A convicted Manhattan urologist is facing hundreds of civil lawsuits for allegedly sexually abusing his patients, with court documents detailing the horrors his victims reportedly faced.
Dr. Darius Paduch was found guilty in May of six counts of persuading, inducing, enticing or coercing an individual to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity and five counts of using an interstate facility to persuade, induce, entice or coerce a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity, according to the New York Times.
But the former doctor is now facing a total of 310 individual lawsuits against him and the hospital systems he practiced at, after 143 more male patients came forward, the New York Post reports.
The sheer number of complainants makes it the largest case against a single abuser involving male victims, as newly-filed court documents suggest Paduch abused ‘what is believed to be thousands of victims and survivors.’
‘Darius Paduch exploited more male patients than any predator in history,’ plaintiff Anthony T DiPietro told the Post.
Dr. Darius Paduch, a convicted Manhattan urologist, is facing hundreds of civil lawsuits for allegedly sexually abusing his patients
The victims ranged in age from retirees to minors he saw at New York City-area New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, Columbia University and Northwell Health System.
Paduch would inject a serum into their penises to force erections for long periods, perform penile enlargements that led to disfigurement, conduct cystoscopies – in which a tube is inserted through the penis and into the urethra – without anesthesia and force some patients to get on all fours during exams, according to documents filed in the Manhattan Supreme Court on Tuesday.
During some of the sessions, Paduch walked around with a pen and would point to parts of patients’ nude bodies ‘as if he were acting as a professor,’ the documents say, according to reports.
He would also sometimes measure his patient’s erect penises and use ‘phallic-shaped sex toys.’
At times, the abuse would even take place in front of nurses, assistants and other doctors, the civil suits allege.
Newly-filed court documents suggest Paduch abused ‘what is believed to be thousands of victims and survivors’
One victim also said Paduch squeezed his penis so hard ‘it was bruised for weeks afterwards,’ and another claimed the doctor prescribed so much needless medicine that he went into liver failure.
In another case, when a 56-year-old patient lay on the exam table, Paduch allegedly unzipped his pants and told the man ‘he wanted him to see what an erect penis looked like.’
Court documents also state that one of the alleged victims saw Paduch for more than a decade, starting when he was just seven years old, and another said he was a victim at the age of 13.
‘It’s worse than I could have ever imagined,’ the mother of one of the latest plaintiffs, a patient at Weill-Cornell Medical Center, said in a statement to the Post provided by DiPietro.
‘Learning of what happened on those visits has nearly killed me.’
Paduch, who began practicing in the city in 2003, continued to practice through 2023 – though court papers claim his employers knew of his abuse since at least 2017.
‘Patients trust these so-called «top hospitals» to provide safe and proper medical care for deeply personal conditions,’ DiPietro said.
‘Patients don’t go into a medical office thinking they are going to be exploited by some deviant in a white lab coat.’
The doctor was found guilty in May of six counts of persuading, inducing, enticing or coercing an individual to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity and five counts of using an interstate facility to persuade, induce, entice or coerce a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity
Paduch worked for a number of New York City-area hospitals, including Weill-Cornell Medical Center
The attorney originally filed a class action suit against Paduch and his employers last August, several months after the doctor was indicted for telling seven male patients – including two minors – to masturbate while he played porn and performing rectal exams without using gloves.
One section of the indictment accuses the 55-year-old of telling patients that they were masturbating incorrectly and then grabbing their penises.
The indictment also accuses Paduch of touching his victim’s penises, pressing himself against them and speaking openly about penis sizes as well as sexual activity.
He ‘leveraged his position of trust as a medical doctor for his own perverse gratification,’ US Attorney Damian Williams said after Paduch was found guilty in May.
‘For years, patients seeking needed medical are, many of them children, left his office as victims.’
DiPietro also said at the time he is ‘grateful that Darius Paduch will never be able to do this to a single patient in New York State or any place else ever again.’
Paduch’s medical license was suspended last year by the State Department of Health, and is expected to be permanently revoked following his conviction
Paduch’s medical license was suspended last year by the State Department of Health, and is expected to be permanently revoked following his conviction.
Still, DiPietro is continuing his civil suits against the doctor and the hospitals he worked for, after a judge in July rejected an effort by Paduch’s attorneys to dismiss and seal the class action suit.
The 143 new victims, however, are not part of the civil suit and have filed their own individual lawsuits.
A representative for Weill-Cornell Medicine told the Post the hospital is ‘heartbroken for these survivors’ and said it has ‘implemented enhancements to our policies and training requirements, and launched new patient safety programs to minimize the risk of such abhorrent conduct occurring in the future.’
DailyMail.com has also reached out to Columbia University and Northwell Health for comment.
It is unclear whether Paduch has retained a civil attorney to defend himself in these cases, as his criminal attorney, Michael Baldassare, insisted he is innocent of the criminal charges.
‘We will continue to fight for him,’ Baldassare said following the conviction.
