George Tyndall, the onetime College of Southern California campus gynecologist accused of preying on a technology of feminine college students, will stand trial on intercourse crimes expenses associated to 16 former sufferers, a decide dominated Friday.
Los Angeles Superior Courtroom Choose Larry Paul Fidler stated prosecutors introduced sufficient proof in a collection of hearings for Tyndall, 76, to face a jury.
That trial is anticipated to happen subsequent 12 months.
Tyndall, who practiced on the campus well being clinic for 3 many years, is charged with 27 felonies — 18 counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious particular person and 9 counts of sexual battery by fraud. The alleged crimes occurred between 2009 and 2016.
Prosecutors initially filed expenses in 2019 associated to 21 former sufferers, however needed to drop counts associated to 5 ladies. “We have been unable to make contact with one sufferer … and 4 victims suggested us that they have been opting out of the case,” stated Deputy Dist. Atty. Reinhold Mueller, the lead prosecutor, in an e mail.
Tyndall’s lawyer Leonard Levine stated his consumer is “wanting ahead to” the trial.
“He believes he will likely be exonerated after a good trial, which he expects to get,” Levine stated.
The Instances revealed in 2018 that Tyndall had been the topic of quite a few complaints from employees and sufferers throughout his 27 years on the clinic. They reported that he was photographing sufferers’ genitals, touching ladies inappropriately throughout pelvic exams and different “creepy” habits.
Lots of of ladies subsequently sued USC and the college finally paid out settlements totalling $1.1 billion — the most important payout in larger schooling historical past — to hundreds of former sufferers.
A few of these ladies testified in pretrial hearings in Tyndall’s felony case. One former affected person, recognized solely as Jane Doe no. 21, flew in from New York to testify in Could 2022.
She recounted an August 2013 appointment on the campus well being heart that was prompted by her concern a few spot close to her genitals. Whereas she lay on her again, she recalled, Tyndall visually examined her and informed her that he believed she had syphilis. Then, she testified, she felt him placing fingers inside her.
“Did he let you know he was going to insert his fingers into you?” requested a prosecutor.
“No,” she replied, including that she was “scared” and “very panicked” as a result of she believed she had syphilis. For the following 5 to 10 minutes, she recalled, he moved his fingers round inside her, making use of “pushing, constant strain” in a “ahead and backward movement.”
Tyndall, she stated, commented on the tightness of her vagina and repeatedly requested if she was certain she was not a virgin “as a result of I used to be so tight.”
“It wasn’t one thing I ever skilled in a medical setting, or after,” she stated, with him “asking me a number of instances, are you certain you’re not a virgin?”
“On the finish of the examination, he informed me I had a gorgeous vagina,” she testified. “I assumed it was a bizarre remark to make however I brushed it off.”
She didn’t bear in mind there being a chaperone or medical assistant current for the examination. She was by no means recognized with syphilis. After altering the kind of underwear she wore, the dry pores and skin went away.
Like others within the case, she stated she didn’t come ahead till after The Instances’ investigation in 2018, when she finally reached an lawyer and talked to the LAPD.
Levine stated the accounts of Jane Doe 21 and different victims supported the protection competition that the newspaper’s protection led ladies to file complaints about exams that they’d not beforehand thought of felony in nature.
“We acquired a chronology that we’ve all the time believed was correct and that’s that nobody ever complained about alleged sexual assault or any felony conduct till after the article appeared within the L.A. Instances,” Levine stated.
Tyndall’s arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 25.
