Tearful doctor apologizes in court to wife over porn

A just-arrested cardiologist who admitted downloading child pornography depicting girls as young as 8 tearfully apologized Friday to his crying wife after she put up their house for his $1-million bond.

"I'm so sorry," Dr. Frank T. Pollaro told his wife, who had come to watch her husband's arraignment Friday afternoon at federal court in Central Islip.

Pollaro, 40, is alleged to have used his home computer in Babylon to download pornographic pictures and videos and talk in chat rooms, according to a federal complaint against him.

Pollaro, who left court saying nothing, is a doctor at South Nassau Communities Hospital in Oceanside.

In a prepared statement, hospital spokesman Andy Kraus said Pollaro is "a noninvasive cardiologist" who "has been suspended from the medical staff of South Nassau Communities Hospital."

Pollaro has admitted to child pornography crimes dating back five years to federal agents, the complaint says. The arrest followed the May 2008 raid on a Katy, Texas, computer user suspected of child pornography in which Pollaro's was among more than 100 e-mail addresses.

Pollaro had traded about 500 images and videos, the government said. He is charged with knowingly receiving or distributing child pornography.

A federal magistrate judge, E. Thomas Boyle, ordered Pollaro to live with his father in his father's condo until a mental-health exam to see if he's a danger to his children.

The judge told Pollaro, who was wearing hospital-scrub pants, that he was being released from custody on conditions that include home detention and monitoring of computer use.