A longtime California pediatrician has surrendered his medical license after facing more than two decades of accusations that he sexually abused his patients, foster youth and boys in his home.
The development in the case of Dr. Patrick Clyne, 63, settled drawn-out legal proceedings with the state Attorney General’s office, which was set to lay out its evidence to bar him from practicing medicine.
Accusations against Clyne, the former chief physician for Santa Clara County’s child welfare system and a former foster and adoptive parent, date back to 2001. Four years ago, the state attorney general filed a complaint accusing him of “unprofessional acts” and “gross negligence” based on his treatment of six patients, ages 6 to 16. In a subsequent amended filing, the number of alleged victims increased to 12, including children who the AG’s office reported were inappropriately touched, often while their caregivers were not present. The state also accused Clyne of improperly approving prescriptions for the treatment of ADHD.
Clyne has long maintained his innocence and has never been arrested or criminally charged. He continued to practice pediatric medicine in rural Santa Cruz County while the AG’s office sought to have the Medical Board of California pull his license.
But a document signed Thursday by Medical Board Executive Director Reji Varghese finalized an agreement in which Clyne “shall lose all rights and privileges as a physician and surgeon in California as of June 13, 2025.”
Clyne and his attorney Ian Scharg, who specializes in medical malpractice cases, declined to comment to The Imprint, a national nonprofit news outlet covering child welfare and youth justice. The state Medical Board, which can suspend a physician’s license after an arrest or a finding of immediate danger to a patient’s safety, also did not reply to repeated requests for comment.
Resolution of the state’s case will not end the legal jeopardy Clyne faces.
A separate civil case before the Santa Clara County Superior Court is scheduled to go to trial next month. In that lawsuit, first filed in 2020, Clyne is accused of committing “multiple acts” of child sexual abuse against a boy identified as Kyle in court documents. He was placed at age 8 in Clyne’s home by the local child welfare agency more than 20 years ago, and later was adopted by his physician foster father.
Reacting to the news that Clyne has surrendered his medical license, Kyle’s attorney, Wyatt Vespermann, described it as “long overdue,” but still lacking.
“Given what this man has done, the childhoods that he has stolen, we’re happy for this, but we’re in no way, shape or form satisfied,” Vespermann said. “It’s just not enough.”
The Attorney General’s complaint, expert-witness reports and police investigations involving Clyne describe the alleged victims as children who reported discomfort with routine well-child checks and physical examinations.
One 8-year-old foster youth, who was a patient of Clyne’s while living in a group home in 2009, said in a police report that she did not like how he repeatedly touched her private parts during exams. She described Clyne’s medical care as “weird.” Another said he was “extremely traumatized” by the health examinations given by Clyne when he was a boy in the early 2000s.
A pair of doctors hired by the state to review dozens of cases over the years found several examples indicating that Clyne’s treatment of patients amounted to an “extreme departure from the standard of care,” according to an expert witness report submitted to the court.
These included examining kids without a caregiver present, failing to use gloves and insisting kids remove all their clothing unnecessarily and touching patients during genital exams, the report stated.
A more recent case in 2014 centered on a complaint by a mother, who reported that Clyne “told her he would have to put his fingers in the patient’s vagina in order to examine her stomach,” the expert witness report states. “There is no rationale for this kind of examination.”
Dr. Brian Blaisch, who was one of expert witnesses, stated that the patient’s mother ended the exam when she learned of Clyne’s intentions, but even the suggestion of such an act was “nonsensical and inappropriate.”
Clyne’s trial set to begin in Santa Clara County Superior Court on June 23 places the doctor again under public scrutiny. Details in this case center on abuse that allegedly occurred in the late 1990s, admissible in court following passage of a state law that broadened the statute of limitations for sexual assault cases.
Kyle, the plaintiff, was placed in Clyne’s home in 1995 after being removed from his mother. A fourth grader at the time, he was one of several young boys taken in by Clyne, who fostered youth while working at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and in the local county shelter treating abused and neglected children.
Kyle’s lawsuit accuses Clyne of abusing him over a four-year period while he lived in his home, and that has resulted in lasting effects including “post-traumatic stress disorder, significant shame and guilt, low self-esteem, lack of self-worth, lack of trust, anxiety, depression, lack of intimacy in close relationships, nightmares, and hyper-vigilance.”
Santa Clara County is named as a defendant in the lawsuit for failing to properly monitor and supervise the boy’s care. County officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Kyle is now a father in his mid-30s. In 2019, he told The Mercury News that he still wrestled with the pain of childhood abuse, and wanted Clyne to be kept from children.
“If I could prevent him from hurting one more kid, that’s my mission accomplished,” Kyle said.
This story is being co-published with The Imprint, a national nonprofit news outlet covering child welfare and youth justice. Jeremy Loudenback is a staff writer for The Imprint. He can be reached at [email protected]. Read a longer version here.