Doctor's license suspended after rape charges

DOVER, Del. - Delaware's Board of Medical Practice has ordered an emergency suspension of the license of the Lewes pediatrician charged with raping nine patients.

Though detectives had been investigating Earl Bradley for about a year, state police spokesman Sgt. Walter Newton said the board did not know of the probe until Bradley's arrest this month.

Division of Professional Regulation Director James Collins said officials found the doctor was "an imminent danger to the public." Officials say he may have attacked more than 100 children. The board ordered the suspension last evening.

Bradley's inactive Pennsylvania license was suspended last week. According to a spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, Bradley practiced at Knights and Red Lion Roads in Northeast Philadelphia before moving to Delaware in 1995. He has New Jersey and Florida licenses, but it does not appear that he practiced medicine there.