Crime & Safety

Pediatrician Identified as Pedophile Not Reported to Medical Board

Wisconsin's Medical Examining Board is investigating the case after no record of complaints against the doctor was found, even though parents of the victims were told he would be reported to the board.

Dr. Thomas Kowalski, 75, admitted to leaders that he touched himself while fondling two children at a Wisconsin summer camp when he was a volunteer doctor for the Milwaukee County Council of Boy Scouts.

According to records, Kowalski was prohibited from working with Scouts after his admission, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel said; he was not prosecuted criminally and was supposed to be reported to the medical board — but no complaint was filed.

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Kowalski’s case was first revealed in a Los Angeles Times review of secret Boy Scouts of America files. The Times reviewed 1,600 confidential files spanning more than two decades, which found that scouting officials "failed to report hundreds of alleged child molesters to police and often hid the allegations from parents and the public."

Even though Kowalski was prohibited from working with Scouts, he was never prosecuted after the victims' parents were told he would be reported to the medical board and was getting therapy.

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The board indicated they never had any records of complaints against Kowalski.

Kowalski continued working with youth for at least 14 years after his admission to scouting authorities. He left Children’s Hospital in 2002 to work at Marquette University’s Student Health Service. He also worked at the Greenfield Health Department and Greendale Health Department as a medical advisor from 1996 to 2008. As an advisor, he only consulted on medical orders and policy procedure, said Greenfield Health Director Darren J. Rausch.

Shorewood's Peter Isely, Director of the The Milwaukee chapter of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests or SNAP, had previously said that, “Although the Boy Scouts and others think that Kowalski is so serious a risk to children that he is permanently banned from scouting, they apparently are not that concerned that he is a pediatrician with daily, intimate access to children,” Isely said in a statement Monday. “As Kowalski admitted to the Times, if his crimes had been known by the public — meaning especially the parents of his child patients — he would never have been able to practice as a pediatrician."

The Chairman of the Medical Examining Board, Sheldon Wasserman told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "It's amazing to me he has a valid license. He's an admitted child molester working all these years as a pediatrician? Basically, it's very scary."


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