An try and dismiss and seal an enormous intercourse abuse class motion lawsuit in opposition to criminally convicted former urologist Darius Paduch— with almost 300 male plaintiffs — has failed, a Manhattan Supreme Court docket decide dominated Thursday.
Choose Suzanne J. Adams dominated that the category motion swimsuit in opposition to the physician and the medical establishments which employed him ought to transfer ahead, and demanded that Paduch lastly produce a reply to the criticism later this summer season.
“I’m so grateful the decide took this severely and got here down the proper method,” mentioned lawyer for the almost 300 victims, Anthony T. DiPietro.
The class motion swimsuit has grown from 58 victims when it was initially filed in August 2023 to a staggering 278 former sufferers as of Thursday
DiPietro has beforehand received almost $250 million in lawsuits associated to former Columbia gynecologist Robert Hadden, and he says this case could be even bigger in scale, noting that plenty of new victims had joined the swimsuit simply this week.
He completely informed The Publish that the civil swimsuit is probably “our solely alternative to carry these establishments accountable for the position they performed on this huge cowl up.”
“Each certainly one of these instances the place you see this occurring have one factor in frequent — a billion greenback company masking up the abuse for them.”
Anthony T. DiPietro
Attorneys for Paduch and the highest hospitals the place he labored for twenty years — Weill Cornell Drugs, NewYork Presbyterian Hospital, Northwell Well being and Columbia College — tried to make use of a precedent set by rulings in sexual abuse instances involving the Catholic Church to maintain “scandalous” accusations from the general public report, and to dismiss the case solely.
Paduch’s abuse included making them masturbate in entrance of him or masturbating them himself — generally insisting they get on all fours so he might “stimulate” or “milk” their prostate gland, the submitting claims.
DiPietro estimates that roughly 20 % of the almost 300 former sufferers who’re a part of the category motion had been victimized as minors, he informed The Publish.
Paduch additionally “carried out pointless surgical procedures on sufferers, typically with none anesthesia, in an effort to inflict ache [on] the sufferers,” the swimsuit claims.
Then he “distributed copious opioid remedy in an effort to get his sufferers addicted in order that he might higher manipulate, management, exploit and abuse them — all with none foundation in precise medical requirements of care,” the submitting alleges.
DiPietro mentioned that the sexual criminals of the medical world, like Paduch, Hadden and former USA gymnastics coach and convicted rapist Larry Nassar “are literally not the issue.”
“They’re a symptom. The issue [is] these establishments that cowl this up, gaslight and mislead sufferers and maintain exposing extra and suspecting sufferers to a identified serial sexual predator,” he mentioned.
Paduch was criminally convicted by a federal jury in Might on 13 counts associated to the sexual abuse of eight sufferers.
The disgraced physician additionally faces a slew of litigation from dozens of different victims in unrelated sexual abuse fits, together with a former intern who mentioned he was simply 16-years-old on the time of his abuse.
A spokesperson for Weill Cornell mentioned that they’re “heartbroken for these survivors” and that the establishment has “carried out enhancements to our insurance policies and coaching necessities, and launched new affected person security packages, to attenuate the danger of such abhorrent conduct occurring sooner or later.”
Attorneys representing Paduch, NewYork Presbyterian, Columbia and Northwell Well being didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.
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