Child Porn Lands Prominent Southlake Doc in Prison For Three Years

A little more than one year ago, Dr. James Shin was a Southlake resident and a family man and the Chair of the Internal Medicine Department at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. Then, on September 17, 2007, officials with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement cybercrime unit discovered "numerous...

By Robert Wilonsky

November 25, 2008

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A little more than one year ago, Dr. James Shin was a Southlake resident and a family man and the Chair of the Internal Medicine Department at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth. Then, on September 17, 2007, officials with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement cybercrime unit discovered "numerous images and videos of child pornography" on his computer, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office, including "visual depictions of minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct." In July, Shin pleaded guilty to the charges, which is why, today in Dallas, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade sentenced the doctor to 42 months in federal prison and ordered that he pay a $25,000 fine. He could have received 10 years.

Shin has till January 6 to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons. And, says the release, "Judge Kinkeade also ordered that Dr. Shin serve a lifetime of supervised release following his release from prison and register as a sex offender." Only, it's likely that the doctor won't stay long in the U.S.: After he gets out, the government will begin deportation proceedings that will likely find him returning to his native South Korea. --Robert Wilonsky

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