Police check USC gynecologist’s conduct for possible crimes
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The University of Southern California has received hundreds of complaints about a former school gynecologist suspected of conducting inappropriate exams for decades, prompting the resignation of the school president and a police investigation.
More than two dozen lawsuits have been filed and police are investigating allegations from more than 50 women, so far.
Whether Dr. George Tyndall faces charges, though, depends on if complaints about creepy comments, improper photos in the exam room and uncomfortable probing went beyond dubious doctoring and into the criminal realm.
The university has come under fire since the Los Angeles Times reported earlier this month that complaints and comments about Tyndall’s care went unheeded by the school for decades and that USC failed to report him to the state medical board even after the school quietly forced him into retirement last year. Two administrators were fired and President C. L. Max Nikias agreed to step down Friday after criticism for leadership failures during a string of scandals that included reports by the Times that the university’s former medical school dean used drugs with criminals and was present when a woman overdosed in a Pasadena hotel room.
Lawsuits accuse Tyndall, the school’s staff gynecologist for nearly three decades, of using his authority to sexually abuse women between 1990 and 2016. The suits allege the school concealed the conduct.
Tyndall was a “serial sexual predator” who groped breasts and used his fingers to penetrate rectums and vaginas for no medically necessary purpose, attorney John Manly said in a suit filed Friday.
Tyndall is also accused of taking close-up photos of genitalia and commenting on the bodies of women, their race and sexual activity.
In some instances, Tyndall is accused of conducting vaginal exams without gloves when students were only seeking birth control.
Tyndall, 71, denied wrongdoing in interviews with the Times. He didn’t return phone calls or an email from The Associated Press. It wasn’t known Tuesday if he has an at- torney. USC concluded in 2016 that Tyndall violated policies on harassment and making racially discriminatory and sexually inappropriate remarks, but two criminal law experts it consulted said there was no criminal activity to report, the school said.
Los Angeles police said they are looking into behavior and practices that appear to go beyond the norms of medical and gynecological exams.
“Many of them are just inappropriate comments which, obviously, do not constitute a crime,” Police Capt. Billy Hayes said at a news conference Tuesday asking more women to come forward. “We could look at the issue of penetration as one of the more significant crimes.”
The allegations have similarities with the case of Larry Nassar, the disgraced former sports doctor at Michigan State University and USA Gym- nastics now serving multiple life terms in prison. Michigan State agreed to a $500 million settlement with more than 300 of his victims.
One key difference with the high- profile case involving Olympic champions, though, is that Tyndall as a gynecologist could argue his treatments were within the scope of his medical expertise.
Internal investigations by USC got mixed reviews on Tyndall’s practice of using a finger before inserting a speculum during pelvic exams.
One expert said it could be considered acceptable, though another review found it outdated.
Some women who have spoken about their encounters — some of whom were on their first visits to a gynecologist — said they didn’t realize their treatment was improper until they saw recent news stories.