Dr. Robert Hadden Wiki – Dr. Robert Hadden Biography
Dr. Robert Hadden, A former Columbia University gynecologist who served no jail time thanks to a controversial plea deal with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance was slapped with new federal charges Wednesday of abusing dozens of patients.
Dr. Robert Hadden sexually abused patients from 1993 to 2012, according to a 20-page indictment filed in Manhattan Federal Court.
The Columbia University-affiliated OB-GYN who has been accused by Evelyn Yang — wife of former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang — and dozens of other women of sexual assault, is now facing federal criminal charges.
Dr. Robert Hadden Age
Dr. Robert Hadden’s age is unknown.
Accused & Charged
A former Columbia University gynecologist was indicted Wednesday by a federal grand jury for allegedly sexually abusing patients.
Robert Hadden reached a plea deal in 2016 with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office that allowed him to avoid prison time after he was accused of sexually abusing 19 patients.
A judge granted him the lowest sex offender status as part of the deal, in which he surrendered his medical license.
The indictment charges him with abusing six victims, including a minor, but says between 1993 and 2012 Hadden abused “dozens” of his patients, including “multiple minors.” None of the victims was identified by name.
“Hadden did so through a process that entailed developing a relationship with his victims and causing them to trust him, before engaging in a course of increasingly abusive conduct, which Hadden attempted to mask under the guise of legitimate medical care,” the indictment said.
Federal prosecutors outlined a series of breast exams and pelvic exams that were “excessively long and sexualized” after ensuring no one else was present in the exam room.
According to the indictment, Hadden frequently targeted women who were young and unlikely to have much, if any experience with another OB/GYN.
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss, in one instance, Hadden sexually abused an underage girl who he actually delivered at birth.
Hadden “acted as a predator in a white coat,” Strauss said at a news conference Wednesday.
A six-count indictment was unsealed in New York’s Southern District court on Wednesday, charging Hadden with enticement and inducement to travel to engage in illegal sex acts.
According to the indictment, between 1993 and 2012, while working as an OB-GYN, Hadden enticed dozens of women to come to his medical offices in New York, which were affiliated with Columbia University, and subjected them to sexual abuse.
Be warned: Some of the allegations contained in the indictment are graphic and disturbing.
Several women came to Hadden for repeated follow-ups and were abused multiple times, per the indictment.
Prosecutors allege that Hadden would generally “develop a relationship with his victims and cause them to trust him before engaging in a course of increasingly abusive conduct.” He would frequently ask nurses and medical assistants to leave him alone with his patients and schedule women for appointments when they could be alone in the office, according to the indictment.
Women told federal prosecutors that Hadden would set them at ease with normal small talk, and eventually begin asking them about their pubic grooming habits and giving them advice on masturbation and orgasms, as well as making inappropriate comments about their appearances.
His breast and pelvic exams and “mole checks” would often descend into inappropriate groping and, in several instances, oral sex, prosecutors alleged.
According to the indictment, Hadden would use free birth control to entice victims into return visits, or just give them enough birth control to last a short while; he would also make sure his patients traveled between different states.
In a January interview with CNN, Evelyn Yang alleged that she was sexually assaulted by Hadden multiple times.
Similarly to allegations laid out in the indictment, Yang told CNN that she didn’t see any “red flags” at first with Hadden, but that he eventually began asking her inappropriate questions. She was pregnant with her first child at the time. She told herself, “I just need to trust him,” even as the examinations began to feel violating and unnecessary, she said.
On one occasion, “I was in the exam room, and I was dressed and ready to go. Then, at the last minute, he kind of made up an excuse. He said something about, ‘I think you might need a C-section,’ and he proceeded to grab me over to him and undress me and examine me internally, ungloved,” she told CNN.
After that occasion, Yang never returned to Hadden’s practice.
Yang and 31 other women also filed a civil lawsuit in federal court against Hadden and the university in February. The suit is in the pre-trial phase, according to court documents.
Attorney information for Hadden was not immediately available.
Victims
According to the indictment, one of Hadden’s victims was under the age of 18. Hadden knew this, in part, because he was the doctor who delivered the girl at birth prosecutors said.
As the girl approached puberty, according to the indictment, Hadden continually asked her parent to bring the girl in for appointments. At the appointments, between 2010 and 2012, Hadden repeatedly sexually abused her, prosecutors said.
On one occasion, Hadden asked the attending nurse to leave the room, then had the girl get on all fours while fully nude so he could examine her. He also groped her inappropriately during breast exams and digitally penetrated her on at least one occasion, according to the indictment.
“Hadden knew full well that she was underage, but subjected her to the same sexual abuse he inflicted on his adult patients,” Strauss said at the news conference.
