Florida doctor sexually exploited kids online and pushed girl to hang herself, feds say
UPDATE: Dr. Steven Andrew Leedy’s license to practice medicine in Florida was suspended by the state Department of Health, an emergency order filed Jan. 7 shows. A formal disciplinary proceeding is expected to follow.
“Dr. Leedy’s vile, reprehensible, and sadistic conduct of directing children to engage in degrading sex acts, self-harm, and mutilation shows that Dr. Leedy lacks the good judgment and moral character necessary to be a physician,” the order signed by Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladapo says.
The original story is below.
A Tampa Bay area doctor sexually exploited 10 minors, including at least three young girls, and directed them to hurt themselves as he watched online, federal prosecutors wrote in court documents.
Stephen Andrew Leedy, a 59-year-old palliative care doctor who lives in St. Petersburg, pushed one 13-year-old girl, who he coerced to produce sexually explicit images, to fatally hang herself in 2022, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
Authorities found the girl dead in her bathroom “hanging from the shower head” with her cellphone “propped up on the bathtub directly in front of her” on Nov. 16, 2022, prosecutors wrote in a motion to detain Leedy.
She “hanged herself” in “a manner consistent with instructions Leedy had previously provided her,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a Jan. 6 news release.
A search of her phone showed conversations that were sexual in nature with a person with the online username “maximumuncle#9112,” which was linked to Leedy, according to the filing.
An investigation revealed he directed the girl and nine other minors “to produce child pornography while on video calls with him to satisfy his own sexual deviant interest in children,” the detention motion says.
Leedy was arrested Dec. 20 in northern Georgia, court records show.
He’s indicted on three counts of production of child sexual abuse material and two counts of coercing or enticing a minor to engage in sexual activity, prosecutors said.
Leedy is represented by attorneys Bjorn Brunvand and Lucas Fleming, who told McClatchy News in an emailed statement Jan. 7 that Leedy “adamantly denies the charges that have been filed against him in federal court.”
“It is particularly important in moments like this when someone is being accused of very troubling allegations, that we afford him the presumption of innocence,” Brunvand and Fleming said. “We will be entering a not guilty plea at the earliest opportunity and look forward to vigorously defending Dr. Leedy in court.”
Leedy’s medical license is active in Florida as of Jan. 7, according to Florida Department of Health records. He has no disciplinary records or public complaints and is listed as having staff privileges at Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center in Lakeland, the records show.
In a statement to McClatchy News, Lakeland Regional Health Medical Center President and Chief Medical Officer Dr. Timothy J. Regan said, “We are deeply troubled to learn of the recent arrest of Dr. Stephen Leedy” and that he “is not, and never has been, employed by Lakeland Regional Health and there is no record of Dr. Leedy ever treating patients at our hospital.”
“Through his affiliation with an outside hospice organization, he had limited consulting staff privileges for adult-only hospice and palliative care and was not on the active medical staff,” Regan added. “These privileges at our hospital were relinquished immediately upon notification of his arrest.”
Leedy is married to the chief administrative officer of the Juvenile Welfare Board of Pinellas County, the Tampa Bay Times reported.
“The arrest and allegations came as a complete shock to all, including his wife,” the board said Jan. 7, according to the newspaper.
“While this news leaves us stunned and saddened for Ms. Leedy, her family, and any potential victims in this case, I have the utmost confidence in her ability to continue to carry out JWB’s mission of strengthening the lives of our county’s children and families,” the board’s chief executive officer, Beth Houghton, told the Tampa Bay Times.
Doctor hid behind black screen and ‘anonymity,’ feds say
In the detention motion, prosecutors wrote they have “extremely strong” evidence against Leedy, who’s accused of hiding behind a black screen and “anonymity” while communicating with minors across the United States in video chats.
He never revealed his identity on the social media platform he used to communicate with them, according to prosecutors, who didn’t specify which platform.
“Law enforcement confirmed Leedy’s ownership over the account used to encourage minors to engage in sadistic and sexual behavior,” the filing says.
Leedy instructed the minors he sexually exploited to cut, choke and hang themselves, according to prosecutors.
He told the 13-year-old girl who was found dead in November 2022 to produce child pornography, “choke herself using a dog leash” and “engage in ‘daily hangings,’” prosecutors wrote in the detention motion.
If Leedy is convicted on all counts against him, he could face life in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Leedy is the vice president of operations at Seasons Healthcare Management, a nationwide hospice and palliative care provider, according to the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization.
Prosecutors wrote in the detention motion that “everything that Leedy instructed these minor victims to do was either physically or mentally detrimental…”
“He had absolutely no (regard) for their safety and took advantage of children more than half his age to gratify himself.”
Suspected child sexual exploitation can be reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s Cyber Tipline.
This story was originally published January 7, 2025 at 12:27 PM with the headline "Florida doctor sexually exploited kids online and pushed girl to hang herself, feds say."
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