2nd Hospital Employee Accused of Molestation

A second employee at the nationally recognized Children’s Hospital here has been arrested on suspicion of child molestation, police and hospital officials said Saturday.

Christopher Alan Irvin, 32, was arrested Friday and booked on one count of possessing child pornography and two counts of lewd acts on a patient younger than 14 at the hospital. Bail was set at $500,000.

Irvin, a registered nurse at the hospital for 18 months, was fired after his arrest, officials said. The child pornography was found on his home computer, but computers at the hospital have also been seized for examination, said Assistant Chief Cheryl Meyers of the San Diego Police Department.

A month ago, police arrested Wayne Albert Bleyle, 54, a respiratory therapist, on suspicion of molesting patients at the hospital’s convalescent facility and taking pornographic pictures of them. The two cases are not related, officials said.

“We are absolutely outraged at this second betrayal by someone right in our midst,” said Blair Sadler, president and chief executive of Children’s Hospital.

Meyers said the investigation is continuing, and that, while there are no other suspects, “I don’t think we can rule out anything.”

Officials declined to specify the age or gender of the child involved in the case, which began with computer sleuthing by the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.