Detective Suber 1, crimanals 0

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Detective Suber 1, crimanals 0

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By BETH WARREN, MIKE MORRIS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 11/03/06
A Newnan mother was already seething when an Atlanta doctor was arrested for allegedly trying to seduce her teenage son. Then she learned the physician told authorities he was HIV-positive.

"He didn't have a heart," the mother said of Dr. Adam Lebowitz, 47, an Emory University School of Medicine resident who was arrested outside her family's home Thursday with items police say indicated he planned to have sex with the 15-year-old. "It's very sad and thank God he didn't do this to my child. My son was not molested. He helped catch the creep. We're one of the lucky ones," said the mother, whose name has been withheld to protect the identity of the teen.

Lebowitz, who is also an emergency room doctor at Grady Memorial Hospital, was surfing the Internet on Oct. 25 when he found the teen's page on Myspace.com, a popular social networking Web site, said Coweta County Sheriff's detective Sgt. Beth Suber (MY SISTER).

After the news of Lebowitz's arrest broke Friday, a 16-year-old from metro Atlanta called law enforcement to say he recently had sex with Lebowitz, who he said seduced him after they met on Myspace. The teen told authorities he had not yet told his parents about the encounter. While Suber believes Lebowitz pressured the teen, the age of consent in Georgia is 16 so Lebowitz cannot face molestation charges in that case, she said.

The detective said she had also gotten a call from a 17-year-old in reference to Lebowitz, but hadn't talked with him.

Lebowitz, of Mountain Drive in Decatur, spent Thursday night in jail before hiring prominent Atlanta attorney Craig Gillen, a former federal prosecutor who briefly represented former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell on corruption charges. Chief Magistrate Jim Stripling granted Lebowitz a $50,000 bond late Friday, ordered him to stay away from anyone under age 18, including the 15-year-old, and to stay off the Internet, said Coweta prosecutor Ray Mayer.

The 15-year-old's mother wasn't pleased Lebowitz had made bond. "I'm really mad now," she said. "He's out."

Gillen and an associate did not return calls to their offices seeking comment.

Police say Lebowitz began instant messaging the teen about topics such as hobbies and sports.

"It escalated into a sexual nature, and the 15-year-old got scared," said Coweta sheriff's Capt. Tony Grant.

The teen told his mother, who said she called the phone number Lebowitz had given her son and told the man who answered to leave the teen alone. She then called sheriff's officials.

The next day, Lebowitz contacted the teen again — but this time sheriff's investigators were working with the family to continue the communication and record it as evidence.

The doctor tried to get the boy to sneak out of his house for a meeting, Grant said.

"The boy had told him he was 15 and the boy said, 'I can't drive, I'm only 15, I don't have a car,' and the response was, 'That's OK, I'll come pick you up.'"

Lebowitz talked about daily life as a doctor and bragged about saving lives, Suber said. He also sent the boy a photograph of himself wearing his hospital scrubs with his genitals exposed, the detective said.

Lebowitz, who didn't try to hide his age, boasted about his prowess, claiming he had more endurance and drive than most men in their late 40s, Suber said. He told the teen he hadn't "messed around" with someone as young as 15 before, but found the teen mature and trustworthy, the detective said.

Within six days of the first contact, Lebowitz was ready for sex, sheriff's officials say.

After getting off work at Grady, Lebowitz drove to Newnan, having been told the teen's parents were gone, authorities say.

Inside his black SUV, he had sleeping bags, condoms, lubricant and other items, Grant said. "What scares me is, he had it so planned out, I would

not think this was his first time," Grant said. "I'm almost

certain that there's going to be more victims out there that have had contact with Dr. Lebowitz."

After sheriff's officials parked in the teen's driveway to block the doctor's escape. Lebowitz resisted arrest, they said. He refused to get out of the SUV, clinging to the steering wheel and popping a detective in the eye with his elbow as police pried his arms from the steering wheel. Police then wrestled the doctor to the ground to handcuff him, authorities said.

Lebowitz, whose face was swollen from the struggle, was taken first to an area hospital for treatment and then to the Coweta jail, where he was booked on felony charges of obstruction of an officer, criminal attempt to commit aggravated child molestation and enticing a child for indecent purposes.

Grant, the Coweta police spokesman, said that when Lebowitz was booked, he answered yes to the question of whether he was HIV-positive. The doctor also had AIDS medication with him, Grant said.

Emory University issued a statement saying only

that Lebowitz had been placed on leave pending an investigation.

Deputies went to the doctor's home Thursday night and confiscated his personal computer and other items, including three unsealed boxes of condoms, four bottles of lubricant, and a green file with printouts of others' Myspace pages, screen names and e-mail addresses, according to the search warrant records.

On Lebowitz's Myspace page, he goes by the name "intrepidromantic." On his page, he said he went back to medical school after working for many years as a paramedic.

He says he "dated mostly women but was curious about guys until I was 24. I have dated men exclusively since then."

On his Web page, he answers a "Who I'd like to meet" question:

"I am a masculine, adventurous, educated, professional, relationship-oriented man from Decatur, Ga. (metro Atlanta) seeking great guys for friends or more. I like younger guys who are bright, goodlooking, single, masculine, and not overweight. Non-smokers preferred. Face pic required for meeting. Perhaps we can grab dinner or lunch or ice cream and start getting to know each other. I'm generally not seeking hookups."

The teen's mother and police urged parents to monitor their children's Myspace page and other Internet activity. The Newnan mother, who said she was molested as a child, said that as soon as her family got a home computer, she and her husband warned the 15-year-old and his siblings, ages 12 and 17, about the dangers of the Internet. She also urged them to come to her with problems, she said.

Detective Suber said: "The only reason this case came about is the open communication this kid has with his mom. Otherwise we would have never known."

Staff writers Mae Gentry, Donna Soper and David Simpson contributed to this article.
Jeff Suber

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