Dr. Bruce Hensel, an Emmy-winning physician who spent three decades as chief on-air medical correspondent for KNBC Los Angeles, has been sentenced to two years probation after pleading no contest to soliciting nude pictures from a child, multiple news outlets reported.
Hensel, 74, was arrested in 2019 after prosecutors said he used a messaging app to request suggestive photos from the 9-year-old daughter of an acquaintance. But his trial was delayed while his attorney negotiated a plea bargain.
Hensel repeatedly texted the child from March to August 2019, court documents show.
The Los Angeles Times said Hensel turned to address his victim’s father in court—telling him: “I’m terribly sorry for what happened. I’ve done everything I can to understand this isolated thing”—before the two men exchanged a courtroom hug.
The disgraced physician will also have to register as a sex offender.
Hensel, who won multiple Emmys as the chief health, medical and science editor and correspondent for KNBC, will also have to register as a sex offender.
Read more at ABC7 Eyewitness News.
NEW VIDEO: "What do you have to say to her family?” Dr. Bruce Hensel dodges @abc7eileen's questions as disgraced ex-TV medical correspondent leaves downtown LA jail https://t.co/zuttEvuD8a pic.twitter.com/LxanxCpGcB
— ABC7 Eyewitness News (@ABC7) November 14, 2019