LOS ANGELES _ George Tyndall, the former University of Southern California campus gynecologist accused of sexual misconduct against hundreds of patients, was arrested Wednesday and charged with more than two dozen felonies, authorities said.
Tyndall was taken into custody outside his Westlake apartment near MacArthur Park, his attorney Andy Flier said.
The Los Angeles County district attorney's office filed 29 felony counts against Tyndall involving 16 of his female patients.
The complaint, signed by sex crimes prosecutor Reinhold Mueller on Tuesday, accuses Tyndall of sexually abusing patients between August 2009 and April 2016, just two months before he was forced out of USC's Engemann Student Health Clinic.
He faces 18 counts of sexual penetration of an unconscious person, meaning patients were unaware that the penetration did not _ as the perpetrator claimed _ serve a professional purpose.
Additionally, Tyndall faces 11 counts of sexual battery by fraud for touching an "intimate part" of a patient "for the purpose of sexual arousal" and under the guise of a "professional purpose."
Prosecutors will ask a judge to set bail at just over $2 million, according to the complaint.
An LAPD spokesman said a 4 p.m. news conference was planned at police headquarters in downtown Los Angeles.
Tyndall, 71, maintains his innocence and denies all the allegations against him, attorney Leonard Levine said.
"After one year of being tried in the press," the attorney said, "Dr. Tyndall looks forward to finally having his case adjudicated in a court of law."
Interim USC President Wanda M. Austin said the university was awaiting further details on Tyndall's arrest.
"We have cooperated with the LAPD and district attorney's office investigations since the beginning and will continue to do so. We care deeply about our community, and our top priority continues to be the well-being of our students, health center patients and university community," Austin said. "We hope this arrest will be a healing step for former patients and our entire university."
LAPD detectives have been collecting evidence in the case against Tyndall since May 2018, when the Los Angeles Times first reported he had been accused repeatedly of inappropriately touching patients and making suggestive remarks about their bodies.
A team of investigators crisscrossed the country last summer and fall, interviewing scores of alumnae about their experiences with Tyndall. Detectives also scrutinized evidence seized from the doctor's apartment and a storage locker in a raid early last year.
Ultimately, detectives presented scores of cases to prosecutors for potential criminal charges, according to a spokesman for the L.A. County district attorney's office.
Earlier this month, a federal judge granted preliminary approval to a landmark $215 million class-action settlement that USC has agreed to pay to former patients.
Under the terms of the settlement, the about 17,000 women treated during the physician's three-decade career would each be eligible to receive from $2,500 to $250,000. The amount would depend on the severity of the alleged misconduct and the women's willingness to confidentially detail those experiences in written statements or interviews.
John Manly, who represents nearly 200 former patients, said the women were "gratified" to learn of Tyndall's arrest.
"The survivors are looking forward to the courts finally delivering justice and holding Tyndall accountable for years of abuse," he said.
The preliminary sign-off by U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson is not expected to conclude USC's payouts to female students and alumnae. More than 720 women are pursuing separate claims against the university in state court, and their lawyers have criticized the class-action agreement as paltry.
David Ring, a civil attorney representing former patients who met with the LAPD and district attorney's office after filing police reports, said Tyndall's arrest was long overdue.
"Dr. Tyndall got away with his crimes for an astonishingly long time. But his arrest today reaffirms what his victims have said all along: This is a dangerous criminal who preyed on vulnerable female patients."
