Ex-Columbia University gynecologist Robert Hadden gets maximum 20-year sentence in patient abuse case
A Manhattan judge on Tuesday sentenced “prolific, heinous and predatory” ex-Columbia University gynecologist Robert Hadden to 20 years in federal prison, meting out the maximum punishment decades after he began abusing his patients.
Citing Hadden’s “out of control” and “depraved” abuse, Manhattan Federal Judge Richard Berman said the magnitude of Hadden’s case stood out because of the number of victims — at least 245 — and the “outrageousness” of his conduct.
Hadden was sentenced to 20 years on each of four counts of enticement and inducement to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity. The sentences will run concurrently. Berman also imposed a $10,000 fine.
“I’ve imposed this sentence in order to reflect the seriousness of the offenses, to promote respect for the law, and to provide a just punishment for these crimes,” Berman said, adding that he also sought to protect the public from Hadden.
Before Berman imposed the sentence, Hadden addressed the court in a brief statement, his voice cracking as he spoke.
“I just want to say that I’m very sorry for all the pain I have caused. Thank you,” he said.
After the proceeding, Adina, who asked to be identified by her first name, said she didn’t consider his statement an apology.
“I think his apology was pathetic,” she said. “‘I’m sorry,’ for what? To who? Your family? Are you sorry to us victims? Did we even have faces, did we even mean anything to him?”
Adina was one of the first women to report Hadden to authorities. Hadden delivered Adina’s children.
Marissa Hoechstetter, who has relentlessly sought to hold Hadden accountable, said the institutions where he abused her and hundreds more women still need to be held accountable.
Hoechstetter played an instrumental role in getting the Adult Survivors Act passed in New York, lobbying lawmakers to enact the historic legislation that afforded victims of sexual assault their day in court.
“Him going to jail for 20 years is an important milestone, but it does not change anything about what happened — about what Columbia and New York-Presbyterian let happen to us. It doesn’t change the hundreds of women who keep coming forward,” Hoechstetter said. “It’s not the full story. It’s one part of what happened.”
Columbia University Irving Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian Hospital have paid about $236 million to at least 200 of Hadden’s former patients over the last two years. Still, the institutions have never directly admitted wrongdoing or contacted Hadden’s former patients about him losing his license.
Bibi, who also asked to be identified by her first name, realized Hadden was the doctor who had abused her through legal advertisements related to the Adult Survivors Act.
“I found out through Instagram a few months ago,” Bibi said outside the courthouse, noting she recognized Hadden’s face in a targeted ad and was reminded of her disturbing appointments with him. “He was my first gynecologist ... so I thought, ‘Oh, maybe it’s just in my head.’”
Eva, who also asked to identify by her first name, said Columbia never informed her that Hadden had lost his license. She said she long believed she’d overreacted to Hadden’s mistreatment of her, and didn’t grasp that she’d been abused until she saw news reports when the feds charged him.
“It was real. It was genuine what happened to me in that labor and delivery room for 48 hours with him. I felt like, for the first time, I was not crazy,” she said.
The charges the Manhattan U.S. attorney’s office brought against Hadden in 2020 related to four women he lured from out of state to abuse at Columbia University and NewYork-Presbyterian affiliated facilities in the city. He was quickly convicted at trial in January.
The prosecution’s case included evidence of up to 310 acts of abuse inflicted on as many as 154 patients.
They noted more than 100 other patients have been identified in now-settled class-action lawsuits. Scores more women have said they were abused in proceedings before New York legislators, and lawyers involved in civil proceedings say they continue to come forward.
Judge Berman also imposed a term of lifetime supervision on the 64-year-old from Englewood, N.J. Hadden had asked the court to sentence him to no more than three years, with his lawyer arguing that he’d paid for his crimes.
Former Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr. charged Hadden with abusing six women in 2014 and later indicated prosecutors were in touch with 19 women. But in 2016, he offered Hadden a plea deal allowing him to admit to harming just two women in exchange for no jail time.
Hadden allegedly evaded justice for years before Vance brought a case. Hadden’s sentencing Tuesday came almost 30 years after Dian Saderup Monson notified his superiors at Columbia that he’d sexually abused her during an exam in 1994.
She received a quick response and never heard back, with Hadden remaining employed for another 18 years.
“I saved the letter, and I saved the response,” Monson said. “Hoarding does have some upsides.”
As Monson spoke outside the courthouse Tuesday, women in the now tight-knit community of Hadden’s victims commended her for putting his depravity on the record from the start.
“You are the reason why Columbia was forced to take accountability,” Liz Hall said. “It would still be going on, 100%, if it weren’t for you.”
“I agree. You’re the hero,” Adina added.
“I kind of caught him,” Monson said. “We all kind of caught him.”
Hadden has been in federal custody since he was convicted of the charges in January.
