Former Overland Park physician pleads guilty to creating, possessing child pornography

A Kansas City man who worked as a pediatrician in Overland Park pleaded guilty in federal court Wednesday to using hidden cameras to film child pornography on multiple occasions, according to court documents.

Brian Aalbers, 50, pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child pornography and 13 counts of attempting to produce child pornography before U.S. Magistrate Judge Lajuana M. Counts, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Western District of Missouri.

He’s accused of filming pornographic videos of 13 minors, which he stored on personal devices and an iCloud account, according to court documents.

Aalbers signed a plea agreement Wednesday, which could see him spending between 20 and 30 years in federal prison without parole, according to the news release.

A joint FBI and Kansas City Police Department investigation into Aalbers began in October 2023 following an anonymous tip about his secret cameras and their location. Shortly before his arrest, Aalbers contacted the same person who reported him and asked him to destroy his backpack, saying it contained “bad stuff,” according to an FBI affidavit.

Multiple concealed video cameras were found on Oct. 28. On the same day, police officers voluntarily brought Aalbers to a Lenexa hospital for mental health treatment, at which point they confiscated two laptops, two iPad tablets and a cellphone, according to court documents.

FBI agents found more than 50,000 videos that had been produced from the hidden cameras, according to court documents. More than 1,000 of these videos contained pornographic images of the 13 victims, along with another 163 videos and 1,000 photos on Aalbers’ iCloud account.

The locations of the cameras have not been publicly disclosed.

Aalbers, a pediatric neurologist, was affiliated with the Overland Park Regional Medical Center until his arrest. He was also on staff at Children’s Mercy Hospital from 2014 to 2017. After his arrest in 2023, the hospital sent letters to former patients and their parents and guardians.

At his bond hearing in 2023, an attorney for Aalbers said he had resigned from his career as a doctor when the allegations came to light. However, Aalbers is still certified in Kansas as a doctor of osteopathy, according to the Kansas Board of Healing Arts.

At least two permanent orders of protection, as well as one temporary protection order, were filed against Aalbers by family members in connection with his arrest, according to court records.