A longtime California pediatrician has surrendered his medical license afterfacing more than two decades of accusations that he sexually abusedhis 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 the exam room in a matter of weeks.

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 was 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 the doctor of improperly approving prescriptions for ADHD.

Clyne has long maintained his innocence and has never been criminally charged or arrested. He continued to practice pediatric medicine in rural Santa Cruz County while the Attorney General’s office sought to have his license pulled. 

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.” 

Requests for comment were declined by Clyne and his attorney Ian Scharg, who specializes in medical malpractice cases. The Medical Board of California — 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. 

“We’re happy for this, but we’re in no way, shape or form satisfied. It’s just not enough.”

— Plaintiff’s Attorney Wyatt Vespermann

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 adopted by his physician foster father. 

Reacting to the news that Clyne has surrendered his medical license, Kyle’s attorney Wyatt Vespermann called it “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 AG’s complaint, expert-witness reports and police investigations involving Clyne describe the alleged victims as kids 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 called Clyne’s medical care “weird.” Another said he was “extremely traumatized” by the health examinations given by Clyne when he was a kid in the early 2000s. 

A pair of doctors hired by the state to review dozens of cases over the years found several examples showing that Clyne’s treatment of patients amounted to an “extreme departure from the standard of care.” 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. 

A more recent case in 2014 centered on a mother’s complaint — not all of Clyne’s patients are foster youth. 

“The patient’s mother reported that Dr. 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  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.”

Nonetheless, as the case wound its way through the courts, Clyne has continued working with the Pediatric Medical Group of Watsonville, which serves a low-income immigrant population that relies on public health care. Although his photo still appears on the clinic’s website, he is no longer listed as one of the doctors.

Before going into private practice, Clyne worked as the chief pediatrician for foster children in Santa Clara County, beginning in 1996. He also served as an expert witness for the local District Attorney’s Office.

Accusations against him that began in 2001 led to two days of testimony before a Santa Clara County criminal grand jury; three boys placed in Clyne’s home as foster children, including Kyle, accused Clyne of sexual abuse. But grand jurors at the time did not return an indictment and Clyne went back to work.

A second set of child abuse allegations made by his pediatric patients emerged in 2009. Over the next two years, at least 10 children between the ages of 8 and 11 years old told authorities Clyne sexually abused them during health exams. 

In 2011, Santa Clara County prosecutors placed the pediatrician on a list of expert witnesses who could potentially have their credibility challenged in court due to misconduct. The district attorney’s office wrote a letter to defense attorneys stating “there is substantial evidence that Dr. Clyne committed multiple crimes involving moral turpitude, specifically sexual assault.”

The DA’s actions prompted Santa Clara County to fire Clyne a month later.

Shortly thereafter, he applied for a medical license in New Mexico. But Clyne withdrew the application after the state’s medical board raised questions about the disciplinary action taken against him in California. 

In 2014, the California Department of Social Services barred Clyne from serving as a licensed foster parent and prohibited him from working with children or adults in state-licensed care facilities. He was also prohibited from registering with TrustLine, a database for caregivers, nannies and babysitters who have cleared criminal background checks in California.

“There is substantial evidence that Dr. Clyne committed multiple crimes involving moral turpitude, specifically sexual assault.”

— 2011 letter to attorneys from the Santa Clara County DA’s Office

Allegations continued to follow Clyne after he started his private practice in Freedom, California. 

In 2018, a parent’s complaint about Clyne resulted in a joint investigation by the Medical Board of California and the Watsonville Police Department. But the Santa Cruz County District Attorney declined to press criminal charges in the case, citing the difficulty obtaining a high enough burden of proof. 

The trial set to begin in Santa Clara County Superior Court on June 23 places Clyne again under public scrutiny. Details in this case center on alleged abuse that 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 while working at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center and in the local county shelter treating abused and neglected children.

Kyle’s lawsuit alleges Clyne abused 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 suit 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 away from children.

“If I could prevent him from hurting one more kid, that’s my mission accomplished,” Kyle said.