Disgraced gynecologist Robert Hadden hid behind ‘Columbia Prestige’ as NYC jurors hear abuse in court

Disgraced ex-gynecologist Robert Hadden sexually abused patients for decades under the guise of his white doctor’s coat and “Columbia University prestige,” a Manhattan jury heard Monday.

In her closing remarks at Hadden’s trial in Federal Court in Manhattan, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Kim described the convicted doctor as a sexual predator who used a “planned and all-encompassing” approach to prey on patients at their most vulnerable moments.

“Ladies and gentlemen, the defendant can no longer hide,” Kim said.

In graphic detail, Kim recapitulated the hideous abuse victims witnessed in excruciating detail over the past two weeks — like Hadden groping them during alleged medical checkups and licking their private parts.

Kim said the accounts of two nurses who said they witnessed Hadden’s patient abuse back in the late 1980s and nine women who testified about the incidents between 1998 and 2012 revealed a long-standing pattern of abuse.

One nurse described what Hadden did to patients during medical checkups as “pornography.”

“The defendant has been doing this since the beginning of his medical career,” Kim said. “He used his medical license to satisfy his own sexual desire.”

Kim said that Hadden earned his victims’ trust before destroying it.

“He took advantage of that trust. He counted on this trust,” the prosecutor said. “The defendant had a plan, a strategy. It was not a spontaneous act.”

According to Kim, physical abuse was only part of that. Hadden asked his patients rude and inappropriate questions about their sex lives, such as whether they watched pornography, used sex toys during sex, or had orgasms.

Court testimony detailed how Hadden licked the vaginas of some pregnant patients, while recommending that they tell their husbands to do the same, arguing that it was good for the baby, Kim said.

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 convicted in 2016 on state charges of perverted sexual intercourse and forcibly touching two patients. The charges in his federal case center on four women whom prosecutors say he lured on a trip from out of state so he could abuse and molest them under the guise of performing gynecological and obstetric exams.

The victims in both cases combined represent a fraction of more than 200 former patients who have accused Hadden of abuse since allegations were first raised against him 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 has set a one-year period for victims of sexual assault to sue their alleged perpetrators, regardless of how long ago the abuse allegedly occurred.

Hadden has been under house arrest on a $1 million bond package since the feds filed charges against him. If found guilty, he faces several decades in prison.