‘Predator’ Colombian gynecologist Robert Hadden convicted of sex trafficking

Disgraced OB/GYN Robert Hadden was convicted Tuesday of hunting and seducing vulnerable patients for sexual assault while he worked at prestigious Manhattan hospitals for almost two decades.

Hadden, 64, who spent his career at respected hospitals affiliated with Columbia University and New York Presbyterian University, was convicted on all four counts of luring women to travel across state lines so he could abuse them.

He faces a maximum of 80 years in prison when Judge Richard Berman sentences him on April 25.

During a three-week trial in federal court in Manhattan, prosecutors called numerous witnesses who testified in detail about how Hadden committed the violence.

In her closing statement on Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Kim told jurors that the evidence and testimony presented at trial was “devastating” and “cursed” for the disgraced doctor, calling Hadden a calculating predator who has raped women throughout his career.

“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 told jurors.

“Robert Hadden is a sexual predator,” she said.

Hadden pleaded guilty to multiple patient abuse in state court and was forced to surrender his medical license and register as a sex offender. But under a 2016 plea deal, he avoided jail time.

Lawyers for Hadden at the federal trial emphasized his guilty plea in state court, trying to convince jurors that he had already pleaded guilty to the abuse and should not be convicted on federal charges.

“What they went through was real, painful and deserves to be heard,” lawyer Katherine Wozencroft said of Hadden’s victims.

“There is nothing trivial in this case. Not for the women who testified, not for Robert Hadden, who is on trial,” she added.

But, Wozencroft continued, Hadden deliberately did not lure his victims across state lines to abuse them, which is key to his protection.

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

Hadden, who lives in New Jersey, has been released on $1 million bail since his 2020 arrest.

“Robert Hadden was a predator in a white coat,” Manhattan prosecutor Damian Williams said Tuesday in a statement after the conviction.

“For years, he brutally lured women who sought professional medical attention into his offices to satisfy himself,” 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.”