Patient of suspended urologist testifies in federal court that Darius Paduch sexually abused him
Undated photo of Dr. Darius Paduch, on trial in federal court on charges of sexually assaulting his patients Credit: Northwell Health
A man who said he was sexually abused by Dr. Darius Paduch testified in federal court on Friday that he saw the urologist showing pornography to another patient while the patient was being stimulated.
The man didn’t recall if the other patient was stimulating himself or if Paduch was doing so — but an expert on sexual medicine testified that there’s no reason for a doctor to watch or perform patient masturbation.
Paduch, 56, who practiced for Northwell Health on Long Island until his April 2023 arrest, faces 13 felony counts related to alleged sexual assault and abuse. If convicted, he could spend the rest of his life in prison.
Paduch is on trial in lower Manhattan for alleged criminal actions against six minors and two adults, but he also is being sued by hundreds of other ex-patients, in separate civil cases.
WHAT TO KNOW
- A man who said he was sexually abused by Dr. Darius Paduch testified in federal court on Friday that he saw the urologist showing pornography to another patient while the patient was being stimulated.
- An expert testified that it is never medically appropriate for a physician to masturbate a patient, or to watch a patient masturbating himself, which are among the criminal and civil allegations against Paduch.
- Paduch practiced on Long Island for Northwell Health from 2019 until his April 2023 arrest, and between 2003 and 2019 for Weill Cornell Medicine in Manhattan.
The alleged victim who testified Friday under a pseudonym filed one of those suits. Michael Baldassare, a New Jersey-based defense attorney for Paduch, has repeatedly mentioned those suits, arguing that a criminal conviction gives civil plaintiffs a better chance at obtaining financial damages.
The urologist worked for four years with Northwell and for 16 years before that at Weill Cornell Medicine in Manhattan, court documents state. He lived in North Bergen, New Jersey, before his arrest and is currently in detention in Brooklyn.
The 25-year-old New Jersey man who testified for a second day against Paduch said the physician masturbated him at least three times starting when the man was a minor.
His parents first brought the man, then a minor, to Paduch for help in erectile dysfunction, which was one of one of the doctor’s specialties, which also included male infertility and genital and genetic abnormalities.
Dr. Amin Herati, director of male infertility and men’s health at Johns Hopkins Medicine in Baltimore, said there are instances when a urologist needs to briefly touch a patient’s genitalia.
But, he testified Friday, it is never medically appropriate for a urologist to manually masturbate a patient, or for a physician to observe a patient stimulating himself.
“The primary reason would be this would be a sexual act on a patient,” Herati said.
The federal indictment accuses Paduch of masturbating multiple patients, and attorneys for plaintiffs in civil suits say Paduch masturbated many of their clients.
Herati said there also is no medical reason for a doctor to stimulate the prostate to provoke sexual arousal, or for a physician to masturbate himself or expose himself to a patient — actions Paduch also is accused of. When a physician has a need to touch a patient’s genitals, the doctor should wear gloves, he said. Paduch allegedly touched patients’ genitalia without gloves.
Prosecutors displayed texts that they said Paduch sent to the New Jersey man, who one summer was a high school intern for Paduch.
One text from Paduch said the then-teenager got semi-aroused by the doctor “cos I was helping u to relax.” Another said: “When are u coming again to my office so we can practice more”
A third text proposed that if the teen masturbated that night, he should do so with Paduch via FaceTime or Skype.
The man recalled that he didn’t know what to think of the request. “I just know it made me feel incredibly uncomfortable, which is why I said no,” he said.
As on Thursday, the man never looked at Paduch, staring downward while on the witness stand and fidgeting with his hands and rubber bands much of the time.
Baldassare also displayed texts in his cross-examination of the man, including one in which the man proposed going out socially with Paduch and a lab assistant the man met while an intern with the physician. Other texts complimented Paduch as a doctor, calling him “one of the best.”
Baldassare also noted how even though the man first began seeing Paduch as a patient in 2015, he didn’t report him to law enforcement or file a civil suit until late 2022.
The man said he began seeing therapists in late 2018, in part because of his memories of Paduch’s alleged abuse. Therapists had first suggested that he report the physician’s actions, and his civil-suit lawyers also did so, in 2022, he said.
The 2022 state Adult Survivors Act gave alleged victims of adult sexual abuse and assault a one-year window — ending in November — to file suits even if the alleged offenses happened years ago.
David Olson covers health care. He has worked at Newsday since 2015 and previously covered immigration, multicultural issues and religion at The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.
