USC agrees to pay $215M to settle gynecologist sex abuse case
LOS ANGELES — The University of Southern California on Friday announced a tentative agreement for a $215 million class-action settlement of claims involving alleged sexual harassment and abuse by a gynecologist who treated hundreds of students over decades.
The agreement will provide compensation from $2,500 to $250,000 to women who have claimed abuse by Dr. George Tyndall between 1988 and 2016, USC Interim President Wanda Austin said in a statement.
About 500 current and former students have made accusations against Tyndall. They contend he routinely made crude comments, took inappropriate photos, forced them to strip naked and groped them under the guise of medical treatment.
The settlement applies to a pending federal classaction lawsuit that involves about 40 women who have accused Tyndall, according to John Manly, an attorney who represents 180 women who have accused the gynecologist.
The hundreds of women who have filed various lawsuits against the university can join the lawsuit affected by the agreement but Manly said he is advising his clients against doing so.
“The only guaranteed number in this case is $2,500,” Manly said, adding that “$2,500 won't even get you a 50-yard-line seat at a USC football game, let alone compensate somebody for being sexually assaulted by their doctor when they were 18 or 17.”
He criticized the proposed settlement, which needs to be approved by a judge, as failing to hold USC accountable.
Tyndall spent about three decades as a USC staff gynecologist before retiring last year after an investigation found there was evidence that Tyndall sexually harassed students during exams. Tyndall has denied the allegations and has not been charged with a crime. The agreement will provide funds to women who claimed abuse by a University of Southern California gynecologist.