed on supervised release for 15 years after his prison sentence. He must now register as a sex offender in Florida.
Mizrachy has been in custody since his arrest and faced up to 20 years in prison on the single child-porn charge in his indictment.
After the doctor’s sentencing, Merlino said Mizrachy was “profusely remorseful” and apologetic in court. Merlino said the pediatrician gave up his Florida medical license, went through a divorce, and lost his career and reputation as a result of his criminal prosecution.
In a statement, Merlino further said: “There is no evidence of him proactively engaging in communications seeking to entice, meet or lure minors to engage in actual physical sexual conduct. He did not possess the stereotypical large volume of child pornography usually seen in child pornography cases. Basically, [he was] charged only with the depiction set forth in a single short video clip.”
The investigation began in the summer of 2020 when the Broward Sheriff’s Office received a tip that led detectives to Mizrachy, who was a licensed physician for 20 years. The tip enabled them to get a search warrant for his Yahoo email account.
Detectives with the department’s Internet Crimes Against Children found a video in the account showing child pornography, which was described in the tip. The video, BSO said, involved a man raping an 8- to 10-year-old child. Detectives also found several photos that showed “what appear to be young children in their bathing suits, underwear or shorts in which none of the children appear to be aware the photos were being taken,” BSO said.
According to Mizrachy’s BSO arrest affidavit, the pictures appeared to have been taken on his iPhone. BSO said the photographs allowed detectives to get an additional search warrant in October 2020 for Mizrachy’s home in Parkland. Mizrachy, according to the affidavit, told detectives that the email they searched was his and he has it as a “hidden secret.”
During the search, detectives found that Mizrachy used Kik, a messaging app that often shows up in child pornography cases, to chat with a 15-year-old at the time.
“The chats included sexually explicit photographs that were shared from the child,” according to BSO.
Florida Department of Health records show Mizrachy worked in Broward Health Medical Center, Plantation General Hospital and Memorial Hospital West. The primary practice address on his license was his Parkland home.
His professional address that came up in a Google search was that of West Broward Pediatrics’ Plantation office. “We are shocked and deeply disturbed by these accusations,” an emailed statement from West Broward Pediatrics said after his arrest in early 2021.
This story was originally published June 9, 2022 at 2:03 PM.
