WSU ordered to pay doctor nearly $29K
Arbitrator ruled he was fired without the right to due process.
An arbitrator has ordered Wright State University to pay $91,799 to a former Dayton Children’s Hospital doctor who was fired amid an investigation into whether he inappropriately touched the breasts of two female patients.
The allegations led to four counts of felony gross sexual imposition against the doctor, Arun Aggarwal, filed in Montgomery County Common Pleas Court this year. He has pleaded not guilty and has a trial scheduled in January.
Aggarwal practiced medicine at Dayton Children’s Hospital but was employed by the WSU Boonshoft School of Medicine under a contract between the hospital and the school.
He was fired from WSU in September 2015 after his admitting privileges lapsed from the hospital while he was on paid leave during a Dayton police investigation, according to court records. The university told him hospital privileges were a requirement for his employment.
“That was improper and an effective termination of claimant’s employment without affording him the due process right to which he was entitled,” wrote arbitrator Michael Jordan.
J o rdan de ci ded Agga rw al
should be paid through his three-year contract ending in June 2016, plus interest. That comes out to $10,534 in State Teachers Retirement System pension payments and $81,264 in salary and other fringe benefits.
The arbitration decision is subject to appeal, Wright State officials said when asked for comment Monday.
“The arbitration is part of an ongoing federal court case,” WSU spokesman Seth Bauguess wrote in a statement. “Consistent with its long-established practice, Wright State does not comment on pending litigation.”
The Dayton Daily News has contacted Aggarwal’s attorney for comment.
Aggarwal filed the lawsuit that led to the arbitrator’s decision in October 2015 alleging wrongful termination. His contract required the dispute to go to binding arbitration.
The arbitrator noted that university administrators were aware of the allegations against Aggarwal — incidents were reported in January and November 2014 — well before the police investigation led to his suspension in June 2015.
“At the time in question, with respect to the inappropriate sexual contact, there were only allegations,” Jordan wrote in a decision filed with the court Nov. 27, 2017. “(Hospital and university officials) had investigated the incidents and determined that no report needed to be made.”
Using police records, the Dayton Daily News reported in April 2017 that university and hospital administrators were aware of the alleged incidents and opted not to report them to law enforcement, instead issuing him a warning after the first complaint and requiring him to have a chaperone with young female patients after the second.
In January 2015, a hospital supervisor notified police on her own, starting the police probe. Initially, no charges were filed, but the State Medical Board of Ohio revoked his license in May 2017. A grand jury indicted Aggarwal in August.