Doc accused of sexting with person he believed was teen girl may lose medical license

INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (WISH) - An Indianapolis pediatrician accused of sexting with what he thought was a 16-year-old girl now faces the possibility of losing his license to practice medicine.

The state attorney general said Dr. Nicholas Alan Doyle, 41, an associate professor at IU Medical School and a pediatrician at IU Health West Hospital, was sending video love notes and sexually explicit text messages and e-mails to a person he believed to be a high school cheerleader he’d met on Facebook.

24-Hour News 8 has obtained a video Doyle allegedly sent. In it, he's wearing scrubs and has a stethoscope around his neck. He looks in the camera and says: "Just want to say that I love you and hope you're having a good day."

It seems so sweet. He appears to be a doctor at work sending a video love note home to his wife. But that’s not what was happening, Attorney General Greg Zoeller said.

24-Hour News 8 investigators called Doyle’s cell phone and visited his home in Avon. Although he's returned none of our calls, the doctor apparently had plenty to say during long text chats with a person he believed was a teenager.

"I can't wait to just fall asleep next to u :)," he wrote. "Feeling your legs over my shoulders."

The texts became vulgar as he tried to arrange a rendezvous with the teenager.

24-Hour News 8 obtained these messages as well as dozens of pictures Doyle sent of himself - with clothes and without. Perhaps most disturbing are the pictures apparently taken in an office at IU West Hospital.

"Certainly I think that was one of the concerns the board had - the fact that he was using the hospital's computer," said Kristen Kelley, director of the state medical licensing board.

Ultimately, a phone call to IU West Hospital was Doyle's undoing. Someone turned him in.

IU Health West Hospital eventually revoked his privileges, and IU Medical School fired him in May. In July, the state medical board suspended his license.

24-Hour News 8 obtained an audio recording of the hearing in which Dr. Doyle tries to explain his actions.

"This has been a nightmare for me. I definitely made a mistake with who I believed and trusted," Doyle told the board.

He also told board members he had learned - too late - that his Facebook "friendship" was a fraud. For months, he had not been texting a teenage cheerleader. For months, he'd unwittingly been texting an adult who then turned him in.

"It was a fake profile, and I found out that the pictures that were online were stolen from a 17-year-old girl," Doyle said.

Doyle tried to convince the medical board he never believed he was sexting a child, but his texts seem to prove otherwise.

In one text message he laments: "I just wish you were 20."

He asks her about her 17th birthday, and the two plan a rendevous. When he tells her he's afraid of being arrested, she assures him: "I'm 17."

The text messages also reveal the depth of his deception.

After his supervisor discovered the relationship, he tells the "teen" in a text: "I told my boss I was helping u like a mentor and u were a friend of a friend."

In desperation he asks the "girl" to lie to her mother and convince her to call his supervisors to help him keep his job.

"Other person to contact would be Dr Stephen Bogdewic, dean for faculty affairs," he wrote, giving her the number to call.

Doyle is not facing criminal charges because the legal age of consent in Indiana is 16 years old. So even if he did believe the person he was sexting was 16, it's not a crime.

That means the medical board is considering whether to revoke the license of a doctor who committed no criminal offense. But Senior Deputy Attorney General Michael Minglin told the medical board Doyle's bad judgment is proof he shouldn't be treating patients.

"The state maintains that he represents a clear and immediate danger to the public if allowed to practice," Minglin said.

The board agreed - suspending Doyle's medical license. But the suspension is temporary. This week he'll plead his case before the board again.

"They need to be assured that the situation is not going to happen again, and it's not going to happen with a patient," Kelley, the board’s director, said.

Doyle’s next hearing is Thursday. The board will decide whether to give him his medical license back or extend the suspension while the attorney general's office continues to investigate.

This story serves as evidence that it's important to investigate your doctor's record. All dealings before the medical board are public record. The Indiana Professional Licensing Agency offers a website where you can enter in a doctor's name and find out about his or her disciplinary history.