While Kvedar said he did not want to comment on the conviction without knowing all the facts in the case, he said that Sharpe “did not give any impression that he was a criminal.”

Early in the investigation, various media outlets published reports of Sharpe’s cross-dressing. The national news media published photographs of Sharpe wearing slinky dresses and fishnet stockings—surprising HMS colleagues who knew him only professionally.

Lack of knowledge about a colleague’s personal life is part of the larger tragedy of the situation, according to Dr. Steven Shama, a clinical instructor in medicine at HMS.

Shama said he had known Sharpe professionally for years and called him one of the most generous donors to dermatological research in the state. Yet Shama said he had no knowledge of Sharpe’s life outside the office.

“Sometimes it can be after 20 years that you finally find out someone you work with even has a family or kids,” he said.

—Material from the Associated Press was used in the compilation of this article.