Robert Hadden, center, leaves the federal courthouse in New York on Jan. 24, 2023. (AP)
Attorneys for disgraced gynecologist Robert Hadden claim prosecutors went over the line in arguing for a 25-year prison sentence
Prosecutors described the former 64-year-old Columbia University doctor as a manipulative and prolific sexual abuser.
The defense in a motion on Thursday said the government is asking the court to consider allegations outside the January 24 guilty verdict.
These claims either did not result in a guilty verdict or were already addressed in his New York state case, they said.
“Sentencing here is for the four crimes of conviction: inducing four adult women across state lines for the purpose of sexual abuse,” they wrote.
Not an opportunity to retry the case
The defense said it was not an opportunity for the government to retry the case.
“It also is not an opportunity for the court to resentence Mr. Hadden for the state sexual abuse for which he was already prosecuted and sentenced,” they wrote.
Having said their sentencing guideline calculations resulted in two years and nine months, they criticized the prosecution’s 25-year recommendation as “staggering.”
The defense said he had not committed a crime in more than a decade and has “extraordinarily compelling family circumstances.”
He committed those acts in a medical practice he no longer has access to, they said.
‘Predator in a white coat”
Hadden had dodged prison time in New York state in 2016 when he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two pregnant patients.
He had been accused of abusing six pregnant patients in total.
He lost his medical license and promised to never get another one, whether in- or out-of-state. But federal prosecutors charged him in 2020.
Audrey Strauss, the Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, told reporters that Hadden sexually abused patients for years.
Acting “as a predator in a white coat,” Hadden used medical examinations as a cover, the prosecutor said.
Unsolicited ‘sex talk’ with victims
The survivors included several minor girls, including one that he had personally delivered as a baby, Strauss said.
Hadden arranged to be alone with his victims and get close to them by sharing information about his own life.
This included asking them questions about their lives to gain their trust.
The women and girls either had Hadden as their first gynecologist, or he served as the doctor for their first pregnancy.
In other words, the patients did not know what to expect during appointments. The doctor took advantage of this.
For example, the prosecution’s June 20 sentencing submission notes that he took advantage of one woman’s religious, sheltered upbringing.
He sexually abused or assaulted her 62 to 84 times over the course of 12 years, they said.
Hadden also had unsolicited “sex talk” with victims.
He made unnecessary and invasive statements about their bodies, and topics like porn, prosecutors said.
‘Staggering’ number of victims: Prosecutors
They called the number of victims “staggering.” Prosecutors said he sexually assaulted the patients under the guise of medical care.
He abused many of the same survivors over many years.
Hadden took advantage of his position dating back to the beginning of his practice in the late 1980s, they said. He used “sophisticated tactics” get away with it, prosecutors said.
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Gynecologist Robert Hadden’s attorneys criticize government