On October 24, 2023, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that a grand jury in Manhattan federal court returned a Superseding Indictment charging New York City Urologist Dr. Darius Paduch with seven counts of inducing a person to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity and six counts of inducing a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity, relating to his years-long sexual abuse of eight of his patients, six of whom were minors. Paducah, 56, worked at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center located on East 68th Street in Manhattan.
According to the allegations in the Superseding Indictment, Paduch enticed and induced multiple victims to travel to his medical offices in NYC and to New Jersey, where he abused and assaulted the victims under the guise of medical care. In 2019, Paduch began practicing at Northwell Health located in Long Island, New York, where he continued to sexually abuse patients. He used his position as a urologist at prominent medical institutions in New York to make or attempt to make the victims believe that the sexual abuse he inflicted on them was medically necessary and appropriate when, in fact, it was not.
On April 11, 2023, Paduch was arrested after a four-count Indictment by the Federal Bureau of Investigation for sexually assaulting multiple patients. The indictment details Dr. Paduch’s abuse of patients at these prominent NYC medical institutions, where he performed unnecessary and inappropriate medical treatment for his own sexual gratification. Since that arrest, dozens more alleged victims have accused Paduch of sexual abuse.
NYC urologist is accused of sexually abusing 28 more patients — bringing the total alleged victim tally to 70
In September 2023, a lawsuit was filed against Paduch and NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center on behalf of 58 male victims alleging sexual abuse by Paduch between 2003 and 2022. The lawsuit states that Paducah allegedly performed surgeries without anesthesia so he could “inflict pain” on them. The lawsuit also states that the hospital systems covered up years of abuse by the disgraced urologist. “For nearly two decades, Paduch pretended to practice medicine in the field of Urology while instead engaging in a career of racketeering, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, and sex trafficking of both minors and adults,” the lawsuit states.
According to media reports, five years before Dr. Darius Paduch was criminally charged with sexually abusing underage boys, one of the urologist’s former patients notified the New York State Health Department about alleged misconduct that closely mirrors the kind of abuse now detailed in a federal indictment against the physician. According to a formal complaint filed in 2018 with the state’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct, a patient awaiting surgery claimed Paduch engaged in “a number of abusive and inappropriate actions” in the exam room. The alleged sexual misconduct, which reportedly took place in 2006 and 2007, included claims that the doctor required the patient to masturbate in front of him, that the doctor photographed the patient’s erect penis, that he showed the patient photos of other men’s penises, and inquired about the patient’s taste in pornography. According to the DOH public website, Dr. Paduch’s only formal discipline came after his arrest. His license to practice medicine in New York is suspended, and he now faces life in jail.
U.S. Attorney Damian Williams released a statement, “As alleged, Darius A. Paduch was a serial sexual abuser. Purporting to provide clinical care, Paduch instead violated patients — including minors — to gratify his own sexual desires. As alleged in today’s Superseding Indictment, Paduch’s abuse was pervasive, spanning over a decade and victimizing patients inside and outside the clinical setting. With today’s additional charges, my office seeks to hold Paduch accountable for the full measure of his reprehensible conduct.”
How Dr. Paduch Abused His Victims
Evidence continues to emerge regarding Darius Paduch’s patterns of performing inappropriate and medically unnecessary “diagnostic techniques” that included digitally raping men without gloves, medically unnecessary follow-up appointments designed solely to allow Paduch to abuse patients sexually, and grooming minor patients over text messages. According to the Grand Jury indictment from April, Dr. Paduch commonly used certain means and methods to abuse his patients. Dr. Paduch ensured he was alone with his victims, played pornography for his victims, directed them to masturbate in his presence, touched victims’ genitalia without warning and without wearing gloves, insisted on masturbating them himself and/or simulating them with a vibrating instrument, and instructed victims to orgasm and ejaculate in his presence without any valid medical purpose.
Additionally, Paduch often penetrated victims’ rectums with his fingers, without gloves, and while masturbating them for no valid medical purpose. During these appointments, Dr. Paduch was often uncomfortably close to his victims, who observed that Dr. Paduch himself was sexually aroused. Victims also claim that Paduch further initiated conversations with his victims about their sexual activity, physical appearance, and physique and volunteered details of his sexual activity. Dr. Paduch then arranged his victims’ appointment schedules, often provided his personal cell phone number, and coerced them into returning to see him.
Paduch allegedly lied about having a wife and children to perpetuate the apparent lies that he was heterosexual and married “with the sole intention of grooming, distracting, normalizing the abuse, and disarming the patients, so he could prolong the time he had access to their bodies while pretending that everything he was doing to them was clinical in nature,” according to the complaint.
About Dr. Darius Paduch
Educated in Poland and the United States, Dr. Paduch began his medical career in the early 2000s and worked at New York-Presbyterian Hospital / Weill Cornell Medical Center on the Upper East Side of Manhattan for many years as a urologist specializing in male infertility and sexual dysfunction. He moved to Northwell Health in Long Island in 2019. However, Northwell Health appears to have removed all evidence of Paduch’s affiliation with their institution from their website.
Dr. Paduch exploited patients in his examination room under the pretense of providing medical treatment. One of his victims reported that, when he was 16, the doctor exposed him to pornography and performed sexual acts on him. Dr. Paduch also demanded that the patient send videos of himself masturbating. Others have reported that Dr. Paduch pressed himself against them while masturbating and made other sexual advances. Paduch is now facing a federal criminal prosecution and at least 60 years in prison.
Finding the right medical provider can be challenging. We seek out seasoned professionals who possess a good bedside manner, compassion, and empathy. When we finally decide on one, we hope to feel better over time and not be violated by the very person we trust. Doctors hold a position of power in the physician-patient relationship under Florida law. It is both unacceptable and unlawful for a healthcare professional to touch a patient in any sexual manner or practice any sexual misconduct while treating the patient.
Horowitz Law has filed numerous sexual misconduct claims against medical professionals on behalf of patients who were inappropriately touched in their care. Under no circumstances is a doctor or nurse permitted to have sexual contact with a patient. If you have been a victim of sexual assault or sexual battery at a medical office or facility, or if you know someone who has, please contact our law firm at 888-283-9922 or send an e-mail to sexual abuse lawyer Adam Horowitz at [email protected] for a free consultation.