- A New York urologist was charged and arrested on charges of sexual abuse. He pleaded not guilty.
- The DOJ said Dr. Darius Paduch abused multiple patients starting when they were minors.
Tucker Coburn said he started seeing Dr. Darius Paduch, a New York urologist, in June 2016 when he was about 18.
Coburn told Insider that on one visit, Paduch made him masturbate in front of him, and told him he was doing it incorrectly before touching him.
"He continued to do that for what felt like an eternity, but it was probably, I don't know, 20 minutes maybe. In that time, I kind of shimmied my way away from him in the little hospital chair bed thing, and so he kind of came across the other side and started to press himself against me to demonstrate his sexual arousal," Coburn said.
Coburn, now 25, said the abuse continued between 2016 and 2019 and he realized immediately that what he experienced was assault, but it took him awhile to publicly speak out about it.
A grand jury indicted Paduch and charged him with four counts related to inducing a victim to engage in unlawful sexual activity, the Department of Justice announced on Tuesday.
The DOJ said Paduch, 55, was charged following an investigation into complaints that he abused two patients from at least 2015 to 2019 while attempting to convince them his actions were "medically necessary and appropriate."
Paduch's attorney declined to comment to Insider. Court documents show Paduch pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Tuesday.
"As alleged, for years, Darius Paduch abused the trust of patients, including minors, who saw him for sensitive medical problems. Paduch took advantage of his victims for his own deviant satisfaction. Thanks to this morning's arrest, Paduch's abuse of his patients ends today," US Attorney Damian Williams said in a Tuesday statement.
Corburn said he had to keep seeing Paduch as a doctor.
"I told one of my friends within a year of that having happened to me, because I was struggling," Coburn said. "The condition that I saw Dr. Paduch for is pretty unique, and so I struggled with that. I had to continue seeing him as a doctor even though he had sexually abused me. I didn't really know what other care options I had that were within a certain geographical distance."
He told Insider that a few months after the incident another patient of Paduch's reached out to him because a nurse who suspected abuse had told the patient that Coburn also "had an uncomfortable experience" with Paduch.
Coburn is also suing Paduch and one of the hospitals separately
The indictment and DOJ statement did not specify where Paduch worked. Corburn said Paduch worked at Manhattan's New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and Northwell Health on Long Island, which matches up with Paduch's website and public profiles.
Coburn said he filed a police report in 2020, after Paduch began working at Northwell, despite the statute of limitations expiring on his case.
"I wanted to make sure that he had no more opportunities to abuse anyone. And unfortunately, I found out that that abuse did continue in his time there," Coburn said.
New legislation in New York has extended the statute of limitations on sexual abuse cases, allowing more victims to file lawsuits.
Coburn is suing Paduch and NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, seeking an undisclosed amount of damages, according to court records. He said while a criminal case could put Paduch behind bars if the doctor's convicted, he hopes his civil case would work to hold the hospital accountable.
"Paduch preyed on patients who sought care and medical treatment for sensitive issues and when they were at their most vulnerable, lying on treatment beds in hospital rooms," said Mallory Allen, an attorney with Pfau Cochran Vertetis Amala law firm, which is representing Coburn and other victims.
"NY Presbyterian and Northwell Health ignored the concerns of patients and their own employees, and enabled Dr. Paduch to abuse patients with impunity – and we will fight to hold them accountable," Allen added.
Reached for comment, New York-Presbyterian directed Insider to Weill Cornell Medicine, which said it's retained outside counsel to investigate the allegations surrounding Paduch.
"Weill Cornell Medicine values the care and safety of our patients above all else, and we are taking these disturbing allegations very seriously. If proven true, it would be hard to overstate our empathy for the survivors of this awful abuse and their bravery in coming forward," the hospital system said.
A spokesperson for Northwell Health told Insider that Paduch is no longer working there, and the hospital will "cooperate with appropriate authorities" investigating the allegations.
"Northwell Health strives to provide the highest level of care to its patients, patients' families and communities and we take these allegations very seriously," the spokesperson said.