Victims Of Perverted Gynecologist Robert Hadden Get $71.5 Million Settlement With NYC Hospitals

Dozens of women who were molested by gynecologist Robert Hadden got some good news on Wednesday when two Manhattan hospitals affiliated with Columbia University reached a $71.5 million settlement with them in an agreement that one victim said would help her “move on.”

Major Settlement Reached

The New York Post reported that both Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital agreed to pay 79 victims of Hadden, who has been accused of molesting around 200 women. Back in 2016, he pleaded guilty to criminal sexual acts and forcible touching. 

“It’s important to know that somebody is being held accountable for what he did. It helps. You want to put it past you and just move on,” said one 51-year-old victim who was identified only by her first name – Julia. She had been a patient of Hadden’s from the 90s through 2012.

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‘He Was Very Disarming’

“He was very disarming and very…He talked a lot about his family and his kids and vacations and he had pictures of his family in his office,” the New Jersey woman recalled. “It made you feel like you knew him. And I had been seeing him for so many years — he was my doctor. You talk about anything with your doctor. It was very very subtle.”

“He would do things that I know would seem weird and I was like ‘what was that? Was that normal?’” Julia added. “But I didn’t know what constituted a real or made up exam. I had no idea. It just never registered. I trusted my doctor.”

Manhattan prosecutors controversially allowed Hadden to walk with no jail time after he took a plea deal in 2016. The feds then stepped in, charging him with bringing women across state lines to be sexually abused between 1993 and 2012.

Andrew Yang’s Wife Victimized

One of his alleged victims was Evelyn Yang, the wife of former presidential candidate Andrew Yang.

“He said something about, ‘I think you might need a C-section,’ and he proceeded to grab me over to him and undress me and examine me internally, ungloved,” Evelyn recalled to CNN about a 2012 visit to Hadden’s office. “I knew it was wrong. I knew I was being assaulted.”

Evelyn was not part of this week’s settlement. She issued a joint-statement with fellow victim Marissa Hoechstetter in which they slammed Columbia’s partial settlement, saying that it left most of Hadden’s victims “in the dark without closure.”

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Hadden Facing Major Prison Time

If convicted on his federal charges, Hadden is facing 120 years in prison.

“Thanks to a group of persistent and courageous women who never stopped seeking justice, Robert Hadden will never set foot in an examination room again,” said Adam Slater, of Slater Slater Schulman LLP, who represented the 79 women who settled this week.

Hadden’s crimes have led to Columbia creating new rules for OBGYN patients, including chaperones for exams that are deemed to be sensitive in nature.