Former Columbia University gynecologist Robert Hadden has been found guilty of luring women into his office to abuse them.

On Tuesday, a Manhattan jury found former Columbia University gynecologist Robert Hadden guilty of luring patients to New York for sexual assault under the pretense of providing them with medical care.

It took the jury less than three hours to deliberate the case after a two-week hearing on evidence.

The verdict ends a stunning downfall for Hadden, whose patients have been pressuring New York authorities for more than a decade to prosecute him for the sexual assault they suffered at his hands.

Hadden was convicted in 2016 of committing perverted sexual intercourse and forcibly touching two women in a widely criticized plea deal that did not require him to serve a prison sentence. He faces up to 80 years in prison when he is federally sentenced in April.

“Robert Hadden was a predator in a white coat. For years, he brutally lured women who sought professional medical attention into his offices to satisfy himself,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said.

“Hadden’s victims trusted him as a doctor, but instead fell victim to his nefarious addictions. We thank and thank the brave women who told their stories, many of whom testified in court to end his years of abuse cycle,” Williams said.

The jury heard testimony from two nurses who said they had witnessed Hadden’s patient abuse as early as the late 1980s. They heard from nine victims who testified that he raped them between 1998 and 2012, which prosecutors say revealed a long-standing pattern. Evidence showed that Hadden abused patients of all ages, including pregnant women.

In her closing remarks, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Kim said that Hadden committed the violence while hiding under the cloak of his white coat and “Columbia University prestige.”

Kim said he hid the abuse behind the cover of gyno exams, constantly “pushing the envelope to see how far he could go.”

“He put on his white coat and took the oath that all doctors take to do no harm, and then did the exact opposite,” Kim said.

Hadden was not charged with sexual offenses in the federal case. He centered around four women whom the feds said he seduced to come from out of state so he could abuse and molest them.

His lawyers tried to convince jurors that the underlying allegations of sexual assault were irrelevant.

Asking the panelists to “give up” on the Manhattan District Attorney, Congress and the federal case, Hadden’s lawyer Katherine Wozencroft asked them to put aside their feelings about the abuse allegations and focus solely on the accusations that he lured them into his practice.

“Robert Hadden didn’t force people to cross state lines. He just didn’t,” Wozencroft said in her closing remarks. “Don’t accuse him of a crime he didn’t commit.”

The victims in both state and federal cases of Hadden represent just a small fraction of more than 200 former patients who have accused him of violence since the allegations came to light in 2012.

In October, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the New York-Presbyterian announced a $165 million settlement with 147 alleged Hadden victims. This comes after a similar deal in 2021, in which institutions paid out $71 million to 79 of his former patients.

Evelyn Young, married to former New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Young, is among Hadden’s former patients who publicly accused him of assault. She said that Hadden raped her when she was seven months pregnant during an ob/gyn visit in 2012.

Yang was among a group of alleged Hadden victims who lobbied New York lawmakers to pass the Adult Survivor Act, which went into effect in November. The legislation established a one-year lookback period for victims of sexual assault to sue their alleged abusers, regardless of how long ago the alleged abuse occurred.

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