George Tyndall, former USC gynecologist charged with sexually assaulting students, found dead in his home
George Tyndall, the former USC campus gynecologist accused of sexually abusing a generation of female students, will stand trial for sex crimes related to 16 former patients, a judge ruled Friday.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Larry Paul Fidler said prosecutors presented Tyndall, 76, with enough evidence in a series of hearings to face a jury.
Tyndall, who practiced at a campus health clinic for three decades, was charged with 27 felonies, including 18 counts of sexual assault of an unconscious person and nine counts of sexual harassment by deception. The alleged crimes occurred between 2009 and 2016.
In 2019, prosecutors initially brought charges against 21 former patients but had to drop charges against five women. “We were unable to contact one victim…Four victims told us they were withdrawing from the case,” Deputy Dist. Atty. Chief Prosecutor Reinhold Müller said in an email. Tyndall’s attorney, Leonard Levine, said his client is looking forward to the trial.
“He believes that after what he expects to be a fair trial, he will be acquitted,” Levine said. The Times revealed in 2018 that Tyndall faced numerous complaints from staff and patients during his 27 years at the clinic. They reported that he photographed patients’ genitals, touched women inappropriately during gynecological exams and engaged in other “creepy” behavior.
Hundreds of women subsequently sued USC, and the university ultimately paid out a total of $1.1 billion to thousands of former patients, the largest settlement in the history of higher education. Some of the women testified at preliminary hearings in Tyndall’s criminal case. One former patient was identified only as Jane Doe #. 21, flew in from New York in May 2022 to testify.
She recounted an appointment at the campus health center in August 2013 when she became concerned about a spot near her genitals. She recalled that Tyndall visually examined her while she was lying on her back and told her he thought she had syphilis. Then, she testified, she felt him insert his fingers into her. “Did he ever tell you he was going to insert his fingers into you?” a prosecutor asked.
“No,” she replied, adding that she was “scared” and “very panicked” because she thought she had syphilis. She recalled that over the next five to ten minutes, his fingers moved inside her, applying “constant pressure” in “forward and backward motions.”
She said Tyndall commented on the tightness of her vagina and repeatedly asked her if she was sure she was not a virgin “because I was so tight.” “I have never experienced this in a medical setting,” she said. , and he asked me multiple times, “Are you sure you’re not a virgin?” “At the end of the exam, he told me I had a beautiful vagina,” she testified. “I thought it was an odd comment but I ignored it.”
She did not recall a proctor or medical assistant being present during the examination. She was never diagnosed with syphilis. After changing the type of underwear, the dry skin disappeared. Like others in the case, she said she came forward only after a New York Times investigation in 2018, when she finally contacted an attorney and spoke with Los Angeles police.
