Doctor who killed self admitted to 'fetish'

(UPDATED WITH PDF) A fatal, self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest with a 12-gauge shotgun.That is what allowed a Norwalk foot doctor to escape felony sex charges last fall.After a months-long investigation, Norwalk police and prosecutors have released a final, 14-page report documenting Dr. James Revelas' alleged fetish for young girls.The report says Revelas created, reproduced or published obscene materials depicting minors as participants.According to the report: "These materials in the form of DVDs/CDs and other digital storage devices are considered tools used to facilitate pandering obscenity involving a minor, a felony criminal offense which Dr. Revelas would have been charged with if he was still alive." Anonymous caller It started with an anonymous phone call July 26, 2011.The caller, an employee at Revelas' Executive Drive office in Norwalk, told police she suspected the doctor was taking inappropriate photos of young girls, according to the police report.The employee told police she saw Revelas escort girls as young as 7 or 9 years old -- usually his patients' daughters -- into his office to take photos of them while their parents received medical treatment.Other employees were concerned, too, but they were too scared to tell police and they didn't want to lose their jobs, the employee said.Then, on Sept. 8, a woman told police Revelas took pictures of her 13-year-old daughter pretending to eat a banana, according to the report.The mother said Revelas offered to show her daughter his pet bird while the mother stayed with her son, who was being treated for a foot problem.Revelas led the girl to his office, where he handed her a peeled banana and told her to act as if she was eating it. When she put it to her mouth, Revelas started to take photos, the report said.The girl later told her mother about the incident.InvestigationAt 8 a.m. Sept. 13, police knocked on Revelas' door with search warrant in hand. They asked to see his camera. He told them it was at his office.When officers explained the situation -- a "complaint about Dr. Revelas taking inappropriate photographs of young girls in his office," according to the report -- Revelas said it was all a big misunderstanding and he could explain.But he began to crack.He paced back and forth, then bolted out the door, the report said.He jumped into his car and threw it in reverse, but a car blocked his way.The officers walked up to the car and began searching it. In the trunk they found a black Fuji-Film S-5100 digital camera, along with several pairs of women's shoes.Later, officers seized 47 CDs from a desk drawer in his office. They also confiscated computers at his home and office.At first, Revelas told investigators they'd find photos "with suckers and kids and stuff like that," the report said.Under mounting pressure, Revelas said the photos were taken to feed a "fetish." Later, he said the material was for a "sexual fantasy," the report said.The evidence was tagged and sent to the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, where an agent later found "evidence of images from the Internet of what appeared to be juvenile females clothed and posed sexually with a focus on the groin area," the report said.Among the photos Revelas took with his camera, the agent found "several hundred images and movies of children being recorded in (his) office eating candy inserted and removed from their mouths simulating oral sex," the report said. "(The agent) also found a video of Dr. Revelas inserting his finger into the mouth of a blonde female child repeatedly."In the end, investigators recovered hundreds of photos showing girls with suckers, bananas and other objects in their mouths.Revelas told police he'd been taking photos of young girls for a few years.He told police: "The truth is this started as a well-intentioned thing, with the bird and the patients and the happiness and to try to get them to calm down and to not be worried and so forth. And then an opportunity arose to extract something further that led to this."When they finished searching his house Sept. 13, police told Revelas criminal charges could be forthcoming depending on the evidence they found.Revelas, in turn, assured police he "had no intentions of harming himself and (he) would deal with the problem," the report said.SuicideReceipts show Revelas bought a Mossberg 12-gauge shotgun and a package of five slugs from Dick's Sporting Goods at about 1 p.m. Oct. 4.Three days later, a groundskeeper at Big Lots on U.S. 20 found a man slumped over in a black Mercedes C300.It was Revelas.A shotgun slug had torn a large hole in his chest, the report said. A packaging sticker was still on the shotgun, resting between the dead man's knees. He left no note.Later, Norwalk police Chief Dave Light said his detective, Sgt. Dave Pigman, went through the dozens of computer disks and hundreds of photos and videos in search of more evidence."In a case like this, you have to be as thorough as possible," Light said. "We're short-staffed like everyone else, but we needed to look at them all."After two months of sorting through the material, police concluded Revelas -- if he hadn't killed himself -- would certainly have faced charges of pandering obscenity involving a minor."I'm just glad it's over," Light said. "It's a relief."There's no evidence Revelas published his photos on the Internet, Light said.The doctor seemed to act alone, and police have no reason to think others were involved."There are no investigations forthcoming," Light said.