Minutes before Butler County Common Pleas Judge Keith Spaeth repeated the guilty verdicts over and over again, Blankenburg’s twin brother and fellow pediatrician, Dr. R. Scott Blankenburg, came into the courtroom.
When Spaeth revoked Mark’s high bond and he was taken into custody, Scott hugged and kissed his brother across the court railing. Family members cried and left the courtroom quickly. All, including the twins’ father, Clarence, declined comment.
Scott Blankenburg is scheduled to go to trial in April on 22 similar charges.
Blankenburg turned at one point to his family and shrugged his shoulders and held up his palms.
He stood while about half of the verdicts were read, then talked to his attorney Michael Shanks and sat down, leaning back in his chair.
Scott Blankenburg’s attorney, Jack Garretson, said after the verdict that the evidence in Scott’s case “will be quite different.”
“We strongly believe our client will be found not guilty,” Garretson said.
One of the victims, now 24, said he felt “relief” at Blankenburg’s conviction.
“Every time I heard ‘guilty’ it was like I felt a jolt,” said the man who testified last week he extorted the doctor for $250,000 over a period of several years, saying Blankenburg “owed” him the money because of what he had done to him as a child, which allegedly included performing oral sex on him when he was 13.
He was the only victim in court to hear the verdict, and was the first to tell authorities about the abuse when they began looking into prescriptions the doctor was writing.
The man said he testified for his young son, who was held by a friend as the man talked to the media.
“I took money from a child molester,” the man said, who noted that is why it took so long to come forward, but that he is happy it is all out in the open.
“We are very pleased with the verdict,” said Assistant Prosecutor Jason Phillabaum. “Mark Blankenburg is a very dangerous individual. Our community and our children are safer.”
Blankenburg faces up to 75 years in prison on the 16 charges, Phillabaum said.
The defense team, Chris Pagan and Shanks, declined comment.
Pam LaGrow, the mother of one of Blankenburg’s patients, sat through the whole trial. Her son was not a victim, but she said she was there “for the children.”
LaGrow wiped away tears and said, “I am so glad the system works. ... I am glad this won’t be able to happen to anyone else.”
Specifically, the doctor was found guilty of three counts of corruption of a minor; gross sexual imposition, corruption of a minor, two counts of compelling prostitution, three counts of pandering sexually oriented matter involving a minor; one count of complicity to compelling prostitution; and five counts of gross sexual imposition.
Judge Keith Spaeth, who presided over Blankenburg’s jury trial, will be deciding 25 other charges, including drug trafficking, corrupting another with drugs and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
The judge Friday did not say when he will announce his decision.
A trial date also will be set soon to try Blankenburg on 12 child pornography charges that were severed from the original indictment.
Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2168 or lpack@coxohio.com.
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