Ex-NYC gynecologist convicted of decades-long sexual abuse of female patients faces federal sentencing

A former gynecologist at prestigious New York City hospitals will be sentenced Monday after a federal conviction earlier this year for sexually abusing at least dozens of female patients. 

Robert Hadden, 64, whose career at prominent hospitals including Columbia University Irving Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital spanned from the late 1980s until 2012, initially skirted jail time but was stripped of his medical license on state charges brought in 2016. 

Hadden was convicted on federal charges in January for enticing victims to cross state lines so that he could sexually abuse them. At trial, nine former patients testified. He has been incarcerated for the last several months.

Eleven victims testified during the first stage of the sentencing held June 28, and Judge Richard M. Berman will ultimately determine Hadden’s fate during the second stage on Monday. 

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Prosecutors have asked Berman to sentence Hadden to at least 25 years in prison, while defense attorneys have requested three years behind bars.

Trial evidence proved Hadden committed anywhere from 167 to 310 acts of sexual abuse or assault on dozens of patients as he honed his abuse techniques so the assaults would go undetected for over 20 years, prosecutors wrote in a presentence submission.

From as early as1993 to about 2012, Hadden was accused of sexually abusing at least dozens of female patients, including multiple minors, which he attempted "to mask under the guise of legitimate medical care." Prosecutors accused Hadden of frequently targeting victims who were young and thus unlikely to have much, if any, experience with OB/GYNs prior to meeting him. To continue the abuse, he enticed multiple victims to travel to his offices in New York for follow-up appointments, often withholding birth control. 

The federal indictment describes how the former doctor made an effort to be alone with patients, sending nurses and medical assistants out of the room before he performed "long and sexualized breast exams on many of his victims," inappropriate full-body mole checks when victims were fully nude and even pelvic exams when Hadden "licked a victim’s vagina."

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Prosecutors said Hadden sought sexual gratification when he asked victims "detailed, inappropriate, and medically unnecessary questions and provided unsolicited advice and commentary about their bodies, pubic hair, masturbation, sexual activity, sex toys, pornography, and sexual partners."

The indictment says the victims’ experiences included, but were not limited to, Hadden "touching a victim’s breasts and nipples, touching a victim’s buttocks, touching a victim’s genitals, digitally penetrating a victim’s genitals, and/or licking a victim’s genitals – all without a valid medical purpose." 

Among those who spoke in court during the first stage of sentencing last month was Laurie Kanyok, who noted that it would soon be exactly 11 years since she emerged from an appointment with Hadden and called police, setting off a state investigation that led to a plea deal but no jail sentence. 

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She said her own daughter is now 11 years old and that she knows she will soon have to introduce her to gynecological care.

"This petrifies me," she told Berman.

Prosecutors say Hadden's abuse of women began soon after he started working in 1987 at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, which later became New York-Presbyterian Hospital. The institutions have agreed to pay more than $236 million to settle civil claims by more than 200 former patients.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.