Charged: Doctor’s lawyers to enter “not guilty” plea
A 13-year-old girl found hanging from a shower head led to the December 2024 arrest of a Florida doctor on his way to a family house on Blue Ridge Lake.
Stephen Andrew Leedy, 59, of 146 8th Avenue Northeast, St. Petersburg, was taken into custody December 19 by Holly Springs police officers as he traveled toward Fannin County on Highway 515 with his wife and mother-in-law.
A body camera video of that traffic stop shows Leedy’s wife asking officers to tell her husband, “We’re going to go to the lake house.” Records show the Leedy’s own a house on Blue Ridge Lake at 514 Browns Cove Road.
Leedy was turned over to the FBI’s Conasauga Safe Streets Task Force and then transported to a federal holding facility in Atlanta.
The next day, December 20, Leedy appeared in front of Magistrate Judge J. Elizabeth McBath in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia who ordered that he be taken back to the Middle District of Florida where his charges originated.
Leedy was indicted there by a federal grand jury October 24, 2024, on three counts of Production of Child Pornography and two counts of Coercion and Enticement of a Minor to Engage in Sexual Activity. The indictment listed three separate victims, two 13-years-old and one 11- or 12-years old.
That indictment was sealed, then unsealed December 20 following a Motion for Pretrial Detention filed December 17 on behalf of U.S. Attorney Roger B. Hamburg by Assistant U.S. Attorney Abigail K. King.
Hamburg announced Leedy’s indictment and arrest in a January 6 press release.
Court records show Florida law enforcement responded to a scene in which the 13-year-old girl was found dead in her bathroom, “hanging from the shower head with a dog leash around her neck.”
A search of her cell phone discovered various online “sexual-in-nature conversations” with “Maximumuncle#9112,” who was later identified as Leedy.
The conversations and video chats including Leedy directing his victim to produce child pornography and choke herself using a dog leash. He also instructed her to engage in “daily hangings.”
Armed with a search warrant, investigators reviewed Leedy’s online social media account and discovered “several other minor victims who Leedy instructed to produce child pornography, self-mutilate, or hang/choke themselves.”
There are approximately seven additional victims Leedy coerced “to produce child pornography while on video calls...The conversations continually revolved around his control over the minor victim,” the court records say.
While being taken into custody in Holly Springs, Leedy tells officers that what is taking place must be a case of “mistaken identify,” and that he has “no knowledge” of a warrant for his arrest.
The Florida doctor’s practice in palliative care is defined as to “improve the quality of life and reduce suffering for people with serious illness.”
The Florida Department of Health issued an emergency suspension order of Leedy’s license January 7 according to the department’s website.
Apparently no strangers to Fannin County, public records show Leedy and his wife, Lynda, bought their first property here in February 2006, what is now a short term rental at 120 Scenic Ridge Road. They also own short term rentals at 22 Green Mountain Court that they purchased in July 2020 and at 95 Scenic Ridge Road that was purchased in June 2022. The Browns Cove lake house was purchased in August 2021.
Leedy’s attorneys, Bjorn Brunvand and Lucas Fleming, said in a prepared statement that Leedy denies wrongdoing and that they plan to enter a not guilty plea.
“Our client, Stephen Leedy adamantly denies the charges that have been filed against him in federal court. It is particularly important in moments like this when someone is being accused of very troubling allegations, that we afford him the presumption of innocence,” the statement said. “We will be entering a not guilty plea at the earliest opportunity and look forward to vigorously defending Dr. Leedy in court.”