A former Pennsylvania pediatrician is going to be sentenced for sexual assault of 31 children, most of them patients, in a case that state medical regulators did not act on about two decades ago.

Dr. Johnnie Barto of Johnstown will be sentenced on dozens of counts that include aggravated indecent assault and child endangerment. Prosecutors say that for decades, he abused boys and girls in the exam room at his pediatric practice in western Pennsylvania and at local hospitals. His victims usually ranged in age from 8 to 12 years. One was an infant.

Barto pleaded guilty in December to some counts. Hes been jailed pending sentencing. His lawyer said that Barto opted to enter pleas so that healing could begin for his family, his victims and for himself.

Authorities had a chance to put an end to his acts in 2000, when he appeared before the Pennsylvania Board of Medicine on administrative charges of molesting two young girls in the 1990s. The regulators; however, threw out the case and allowed him to keep practicing medicine, saying that the allegations were incoherent to his reputation. The pediatrician had a lot of support in the community at that time.

Barto, now 71, molested at least a dozen more young patients before he got arrested in January 2018, according to the state attorney generals office.

The medical boards 7-2 decision to exempt him of the charges in the year 2000 triggered indignation among victims and at least one former board member. Vivian Lowenstein, who had voted to take away Barto’s license, said last year that she was sick about it and that the case was an example of how Pennsylvanias physician-regulators looked out for their own.

The Pennsylvania Department of State said last year that the Board of Medicine addresses allegations of sexual misconduct by professional licensees very seriously.