CHAPEL HILL -- A lawyer who has filed five lawsuits accusing a UNC pediatrician of abuse said about 16 other people have contacted him with similar allegations since he called a news conference Monday.

"We have been overwhelmed with additional calls, both from Massachusetts, and North Carolina, people who say they've had the same experience with Dr. Levine," Carmen Durso said by telephone from Boston.

Durso, who planned to hold a second news conference today, said he referred the North Carolina callers to the N.C. Medical Board and that Raleigh attorney Elizabeth Kuniholm has agreed to help residents with legal questions or who need help contacting the board.

Durso also said he was calling for independent investigations at Children's Hospital in Boston and at UNC-Chapel Hill, and that he would ask district attorneys in both places to investigate.

Durso has filed lawsuits on behalf of five men who say Levine sexually abused them while they were in his care at Children's Hospital, beginning in the late 1960s. In court filings, Durso has cited two other allegations of abuse.

Levine, 68, moved to North Carolina in the 1980s and was the director of UNC-CH's Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning. He retired from full-time work in 2006 but continued to see patients twice a month, a university official said.

Wednesday, a UNC School of Medicine spokeswoman said Levine has voluntarily decided to stop seeing patients because of the lawsuits against him.

Levine is an author of childhood development books who has appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Efforts to reach him at his home have been unsuccessful, but his lawyer has said Levine is innocent.

"Dr. Levine is distressed about the distorted or misrepresented memories from decades past and questions the motivations," according to a statement from his attorney. "He prefers not to participate further in counsel's efforts to obtain free advertising for his legal practice."

Bob Bolderson, of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., who said he has known the doctor since Levine was a freshman in college, said today that Levine is "one of the finest human beings I've ever met."

"Mel was always the beacon that showed you better things in life," said Bolderson, who said Levine mentored him in a youth guidance program.