USC proposes $215M settlement in alleged sexual assault cases
LOS ANGELES — USC said Friday it has reached an “agreement in principal” to pay $215 million to patients treated by Dr. George Tyndall, the longtime campus gynecologist accused of abusing and sexually harassing scores of young patients.
The proposal would provide $2,500 to every student who ever saw Tyndall at the campus health clinic and up to $250,000 to students who alleged they were abused by him.
“By doing so, we hope that we can help our community move collectively toward reconciliation,” Dr. Wanda Austin, USC’s interim president, said in a letter to the campus community.
The proposed settlement covers a federal class action lawsuit but does not resolve hundreds of claims made in state court. At total of 463 women have sued USC over the matter.
Times reporting showed that an internal USC investigation had concluded that Tyndall’s behavior while performing pelvic exams was outside the scope of current medical practice and amounted to sexual harassment of patients.
But in a secret deal last summer, USC lawyers and top administrators allowed Tyndall to resign quietly with an undisclosed financial settlement. The newspaper’s investigation also revealed that USC did not inform Tyndall’s patients about the accusations against him or the circumstances of his departure. Nor did the university at the time notify the Medical Board of California, the agency responsible for protecting the public from problem doctors.
USC lodged a belated complaint in March with the medical board. In previous interviews, Tyndall denied wrongdoing and said his exams were in keeping with the standards outlined by textbooks and the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
He said he engaged in frank dialogue to counsel patients that were mostly in their late teens and early 20s.
Revelations about Tyndall’s alleged serial misconduct and the university’s handling of complaints about his care prompted an ongoing criminal investigation by Los Angeles police detectives and sparked fury among USC faculty, staff and alumni. The outrage led to the resignation of President C.L. Max Nikias, an internal investigation by the law firm O’Melveny & Myers and a reshuffling of the university’s senior leadership.
Aerospace executive Wanda Austin was named the interim president while the search for Nikias’ successor is underway.
Prosecutors in the Los Angeles County district attorney’s sex crimes division are currently evaluating whether to file criminal charges in 56 potential cases.
Meanwhile, no charges have been filed against the doctor. Tyndall’s defense attorney, Leonard Levine, has said that his client “continues to maintain that he engaged in no criminal conduct, and that his medical examinations were always within the standard of care.”
The settlement would mark a financial blow to a university known for its fundraising power. It received a $200 million gift from Larry Ellison in 2016 to launch a cancer research center and a 2011 donation of the same amount from David and Dana Dornsife to name USC’s liberal arts college.
USC is not the only U.S. university facing multimilliondollar settlements over sexual misconduct by staff doctors.
In May, Michigan State University reached a $500-million settlement with hundreds of women and girls who say they were sexually assaulted by sports doctor Larry Nassar.