Victims of 'predator' US doctor reach US$75mil settlement
NEW YORK: Columbia University and a New York hospital have reached a US$750 million settlement with hundreds of women sexually assaulted by a former gynaecologist, a lawyer for the victims said Tuesday.
Robert Hadden, described by prosecutors as a "predator in a white coat", is serving a 20-year prison sentence after being convicted last year of sexual abuse.
Hadden was accused of abusing scores of women between the early 1990s and 2012, including Evelyn Yang, whose husband Andrew Yang ran for president in 2020 as a Democratic Party outsider.
Anthony DiPietro, a solicitor who represented some of Hadden's victims, said the US$750 million settlement with Columbia and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital involves 576 of the doctor's former patients.
"This settlement sends a powerful message that we're here to ensure that institutions covering up exploitation and abuse will be held fully accountable for their crimes," DiPietro said in a statement.
Evelyn Yang, who told CNN in 2020 that she was assaulted by Hadden in 2012 while seven months pregnant, and another woman, Marissa Hoechstetter, welcomed the settlement in a joint statement on X.
"Another enormous milestone has been reached in Hadden survivors' long quest for justice," they said.
"As remarkable as this moment is, we know the numbers represent only a fraction of the reach of Hadden's crimes."
They added that Columbia still had "significant work to do" to address the cover-up and the systemic issues that enabled "the most prolific sexual predator in US history".
In a statement, Columbia said it had implemented "a series of new and updated patient safety policies and programmes to address the abuses of Robert Hadden".
Columbia University Irving Medical Centre (CUIMC) previously announced it had reached a US$165 million settlement with 147 of Hadden's patients.
Columbia also agreed to a US$71.5 million settlement in 2021 between its hospitals and another 79 of Hadden's patients.
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