NYC NOW - September 15, 2023: Midday News

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

New York City is sending first responders to New Hampshire as Hurricane Lee approaches. Meanwhile, the Manhattan DA accuses former city buildings commissioner Eric Ulrich of wrongdoing in clearing a shelter in Rockaway Park. Also, starting tonight, Jewish communities worldwide celebrate Rosh Hashanah, marking the Hebrew new year. Finally, an investigative report by Bianca Fortis and Laura Beil, in collaboration with ProPublica, New York Magazine, and podcast studio Wondery, sheds light on Dr. Robert Hadden’s pattern of sexual abuse, the brave fight for justice by his victims, and the limited accountability faced by Columbia University during his 25-year tenure.

NYC now. Welcome to NYC now. Your source for local news in and around New York City from WNYC. It's Friday, September 15th. There's the midday news from David First. New York City is sending a team of first responders to New Hampshire in anticipation of Hurricane Lee making landfall tomorrow. Task Force One includes members of the NYPD, FDNY, Office of Emergency Management, and, and two police canines. Coastal, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine are currently under tropical storm warning. They're expected to see strong winds, storm surges, and flooding tomorrow with some rain starting tonight.

Hurricane Lee is not expected to hit New York directly, but could bring some rain and flooding to the area, especially on Long Island. That potential for coastal flooding is in effect from this evening through late Saturday night. The Manhattan District Attorney is accusing former city's buildings commissioner Eric Ulrich of scheming with the developer to clear a shelter for victims of fires and other emergencies in Rockaway Park last year. D.A. Alvin Bragg says Ulrich and developer Mark Coller tried to get city inspectors to vacate the shelter, which is located in an old hotel near the beach. The indictment says at the same time they pair were allegedly negotiating the terms

of a discounted apartment in a luxury building across the street. Ulrich and Collar denies. deny any wrongdoing. Starting tonight, Jewish communities across our area and around the world will celebrate Rosh Hashanah to bring in a new year. Rush Ashana is based on the Hebrew calendar. Celebrations start at sunset and continue through sundown on Sunday. 64 degrees right now, we're expecting mostly cloudy skies today with a high of 72 this afternoon. This is WNYC. A quick warning. This next story includes troubling. detailed descriptions of sexual abuse.

A Columbia University gynecologist is serving a 20-year sentence for sexually abusing scores of patients, but the university where he worked for 25 years has faced few consequences. Reporters Bianca Fortis and Laura Beale dug into Dr. Robert Haddon's prolonged pattern of abuse. They looked at how his victims fought for his prosecution and how they say his employer tried to deflect culpability. Their new report is published now on the news site ProPublica in collaboration with New York Magazine and the podcast studio Wondery. They join us now. Bianca, Laura, welcome. Thank you for having us.

Thank you so much. Dr. Robert Hadden has been in and out of the news for years now, but Laura, refresh our memories. Tell us a little bit about him. Robert Haddon was an obstetrician gynecologist at Columbia University. He spent his entire career there. He started there in residency. He was chief resident in 1990 and never went anywhere else. And from our reporting, it's pretty evident to us that he abused his patients almost from the beginning.

The earliest documentation we have from a survivor was in 1992. So throughout his entire career, he was abusing his. his patients during exams under the guise of medical care. And he basically got away with it until one of his patients ran from his office. And her partner called 911. He was arrested. But one of the extraordinary things is he continued to practice even after he was taken into custody because he was allowed to go back to work almost immediately. Patton's pattern of abuse spans decades, as you're describing. At least 245 patients have alleged he abused them.

There's no final count on how many women he violated. One prosecutor at the Manhattan DA's office named Laura Millendorf put it this way, and this clip comes from your podcast, Exposed, Cover Up at Columbia University. I slowly came to realize that I was dealing with a sexual abuser of epic proportions. And I distinctly remember that when I started to say those numbers out loud, people looked at me like I was crazy. Bianca, how did prosecutors and attorneys start to find these women, given how scattered the victims are, how many there are? So over time, some of the women started to speak out publicly. First was Marissa Hawksdutter. In 2018, there was a BuzzFeed article

that in which she recounted her experience. And following that was Evelyn Yang, who at the time her husband, Andrew, was running for president. And so she was able to use her platform to call a lot of attention to this. And she did a CNN interview and a lot more women started coming forward after that. And one thing that's important in that sequence of events as well is that the reason Marissa Hawksetter came forward was because in 2018, by then, the case had already been through the Manhattan District attorney's office. So Laura Millendorf, the prosecutor, you heard on that clip, she had tried to bring the case to prosecution with an indictment back in 2014, and that ended with a plea deal that basically let him go back home with very minimal consequences. And this is a difficult question, but Laura Beale,

what patterns exist in the abuses that Haddon's patients endured? He targeted everyone. There wasn't like a type of patient that he abused. But in general terms, he tended to target women who didn't actually have a good basis of comparison for what an exam could be. So some of the abuses were things that you couldn't even necessarily criminally charge, like talking to them in sexualized ways and asking really invasive questions about their sex lives. But then a lot of the abuse was quite overt. He would do exams without gloves. He would touch them in, you know, sexual ways while he was examining them. And the patient who ran out of his office, he had actually just licked her vagina during an exam.

According to your reporting, there's evidence that Columbia knew about and concealed Patton's abuses, including communications between Columbia employees and complaints from patients. Bianca, can you talk about that? After so many more patients started to come forward, the Manhattan DA's office actually opened a criminal investigation into Columbia. And it was revealed that there had been numerous patient complaints that Columbia had documentation of, but that documentation was not provided to the DA's office when they were actually investigating Hadden. The university had also intended to delete Haddon's email address and other email addresses of staff who could have been witnesses in the case and Colombia has just never accepted any responsibility. There have been a number of settlements with survivors, but they've never actually acknowledged responsibility or apologized. Bringing this up to present day, Hadden is behind bars now.

and in November, a temporary legal window allowing victims to file suit against their abusers will close. Is there anything that comes next, or is this the end? Just as a little bit of background, the Adult Survivors Act, was passed last year in New York State, and it opened up a one-year window through which survivors of sexual abuse can file civil suits against their abusers, even if they're passed the statute of limitations. And a number of survivors in the Haddon case actually have been able to use this, And so we think it's really important that more patients know about it in case they want to file before the upcoming deadline. And for the survivors, this may be the end.

And I sort of did a back of the envelope calculation based on a number of patients he saw per day and the length of his career and came up with like 90,000 patient visits. So that's like 90,000 opportunities he had to commit a crime. if his abuse was that pathological, if it was so pathological that he didn't even quit after he was arrested, there's potentially thousands of victims out there who don't even know that this occurred. And that window for them to seek justice through the civil courts is closing at the end of November. And Columbia has yet to notify women that their former doctor is a convicted serial sex. sexual predator. We've been speaking with Laura Beal and Bianca Fortis about their new story for ProPublica and New York Magazine. You can also hear more of their reporting on Haddon on the

Wondery podcast exposed cover-up at Columbia University. Laura, Bianca, thank you for joining us. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Thanks for listening. This is NYC now from WNYC. Be sure to catch us every weekday, three times a day. For your top news headlines and occasional deep dives and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. We'll be back this evening.