A Longview doctor who admitted to sexually abusing child patients is dead, days before his sentencing, officials confirmed Tuesday.
Matt Hipke, 62, was found dead at his home in the Bella Terra area of Longview. Hipke entered a guilty plea on March 31, before 188th District Court Judge Scott Novy, according to court records. A sentencing hearing was scheduled for Friday, April 25.
As reported by the Longview News-Journal, Hipke was indicted in 2022 on three counts of continuous sexual abuse of a child younger than 14, aggravated sexual assault of a child and indecency with a child sexual contact. Police said Hipke's former patients were his victims.
Hipke was originally arrested in August 2020. Charges against him alleged a pattern of sexual abuse in which police said he fondled the genitals of child patients on multiple occasions between 2018 and 2020.
His practice, Adolescent Care Team, faced five civil lawsuits on behalf of nearly a dozen children. The News-Journal reported that one of the five lawsuits was settled in March. Five children from four families were named as plaintiffs in that lawsuit. Each of the plaintiffs received a confidential settlement. The practice has since closed and his medical license was suspended by the Texas Medical Board.
An autopsy into Hipke's death has been ordered. Hipke had been out of the Gregg County Jail since June 9, 2022, according to online jail records.
