A gynecologist at a California jail sexually abused individuals in custody for years, subjecting them to “horrific, sadistic” mistreatment beneath the guise of medical care, based on a lawsuit filed by six ladies this week.
The category-action criticism introduced on Wednesday alleges that Dr Scott Lee, a 70-year-old OB-GYN, repeatedly sexually harassed and bodily abused his sufferers behind bars on the California Establishment for Ladies (CIW) from 2016 to 2023 whereas he was the only real gynecologist on employees.
A 93-page criticism filed in federal courtroom particulars allegations that Lee performed abusive exams and coercive procedures, refused to cease exams when sufferers had been in ache, forcibly restrained them once they expressed discomfort, made inappropriate and sexualized feedback and retaliated in opposition to incarcerated victims who complained about his mistreatment.
Jail officers had been conscious of the risk he posed to sufferers, however didn’t maintain him accountable, the go well with says.
A spokesperson for the California division of corrections and rehabilitation (CDCR) didn’t touch upon the particular claims within the lawsuit in opposition to Lee, saying in an e mail: “Whereas we’re unable to touch upon personnel issues, Dr Scott Lee not has direct in-person contact with sufferers.”
Lee didn’t instantly reply to inquiries on Wednesday.
The incarcerated sufferers had no selection however to maintain seeing him for remedy even after they had been victimized, stated Yashna Eswaran, an lawyer for the plaintiffs.
“For therefore many of those individuals, their gynecological care was conditioned upon being abused,” she stated. “In the event that they refused remedy from him as a result of they felt unsafe, they didn’t get to see one other supplier.”
Attorneys stated they had been bringing the case as a class-action on behalf of “lots of and probably hundreds of individuals at the moment or previously incarcerated at CIW”.
The go well with comes weeks after Gregory Rodriguez, a former guard at one other California state ladies’s jail, was convicted of 64 counts of sexual abuse in opposition to incarcerated ladies. Prosecutors stated Rodriguez focused ladies in his custody for years, and a Guardian investigation in 2023 revealed that the jail had obtained a report of his abuse in 2014, however as a substitute of firing him, punished the victims. It additionally follows a serious scandal at a federal ladies’s jail in California that closed amid stories of rampant abuse by officers, together with the former warden.
One plaintiff, recognized as Jane Doe 4, noticed Lee in April 2023 when she was seven-and-a-half months pregnant. She requested for privateness as she undressed, however he refused to go away the room, the go well with says. The physician then allegedly fondled her with out clarification and “pressed on her pelvic and vaginal areas with pressure”, prompting her to say he was hurting her.
Lee dismissed her considerations after which with out clarification, digitally penetrated her in a “sexualized and aggressive method”, the criticism says; the abuse brought about her to bleed for the primary time throughout her being pregnant, which continued for days, inflicting her to stay “in worry for the well-being of her unborn little one”.
“I keep in mind holding my abdomen, and I used to be simply praying, ‘God, please let this be over, please let this be over, please let this be over.’ I felt like he was raping my child,” the plaintiff stated in a press release shared by her attorneys.
Roughly every week later, Lee inappropriately touched her once more and have become aggressive when she refused one other pelvic examination, the go well with says. After she gave start, she refused to be housed in an outpatient housing unit as a result of Lee labored there, regardless that the location would have offered her extra consolation, she stated. When she requested a breast pump, postpartum pads and a wheelchair, Lee denied the provides, the go well with says: “Jane Doe 4 suffered excessive ache and discomfort because of the deprivation of this postpartum care, together with extreme breast engorgement, problem strolling and extreme bleeding.”
One other plaintiff alleged Lee repeatedly claimed he wanted to do pap smears on her, however that she didn’t obtain lab outcomes from the appointments, prompting Lee to say there have been no outcomes out there or he had no recollection of her prior appointment.
For one more plaintiff, the go well with says: “At virtually each appointment, Dr Lee required that Jane Doe 6 get an invasive examination or process, together with a pelvic examination, pap smear, and/or biopsy. Jane Doe 6 routinely didn’t obtain any outcomes or follow-up remedy from these exams, thereby necessitating additional invasive examinations by Dr Lee.”
Jane Doe 6 stated the exams had been “excessively painful” and on one event when she requested him to cease, he pressured her legs open “with such pressure that he left bruise marks on her thighs”. He additionally put his finger in her anus with out clarification or consent, and when she questioned him, he “grew to become very upset, hostile, and was inappropriately crass in direction of Jane Doe 6”, the go well with says.
Lee “routinely made sexually inappropriate feedback whereas digitally penetrating sufferers together with commenting on sufferers’ vaginal ‘tightness’, ‘wetness’, commenting on how ‘fairly’ or ‘stunning’ sufferers’ vaginas are, and commenting on sufferers’ sexual historical past”, based on the lawsuit. He is also alleged to have incessantly “left his fingers inserted longer than essential”.
The go well with alleges that the jail was lengthy conscious of stories of his mistreatment. In 2017, a previously incarcerated girl alleged that he had “mutilated her genitals beneath the pretense of performing a biopsy”, warning in a criticism that he was performing undesirable procedures. “Please cease this Dr Scott Lee from harming, mutilating, and traumatizing the ladies right here at CIW,” she stated on the time, based on the go well with.
The establishment, nevertheless, allowed him to proceed to supply gynecological care.
In 2022, Lee was additionally reported to the Medical Board of California for sexually abusing a pregnant affected person after which delaying her transport to a hospital when she went into labor, the go well with says, alleging that officers once more didn’t take motion.
Eswaran famous that the overwhelming majority of incarcerated individuals on the ladies’s jail had skilled home violence or sexual abuse earlier than jail, making them notably susceptible: “It was actually exhausting for individuals to come back ahead.”
Jenny Huang, one other lawyer for the plaintiffs, famous that some residents refused to see him out of worry: “Individuals heard about what he’d performed and had been terrified. They selected to deprive themselves of gynecological care simply to maintain themselves protected from sexual abuse.”
The allegations solely got here to mild due to the organizing of incarcerated residents, stated Colby Lenz, an advocate with the California Coalition for Ladies Prisoners, which can also be a plaintiff within the go well with.
“One of the crucial highly effective issues about this case is that one girl went cell-to-cell asking individuals about their experiences, and what she discovered was a sample of abuse,” Lenz stated. “This was advocacy on the within and quite a lot of survivors coming collectively to take a stand and ensure others wouldn’t be victimized by him.”
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