Who Is Dr. Jack Barto? Pediatrician Gets 79 Years In Jail For Child Molestation

A former Pennsylvania pediatrician on Monday was sentenced to 79 years in prison for sexually assaulting 31 children over the course of his decades-long career.

Dr. Johnnie "Jack" Barto, 71, of Johnstown, Pennsylvania, was arrested in January 2018 and then pleaded guilty in December to multiple counts of indecent assault and endangering the welfare of children.

For decades, Barto operated out of local hospitals, as well as out of his private practice at Laurel Pediatric Associates, located in Richland Township, a suburb of Johnstown that is roughly 65 miles from Pittsburgh.

It was in these examination rooms where he categorically preyed upon victims, who ranged between the ages of 8 and 12 years old.

Barto faced the first of what would prove to be many allegations in 2000 when two female patients accused him of molesting them in the 1990s and reported him to the state's Bureau of Professional and Occupational Affairs, which resulted in Barto temporarily being stripped of his medical license.

Despite the accusations, the state’s board of medicine restored his license after the administrative judge and prosecuting attorney recused themselves from the case, allowing Barto continued access to victims.

While the earliest recorded accusations against Barto took place in 1994, a survivor who has since come forward said that she was molested as early as 1984.

The Pennsylvania Board of Medicine voted 7-2 to throw out the accusations against the pediatrician in 2000, citing that the charges brought against him were "incongruous to his reputation."

At the time, Barto told the Tribune-Democrat, Johnstown's local newspaper, that he and his wife, Linda, had incurred bills over $100,000, and that he had "relied a great deal on his faith in God" during legal proceedings.

He also told the paper that the accusations "took [their] toll" and affected his health.

"I lost 12 pounds," Barto said at the time. "I don’t weigh all that much to begin with.”

Barto at the time reportedly took a trip to visit his daughter, then a college student at Penn State, to attend a Barry Manilow concert, according to his then-attorney Walter Cohen. At the concert, both Barto and his daughter encountered the judge and prosecuting attorney presiding over his case, where his daughter proceeded to take a photograph of both of them together.

The ensuing photograph led to their respective recusals from the case.

The Laurel County community also took Barto's word over those of his victims, wearing ribbons in support of the doctor at a local high school football game.

After the reinstation, Barto went on to molest more than a dozen minors before he was apprehended in 2018.

Following the arrest, the state's attorney general Josh Shapiro asked other survivors to come forward, a request which resulted in 69 further allegations of sexual abuse.

"Dr. Johnnie [Jack] Barto used his position of authority — as the pediatrician who families relied on — to feed his own sick desires and take advantage of parents and children seeking basic health care," Shapiro said.

Barto, a Roman Catholic, is a father of four and was once considered a respected member of the community. According to NBC News, he served on the Richland Township school board and was involved in the area's "music boosters program, coached baseball and softball teams in town, and opened his home to foreign exchange students."

Linda Barto, who testified against him, said she was also a victim of her husband's lies.

"He has been lying to me about everything for all of the 52 years I have known him. ... He spent his whole sinister life lying and sneaking around, so he could carry on his abuse uninterrupted," she said.