Police: Doctor waterboarded daughter

Dr. Melvin Morse has been interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and Larry King. He has been featured on Good Morning America and dozens of television talk shows, and has written several books on near-death experience by children during a 30-year pediatrics career.

Morse now stands accused of abusing his 11-year-old daughter by dragging her across a gravel driveway and on other occasions disciplining her with what he called waterboarding – in this case holding her head under running water, police said. State officials suspended his medical license Thursday.

Morse, 58, and his wife, Pauline, 40, were arrested Aug. 7 and charged with felony endangering the welfare of their children and other crimes. Morse remains in Sussex Correctional Institution on $14,500 secured bond; Pauline Morse is out on $14,500 unsecured bond. She is prohibited from contacting Morse or her two children – the 11-year-old and a 5-year-old girl – who are in custody of the Division of Family Services.

Pauline Morse said her main concern was her children, when contacted at the home in the 20000 block of Lewes-Georgetown Highway that she's shared with Morse and her children since 2007.

"The children are most important," she said. "I don't know what the future holds."

She said she's been seeing a crisis counselor and speaking to her mother for moral support, and she didn't want to talk about who reported the incidents. "I've been avoiding the news," she said, minutes before a local news van pulled up to her property.

Morse, a pediatrician who had practiced in Milton, and his wife were charged following a police investigation into a July 12 incident at their home. Police say Morse grabbed his 11-year-old daughter by the ankle and began dragging her across a gravel driveway at their residence.

Delaware State Police spokesman Master Cpl. Gary Fournier said Morse took the child inside the home and spanked her. On July 16, Morse was charged with two counts of endangering the welfare of a child and one count of third-degree assault. Police said he was released after posting $750 secured bail.

Investigators interviewed the daughter Aug. 6 at the Child Advocacy Center in Georgetown, which resulted in new charges. During the interview, court documents show the girl told detectives Morse held her face under a running faucet, causing the water to go up her nose and all over her face. Court documents state this happened in the bathroom and kitchen sinks and in the bathtub.

The victim said Morse called this punishment waterboarding, police said. Waterboarding is a torture technique that became notorious during the Iraq war.

The girl told detectives that Morse "would sometimes look away while he did it and (she) would become afraid that he would lose track of time and (she) would die."

Morse told the girl she could go five minutes without brain damage; he also told her he would do it whenever he felt like it, according to court documents.

The girl told police she was scared all the time because she "was unsure what would trigger him to do the waterboarding," court records state.

In one instance, the girl said she got in trouble for closing the oven door. Court records offer the following account of another incident: She was forced to eat a large amount of food because she had not been eating well. As a result she vomited in the hallway all over the cat litter box and began crying. Morse took her into the bathroom and stuck her head under the running water in the bathtub; he asked her if she was going to throw up again and she said no.

About once a month, the girl told police, Morse would cover her nose and mouth until she collapsed on the ground. He told her she "was lucky he did not use duct tape," court records state.

Police said this punishment was used on the victim no less than four times starting in May 2009. Pauline Morse witnessed a few of these incidents and failed to stop them, police said.

Local pediatrician

Morse was a licensed pediatrician in Delaware and had worked at Scott Pediatrics in Milton. Calls to Scott Pediatrics were referred to attorney Gary Alderson who said Morse had worked at the office part-time about once a week for about two years. Morse stopped working at the practice in May because he wanted to spend more time with his mother, Alderson said.

"Dr. Scott has no first-hand knowledge about the allegations surrounding Dr. Morse. Dr. Morse is no longer affiliated with the practice since his arrest," Alderson said.

Secretary of State Jeffrey W. Bullock suspended Morse's medical license Thursday because he said Morse presents a clear and immediate danger to the public health if permitted to continue to practice medicine.

“Our duty is to protect the public from potential harm, and we believe that the allegations against Dr. Morse are sufficient to immediately suspend his medical license,” said Bullock. “A pediatrician who is alleged to have committed crimes against children, whether the victims are patients or not, should not have contact with patients until there is a full evaluation of his case.”

The suspension will remain in effect pending a hearing by the Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline. The order requires Morse to put a message on his office phone and post notice on his office door, advising patients of the process for obtaining their medical records. The order also requires Morse to advise patients with emergency medical needs to seek medical attention at the nearest emergency room.

The suspension follows an emergency suspension request Aug. 8 by the Attorney General's Office. On July 31, the Attorney General's Office filed a complaint with the Delaware Board of Medical Licensure and Discipline seeking revocation of Morse's medical license and other disclipinary measures following the July investigation, said Jason Miller, spokesman for the Attorney General's Office.

The emergency suspension was filed because of "the representation that Morse made to law enforcement that he was currently practicing medicine," Miller said.

Neither Miller, Fournier or Christopher Portante, spokesman for the Division of Professional Regulation, could confirm where locally Morse may have been practicing medicine prior to his arrest.

Near death expert

Morse was renowned for his research on near-death experiences involving children. He earned a bachelor's degree in natural science from Johns Hopkins University and took a creative writing class at University of Maryland before earning a medical degree from George Washington University School of Medicine in 1980. Most of his professional experience was in Seattle, Wash. – working as a pediatrician, associate professor at University of Washington and a medical director for Autism Spectrum Research at Valley Medical Center in Renton, Wash., near Seattle before moving east.

During his time on the West Coast, Morse was a sought after expert for numerous television shows. He appeared on the Oprah Winfrey show, Larry King Live, 20/20, Good Morning America and dozens of local stations.

In an Oprah Winfrey episode on near-death experience posted on Youtube, Morse says "After you've had children say to you heaven is fun, you sort of lose your fear of death."

He also wrote several books including "Closer to the Light" and, with co-author Paul Perry, "Transformed By the Light," "Parting Visions" and "Where God Lives."

Morse maintains a website under The Institute for the Scientific Study of Consciousness.

On a website for The Institute for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, Morse writes, "My challenge to my fellow physicians: Take the stethoscopes out of our ears and start to listen to our patients about their spiritual visions ... Listening up to the message that it's not scary to die could save the United States six billion dollars a year. (The cost of irrational end-of life healthcare that does not prolong life one second)."

Locally, he conducted workshops in 2011 on "Lessons from the Light."

Judy Pierson, a licensed psychologist who helped lead the all-day workshops in Lewes, said Morse was knowledgeable and professional to work with.

"These charges are so out of character with the man I knew," she said. "The messages in the workshop are about loving each other and very positive and uplifting."

Rachel Swick Mavity contributed to this article.