A pedophile doctor who moaned as he molested a 12-year-old patient has been sentenced to spend the rest of his life in prison.

Dr Johnnie Barto, 71, was sentenced to 79 to 158 years in jail on Monday in Cambria County, Pennsylvania court after he pleaded guilty to the abuse of 31 underage patients.

One of Barto’s victims, Erika Brosig, recalled the horrific abuse she suffered at the hands of the doctor in 1994, when she was just 12-years-old.

Dr. Johnnie Barto heads into Cambria County Courthouse, in Pennsylvania, on Monday for his sentencing in the sexual assault of over two dozen children. (Picture: Todd Berkey/The Tribune-)

‘He just stuck his hand down my pants, digitally penetrated me, and he moaned. The sound of that moan will never leave me,’ Brosig told NBC.




Barto molested patients for years, but the Pennsylvania Board of Medicine could have put an end to the abuse nearly 20 years ago, when Barto was accused of molesting a four-year-old and another young patient during pediatric visits. State regulators later threw the case out and allowed Barto to continue practicing medicine.

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‘We thought they got him. Instead, they let him go back to molesting children,’ said Jennifer Goetz, who was abused by Barto when she was 9-year-old.

‘Victims came forward, but no one would listen. No one would believe. No one did anything. Today is a bittersweet day for me. Justice was finally served for some of his victims.’

Prosecutors said the victims included boys and girls ages 8 to 12, although two of the victims were toddlers and one was a 2-week-old infant. Most of the assaults took place in the examination room at Laurel Pediatric Associates in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

Authorities said that most of the abuses occurred at the doctor’s office in Johnstown, Pennsylvania (Picture: Google Maps)

The former Pennsylvania pediatrician was sentenced Monday for the sexual assault of 31 children, most of them patients. (Picture: Cambria County Prison via AP, File)

As accusations against Barto mounted, his community rallied around him. Barto, a father-of-four, sang in the choir of a local Roman Catholic Church and everyone called him by his nickname, Jack. He coached baseball teams in town, welcomed foreign exchange students into his home, and was even the president of the area’s school district from 1991 to 1993.

The city’s local newspaper, the Tribune-Democrat even appeared to support Barto and ran articles that implied his innocence – one was even titled ‘Case against doc cannot be true.’

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‘As a mother, I always ask for Jack,’ one mother was quoted saying in paper.

Barto’s medical license was briefly stripped in March 2000 by the state board that claimed Barto ‘abused both his minor patients’ trust in him, and their parents’ trust, and that he would behave inappropriately with their children for his own gratification .’

Caption: In this Sept. 21, 2018, photo, Lee Ann Berkebile holds a photo of herself as a child, taken in her home in Johnstown. Berkebile says she was molested by her pediatrician in 1994.(Picture: AP/Michael Rubinkam)

Months later, the doctor was reinstated after hundreds protested on Barto’s behalf and the state board voted to dismiss the charges with a 7-2 ruling.

Last year, Barto was finally charged with indecent assault and endangering the welfare of children after ‘family members who were minors’ accused him of sexual abuse, the Attorney General’s office said.

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In December, he pleaded guilty ‘so the healing could begin for his family, his victims and for himself,’ he said, according to ABC. Barto was held in jail until Monday’s sentencing hearing.



Nineteen victims testified before the ex-doctor was sentenced, describing the damage that Barto caused, including his wife, Linda Barto.

‘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.

Barto was senteced to at least 79 years in jail on Monday (Picture: Todd Berkey/The Tribune-Democrat via AP)

Several of Barto’s survivors are being represented by a partnership of attorney Andrew Dalton of Dalton and Associates and Manley Stewart and Finaldi, who specialize in class-action sexual abuse cases, to find out who allowed Barto to remain practicing amid decades of accusations. Dalton did not comment on any potential lawsuits.