USC TO PAY $1.1 BILLION TO SETTLE SEX ABUSE CLAIMS

Case against ex-gynecologist involved thousands of women

USC has agreed to pay more than $1.1 billion to former patients of campus gynecologist George Tyndall, the largest sex abuse payout in higher education history.

The huge sum was revealed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court as lawyers for a final group of 710 women suing the university told a judge they had settled their claims for $852 million.

USC previously agreed to pay thousands of other alumnae and students $215 million in a 2018 federal class-action settlement. A group of about 50 other cases were settled for an amount that has not been made public.

The sole full-time gynecologist at the student health clinic from 1989 until 2016, Tyndall was accused of preying on a generation of USC women. After the Los Angeles Times exposed his troubled history at the university three years ago, the 74-year-old was stripped of his medical license and arrested. He has pleaded not guilty to dozens

of sexual assault charges and is awaiting trial.

USC President Carol Folt, who was appointed in 2019 to reform the university in the wake of the scandal, said in a letter to the school community that she hoped the settlement “provides some relief to the women abused by George Tyndall.”

“I am deeply sorry for the pain experienced by the women who trusted him as a physician and appreciate the courage of all who came forward,” she wrote.

The USC settlement dwarfs recent payouts in other university scandals. Michigan State University paid $500 million in connection with Larry Nasser’s sexual abuse of gymnasts and others, while Penn State settled claims related to Jerry Sandusky’s sexual abuse for more than $109 million.

Two mediators, Jeffrey Krivis and Superior Court Judge Daniel Buckley, who reviewed the evidence, recommended the $852 million figure. USC’s Board of Trustees unanimously approved the amount, according to chair Rick Caruso.

The total $1.1 billion price tag reflected several factors. A 2019 state law, backed by former patients and their lawyers, temporarily lifted the statute of limitations for certain sexual assault lawsuits, allowing women to sue over appointments with Tyndall dating to the 1990s.

The sheer number of potential victims, some 17,000 women treated by Tyndall over three decades, also made a massive settlement inevitable.

University general counsel Beong-Soo Kim called the vast number of accusers involved “the primary factor” in the amount of the settlement.

“If you look at the number from a per plaintiff basis, I think the math is very comparable with the MSU settlement,” Kim said.

Plaintiffs’ attorneys were also armed with evidence that university officials knew for decades of problems with the physician and failed to remove him. Internal personnel files detailed how complaints about Tyndall were mishandled or ignored again and again, lapses that led the U.S. Department of Education to sanction the university last year.

“Institutions don’t pay out a billion dollars because nothing happened or they’re not responsible,” said John Manly, whose Orange County law firm was co-lead counsel for the women suing the university.

“We were able to prove in court that USC knew for the better part of 30 years that Tyndall was assaulting patients.”

Within a few years of Tyndall’s arrival, clinic supervisors learned from a patient and colleagues that the doctor was taking photos of students’ genitals, a 2018 Los Angeles Times investigation found. Photos were later found in his personal storage unit and in his office.

Nursing “chaperones” who monitored his pelvic exams complained that he used a curtain to obscure their view. Students told clinic employees he asked prurient questions about their sex lives and made suggestive comments about their bodies. Nursing staff reported for years that he was touching students inappropriately during vaginal exams, with at least one co-worker threatening to go to the police.

Only after a frustrated nurse, Cindy Gilbert, reported misconduct by Tyndall to the campus rape crisis center in 2016 did USC suspend him and launch an internal investigation. Tyndall was allowed to quietly resign with a payout the following year, and USC never alerted the Medical Board of California until after the Times began contacting USC staff about him.

Caruso, a billionaire developer who was elected shortly after the Tyndall scandal broke, acknowledged institutional failures in a letter to the community that described the settlement as “the end of a painful and ugly chapter in the history of our university.”

“Our institution fell short by not doing everything it could to protect those who matter to us most — our students,” Caruso wrote.

The $852 million settlement will be paid out over two years. USC said the money will come from insurance proceeds as well as financial reserves, the deferment of capital projects, the sale of some “non-essential assets” and belt tightening.

“No philanthropic gifts, endowments funds, or tuition will be redirected from their intended purposes,” Folt wrote in her letter to the university community.

The 710 women who were part of Thursday’s settlement will receive an average payment of $1.2 million, although the exact distribution of the money was expected to vary by individual allegations and ultimately be determined by an arbitrator in coming months.

None of the women in the final settlement entered into confidentiality agreements, said Mike Arias, who was also co-lead counsel for the former patients suing the university.

“When there is confidentiality, the conversation ends, and this is not a situation where the conversation should end,” Arias said. “A lot of women wanted to talk about what happened so this can not happen again.”

The university’s handling of Tyndall sparked outrage on campus and led to the ouster of President C.L. Max Nikias. Nikias insisted that he only learned of allegations against the gynecologist in 2017, long after Tyndall’s departure.

Thursday’s state court settlement comes as former patients who joined the federal class-action lawsuit are receiving notice of their individual payouts. In that suit, USC agreed to pay $2,500 to every patient who saw Tyndall, regardless of whether they accused him of misconduct.

Patients were eligible to receive payments of up to $250,000 after sitting for interviews to describe Tyndall’s conduct and impact on their lives, although the average payout among this group of patients was $96,330, according to court documents filed this week.