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A Transplant Surgeon Faces Child Pornography Charges

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By Ariela Lopez- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel- 17/07/2025- [Calvin Eriksen]- [US]


A transplant surgeon is facing federal charges of possessing and distributing child pornography.


Calvin Eriksen, 46, was arrested by federal agents on July 15 near his Brookfield home. He is being charged after a year-long investigation into his possible connections to child sexual abuse material, according to a criminal complaint filed by the Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations task force.


As of July 17, Eriksen's page has been taken down from Froedtert's websites and websites for the associated Medical College of Wisconsin and Children's Wisconsin. Web archives state that he specializes in kidney and liver transplants and sees patients of all ages, including infants, adolescents and seniors.


Stephanie Burton, Froedtert's communications director, wrote to the Journal Sentinel that the hospital is fully cooperating with law enforcement.


"The allegations in the criminal complaint are deeply disturbing," Burton wrote. "This doctor has been placed on leave, and his ability to see patients has been suspended while the investigation proceeds."


On March 18, the task force received a tip submitted by an internet service provider that a user had uploaded four files of apparent child pornography between Jan. 13 and April 4, according to the complaint. The IP addresses linked to the files were traced through geolocation to Froedtert hospital and locations in Milwaukee and New Berlin.


The task force linked the case to a prior investigation by the Homeland Security Investigations task force in West Palm Beach, Florida. In August 2023, a user with a similar username as the individual who uploaded the files in Wisconsin had messaged an undercover agent who was posing as a young mother of an 8-year-old daughter on a chatroom for individuals interested in "taboo" sexual relationships.


The user inquired about beginning a sexual relationship with both the apparent mother and the daughter. Throughout the course of their correspondence, the user revealed he lived in Wisconsin and worked as a surgeon. He also sent the undercover agent a photo of himself.


Through a facial recognition analysis, the West Palm Beach task force identified the user as Eriksen.


From August through December 2023, the user identified as Eriksen engaged in explicit chat conversations with the agent about what he wanted to do with the supposed woman and her young daughter. He said he planned to travel to Florida in January 2024 to meet them, but stopped communicating with the undercover agent in December 2023.


The agent next encountered the user identified as Eriksen in July 2024 in a different chatroom. They began privately messaging again, and the user confided in the agent about watching child pornography.


On April 8, during the investigation into the March 18 tip, a judge signed a search warrant for records relating to Eriksen from the internet provider that had submitted the tip. Through the warrant, the task force found that Eriksen appeared to obtain and share "numerous videos and pictures" of child sexual abuse material on various online group chats. The search warrant returns also yielded photos of Eriksen in scrubs in a hospital setting.


Eriksen was released on a signature bond on July 15, according to online court records. He is required to comply with a curfew and location monitoring. He is scheduled to next appear in federal court on July 31.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article and were abused in state run medical and health facilities, you can contact Dignity4Patients, whose helpline is open Monday to Thursday, 10am to 4pm.


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