NEW YORK — A former Columbia University gynecologist accused of sexually abusing dozens of patients over two decades must pay for a defense attorney out of his own pocket after a federal judge ruled he wasn’t being forthcoming about his finances.
Dr. Robert Hadden had requested a public defender, claiming on an unsigned, handwritten financial form that he had only $145,000 cash and few other assets. Judge Richard Berman called the document “woefully inadequate.” Further inquiry by the court found that four months before Hadden was charged he disavowed a $1 million inheritance from his father and gave the money to his two children. He also recently transferred $250,000 to his wife and daughter.
“Based upon a review of all of the evidence presented, the Court is constrained to find that the defendant’s portrayal of financial inability ‘lacks credibility,’” Berman wrote.
Hadden pleaded guilty in state court in 2016 to acts with “no valid medical purpose” on two patients, lost his medical license and served zero jail time. The new federal charges have revived questions about why prosecutors in Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s office agreed to the lenient plea deal.
