California university sued over doctor accused of misconduct
Los Angeles, May 22: Five women filed lawsuits on Monday alleging that a doctor who worked at the University of Southern California for nearly three decades sexually abused them, and that the school failed to act.
The two civil lawsuits filed in Los Angeles Superior Court list in graphic detail years of alleged abuse by George Tyndall, who worked as a gynecologist at the university’s Student Health Center, until he retired last year.
One of the women — who were not identified in the lawsuits — alleges that Tyndall forced his entire her during an appointment in 2003 and made vulgar comments about her genitalia.
Another woman details how Tyndall, 71, groped her breasts and leered at her on her first appointment with a gynecologist in 2008. “Just before groping her breasts, Tyndall would lecherously rub his hands together in front of plaintiff ... and would say ‘ I just want to get them warm for you’,” according to the lawsuit, copies of which were obtained by AFP.
The lawsuits allege that the university failed to act against Tyndall despite complaints going back to at least the year 2000.
They say that the school only launched a probe in 2016 after a supervising nurse upset at USC’s inaction reported him to the campus rape crisis centre.
He was then allowed to “quietly” resign in June of last year.
“Rather than addressing and properly investigating the complaints, the USC defendants kept the complaints secret, to avoid negative publicity despite their actual knowledge of such misconduct,” one of the lawsuits states.
The complaints say that Tyndall used his position of trust and authority to force the plaintiffs to strip naked, digitally penetrated their vaginas and looked into their anal crevice to satisfy his sexual desires.
They add that USC never once reported Tyndall to law enforcement despite dozens of complaints about his behaviour by coworkers. Tyndall could not be reached for comment on Monday. In earlier interviews with the Los Angeles Times, which first wrote about the alleged abuse, he said he had “done nothing wrong” and had “never had any sexual urges” toward patients.