Prestigious US institutions Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian Hospital have agreed to a $750m settlement of hundreds of sexual abuse claims by patients of disgraced and imprisoned former gynaecologist Robert Hadden, bringing total legal payouts in civil cases involving the ex-doctor to more than $1bn, according to the plaintiffs’ lawyer.
Hadden, now 66, was accused of molesting patients during a decades-long career at leading New York City hospitals including Columbia University Irving Medical Centre and New York-Presbyterian.
The Associated Press reports that he was convicted by a jury in 2023 of federal sex crime charges and sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
The new settlements, approved by a Manhattan judge last week, come in 576 legal cases against the Ivy League school, the hospital and others over the abuse by Hadden, said the plaintiffs’ attorney Anthony DiPietro.
“This victory is not just for the victims and survivors of Columbia University and The New York-Presbyterian Hospital’s cover-up who bravely came forward, but for all of us who entrust medical institutions with our healthcare,” DiPietro said in statement.
DiPietro said the average payout to plaintiffs from the new settlement will be about $1.3m. Columbia previously agreed to $277m in settlements with more than 200 other plaintiffs over Hadden’s sexual abuse, he said.
Columbia confirmed the settlement but not the amount, while lawyers for the school and New York-Presbyterian did not immediately respond to emails seeking comment.
“Columbia is implementing a multi-pronged plan, including an external investigation, a survivors’ settlement fund, and a series of new and updated patient safety policies and programmes to address the abuses of Robert Hadden,” the university said.
New York-Presbyterian referred questions about the settlement to Columbia, saying the school had employed Hadden.
During Hadden’s criminal trial, nine victims testified about how Hadden molested them during gynaecology treatments, starting in the late 1980s, at prominent hospitals.
Allegations of misconduct during examinations first surfaced in 2012. Hadden was indicted on state charges in 2014 as women kept coming forward.
But in 2016, the office of the Manhattan district attorney at the time, Cyrus Vance Jr, allowed Hadden to plead guilty to two low-level felonies and a misdemeanour in a deal that required him to give up his medical licence but did not require prison time and kept him out of the state’s sex offender registry.
Some of the women who had gone to prosecutors were outraged, but their stories did not start receiving public attention until the #MeToo movement began gaining steam in 2017.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan got a grand jury indictment against Hadden in 2020, charges based on the fact that some patients at his New York offices had come into the city from other states.
In November 2023, Columbia and Columbia University Irving Medical Centre announced they would be notifying 6 500 former patients of Hadden of his federal sex crime convictions and giving victims the opportunity to apply for compensation from a $100m settlement fund.
The deadline to apply was extended to 15 May.
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‘Predatory’ US gynae gets 20 years for sexual abuse
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GP gets three life sentences for 90 ‘defensive medicine’ sexual assaults