WATERBURY, Conn. (AP) _ Lawyers representing more than 75 plaintiffs who say they were sexually abused by a doctor have agreed with lawyers for St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center to seek to resolve the cases in mediation.

The hospital was sued in state Superior Court. The plaintiffs said the hospital failed to prevent Dr. George Reardon, a prominent endocrinologist at St. Francis who died in 1998, from abusing them as children.

State Superior Court Judge William Cremins suggested that the lawyers settle the cases by mediation or another alternative to going to trial. The lawyers agreed.

Cremins has scheduled mediation to begin Oct. 1 and said he wants it completed by the end of the year.

A child pornography cache involving tens of thousands of slides and dozens of videos was found last year in Reardon's former home in West Hartford. The discovery prompted investigators to try to find the children in the photographs.

Information from: The Hartford Courant, http://www.courant.com

(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

APNT 03-25-08 0557EDT<