New York Daily News

Vance insists $ didn’t taint perv doc case

- Molly Crane-Newman and Stephen Rex Brown

MANHATTAN District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. defended his office’s decision-making Monday in the case of a perverted gynecologi­st who never served jail time in spite of pleading guilty to assaulting two patients on the exam table.

Vance’s comment came on the heels of an exclusive Daily News report featuring four alleged victims of former Columbia University Dr. Robert Hadden.

The women said they had doubts about how the case was handled. Their doubts turned to outrage when they learned Vance had accepted $42,000 in campaign donations from Hadden’s attorney, Isabelle Kirshner, and her firm since 2008.

“It is, unfortunat­ely, sometimes the case that the resolution of cases does not completely make all the parties happy,” Vance said.

Hadden was convicted of one felony and one misdemeano­r — but didn’t serve any jail time. He relinquish­ed his medical license and registered as a sex offender.

“Ultimately, the goal of the office, after looking at all of the evidence, was to take a felony conviction . . . to have his license to practice medicine removed permanentl­y,” Vance said.

“In terms of contributi­ons, there is no contributi­on that I have received at any time that has influenced my determinat­ion of how we should proceed in a case — and none did in that case.”

Newspapers in English

Newspapers from United States