Pediatrician Is Sentenced to Jail for Trying to Send Pornography to Child

A pediatrician who admitted trying to send pornography to a child and to commit “lewd and lascivious” acts with her was stripped of his medical license Friday and sentenced to 65 days in San Bernardino County jail and three years’ probation.

Jay Harold Tibbles, 58, of Devore Heights, also must register as a sex offender, Deputy Dist. Atty. Laura Robles said.

Tibbles has practiced at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Fontana for 21 years. His attorney, Virginia Blumenthal of Riverside, has said he was a forensic pediatrician, meaning he examined children for evidence of molestation. Officials said no one has ever complained of sexual wrongdoing there.

Tibbles also founded the American Druidic Church in Southern bCalifornia. After his arrest, he resigned from the pagan organization.

Sheriff’s deputies snared Tibbles in an Internet sting. Officers went online posing as the mother of a 12-year-old girl seeking someone to train her daughter as a sex slave. Tibbles sent pornographic material over the Internet five times, believing it was going to the girl, prosecutors said.

Tibbles was on his way to meet her when deputies arrested him on Nov. 19, 2000.

He pleaded guilty in October to an 11-count complaint.

Under the sentence handed down by San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Ronald Christianson, Tibbles cannot be with children without adult supervision, nor can he go online without adult supervision, Robles said.

The medical group that pays Tibbles will review his job status in light of the sentencing, spokeswoman Jennifer Resch-Silvestri said. He remains on unpaid administrative leave, she said.

Three years from now, Tibbles could petition the California Medical Board for reinstatement of his medical license, spokeswoman Candis Cohen said. He would have “to show remediation of the problems that led to the loss of his license,” she said.