newjerseynewsroom.com

BY ADELE SAMMARCO

NEWJERSEYNEWSROOM.COM

Doctors take the Hippocratic Oath, swearing to practice medicine ethically.

But one New Jersey Physician not only violated his oath, but broke the law according to federal prosecutors, by downloading more than 200 violent and sadistic images of child pornography on his home computer.

According to Reuters, 43-year-old Rocco Martino of South Orange pleaded guilty Tuesday in Newark Federal Court to one count of receipt and distribution of child pornography.

Federal authorities say Martino admitted to downloading and posting as many as 194 graphic images and 27 videos using peer-to-peer file-sharing software in late 2010.

In a statement from United States Attorney Paul J. Fishman, the Star Ledger reports, "images downloaded by federal investigators and found on Martino’s computer included pictures of very young children being restrained and sexually abused, including a bound and gagged toddler."

In another instance, authorities say disturbing images of a naked 3-year-old girl tied up with lewd words scrawled on her stomach were also discovered on the doctor’s computer.

Martino attended medical school at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey/ Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick and was a resident at Brown University in Rhode Island, according to a bio that has since been removed from the Summit Medical Group website.

He received an undergraduate degree in Engineering and Applied Sciences from Columbia and a master’s in Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences from Princeton.

Martino, who practiced internal and sports medicine, authorities say saw mainly adult patients, and resigned from his position at Summit Medical Group in Berkeley Heights last January. The complaint was filed in December, 2010

Martino faces five to 20 years in prison. Lawyers on both sides agreed on a sentence of 10 to more than 12 years, but a Judge will have the final say at sentencing on April 10.

In the meantime, Martino is free on $250,000 bond and is wearing a GPS monitoring device so police can track his whereabouts.

His lawyer, according to NJ.com, says he has been attending “intensive therapy sessions with a well-known practitioner,” and adds his client plans to return to medicine pending the outcome of his sentence.