Former Columbia University gynecologist Robert Hadden found guilty of luring women to NYC for sexual abuse

A Manhattan jury on Tuesday found former Columbia University gynecologist Robert Hadden guilty of enticing patients to New York City to sexually abuse them under the guise of medical care.

Jurors took less than three hours to deliberate the case after hearing two weeks of evidence.

The verdict caps a stunning downfall for Hadden, whose patients have pressured New York authorities for more than a decade to hold him criminally accountable for sexual abuse they suffered at his hands.

He faces up to 80 years in prison when sentenced in April, but his victims say they’re serving life terms.

“I have had the memory of his fingers and his face and his giddiness as he touched me,” victim Jessica Sell Chambers said in court. “He has sentenced us to thousands of years of memories and trauma.”

Sell Chambers and other women urged Manhattan Federal Court Judge Richard Berman to remand Hadden until he is sentenced, but the jurist agreed to let the disgraced doctor stay out on a $1 million bond at his Englewood, N.J., home for now.

That decision led one victim, a woman named Adina, to rise up from a spectator bench and question how the judge could allow a “sexual predator” to go home and care for his disabled wife and son, which Berman conceded was a valid point.

Adina, who asked the Daily News to withhold her last name, told Berman about how she was a virgin when she first visited Hadden at 20 and left the appointment bleeding. She said he made her believe the abuse was medically necessary.

The conviction comes more than six years after Hadden dodged prison time when he was convicted on state charges of harming two women in a widely-criticized plea deal with the Manhattan district attorney.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Tuesday’s guilty verdict held Hadden to account for a years-long cycle of abuse.

“Robert Hadden was a predator in a white coat. For years, he cruelly lured women who sought professional medical care to his offices in order to gratify himself,” said Williams.

Jurors heard testimony from two nurses who said they witnessed Hadden abuse patients as far back as the late 1980s. They heard from nine victims who said he abused them between 1998 and 2012. Evidence showed that Hadden abused patients of all ages, including many who were pregnant.

The victims in both cases represented a fraction of more than 350 former patients who have accused him of abuse, one of the first women to come forward, Marissa Hoechstetter, said in court.

“While it took too long, so many people worked tirelessly to hold Hadden accountable,” Hoechstetter said after the proceeding. “The shame is his to carry.”

Laurie Kanyok, the first woman to report Hadden to authorities in 2012, tearfully told Berman that every time she’s appeared in court the doctor managed to evade justice. She said the psychological pain and torture Hadden caused his victims meant “we walk the Earth free, but we are not free.”

Wearing a black suit, Hadden sat in the front row beside his family with a blank expression while his victims addressed the court. His lawyer Deirdre von Dornum declined comment.

The federal charges against Hadden centered around four women prosecutors said he enticed to travel from out of state to abuse at his job.

His legal team sought to convince jurors that the underlying sex abuse allegations were irrelevant, asking panelists to “be frustrated” with the Manhattan DA, Congress, and the federal case but not convict him of luring women to his practice even if they believed he abused them.

The second conviction comes as civil litigation mounts against Hadden and the elite institutions where he abused patients.

In October, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and New York-Presbyterian announced an ongoing $165 million settlement with 147 of his alleged victims. It came after a similar deal in 2021 when the institutions paid 79 of his former patients $71 million.

Evelyn Yang, married to former New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, was among a group of Hadden’s victims who lobbied New York lawmakers to pass the Adult Survivors Act, which went into effect in November. She said Hadden abused her when she was seven months pregnant in 2012.

The legislation created a one-year look-back period for victims of sexual assault to sue their alleged assailants no matter how long ago the abuse occurred.

“When I came forward publicly about Hadden in 2020, it was almost three years ago to this date. I knew that there were others who had been affected by him, but I had no idea it would be hundreds of women,” Yang told The News.

“And when hundreds of women came forward, they were told, ‘It’s too bad. You’re too late.’ And that’s horrible. I thought there has to be something that we can do.”

Hadden left court with his wife and son without commenting.