EVERETT — Snohomish County prosecutors have filed charges against an Everett optometrist who is accused of fondling a 10-year-old patient while her father was just outside the exam room.
Everett police detectives also allege that John Patrick O’Brien used a cellphone to take pictures of the girl after he removed her shirt and pulled down her pants.
O’Brien, 33, was charged by complaint in Everett District Court with child molestation and other offenses. Prosecutors have up to two weeks to refile felony charges in Snohomish County Superior Court. O’Brien remained in the county jail on Friday. He was being held on $750,000 bail.
Meanwhile, Everett detectives are searching through the computers and cameras that they seized from O’Brien’s Bellevue home earlier this week. Investigators are trying to determine if the photographs of the girl were shared or downloaded to another computer. They also asked to search for other images of child pornography.
O’Brien’s cellphone was seized last week. At the time, there wasn’t enough evidence to arrest him and he was released.
A court-authorized search of the phone turned up seven photographs of the 10-year-old and were consistent with her version of what happened during her Aug. 20 appointment, according to a police affidavit.
Forensic detectives recovered more than 16,000 images on the phone, including 870 images that were marked for deletion, according to court documents.
O’Brien was arrested Tuesday at his home. Police recovered a computer hard drive that appeared to have been hidden in the family vehicle. The arresting officers told detectives that O’Brien had removed something from his pockets and placed it in the vehicle when they approached him. It appeared that he also may have stashed his wife’s cellphone in the back of the vehicle, according to a police affidavit.
Police seized the vehicle after O’Brien refused to let them recover the hard drive and cellphone. Officers allowed his wife to take out the car seats and stroller. An officer also drove her to pick up one of their children from school.
The couple and their three children moved from North Carolina about two months ago. Everett police have been in contact with authorities there.
Everett detectives began investigating O’Brien after they were summoned to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett. The 10-year-old girl was reporting that she’d been assaulted at the clinic in the 3700 block of Broadway.
During the initial examination at the optometrist’s office her father was in the room.
Both returned to the waiting room after her eyes were dilated and waited 15 minutes for a follow-up exam. When the daughter was called, the father was told to leave the room because he wasn’t needed for that part of the exam.
Once her dad was gone, O’Brien allegedly asked the girl to remove her shirt. He told her it was part of the exam. The girl said O’Brien took off her shirt and fondled her. O’Brien also allegedly pulled down her pants despite her efforts to keep them up. The girl told police that O’Brien took several pictures of her when she was unclothed.
The girl also said he locked the exam room.
The child didn’t tell her father what happened but told her mother once they were home.
Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463; hefley@heraldnet.com. Twitter: @dianahefley.
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