U. of Southern California Doctor Is Accused of Sexually Abusing 48 Patients

Forty-eight former patients have accused a onetime doctor at the University of Southern California of sexual abuse, according to reporting by the Beacon Project, a student-journalism initiative at USC’s Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

The accusers, many of whom are former USC students, said that Dennis Kelly, who worked for more than two decades at the university’s student health center, had subjected them to unnecessary rectal probing, made inappropriate comments, and fondled their genitals. The allegations follow a lawsuit filed in February by six people (later joined by 15 others) against Kelly and the university.

Kelly was openly gay; his accusers are all gay or bisexual men. Many of them said they had seen Kelly over issues relating to sexual health after being told that he was “the best person to provide health guidance … to gay men.” Instead, the accusers said, he made them feel uncomfortable and ashamed of their sexuality, asking embarrassing questions like “are you a top only?” and “how often do you let your partner cum in you?”

According to a university statement sent to The Chronicle, Kelly resigned at his own initiative in August 2018.

In February, after the lawsuit was filed, Kelly told the Los Angeles Times that he had acted “professionally and without any other motive” while at USC. When approached by the student reporter for the Beacon article, Kelly said, “this has all been very traumatic for me,” and refused to comment further. A lawyer at the firm that represents him, which also represents USC, said the firm wasn’t authorized to speak on his behalf.

The allegations against Kelly are the latest in a series of major scandals to hit the university and university doctors broadly. He is also the second former employee of USC’s student health center to be accused of sexual misconduct. Last May a gynecologist, George Tyndall, was accused of sexual misconduct by 16 women.

Tyndall’s behavior, which allegedly included lewd comments, fondling, and keeping photographs of female students’ genitals, is said to have continued for almost 30 years before he resigned, in 2017. He was arrested in June, and now faces more than two dozen felony charges. Tyndall pleaded not guilty at his first court appearance, in July.

USC also made national headlines this year thanks to the admissions-bribery scandal, which implicated coaches of two of the university’s sports teams as well as its associate athletics director. And in 2017 the Los Angeles Times published an exposé about a former dean of the Keck School of Medicine, Carmen A. Puliafito, that detailed his history of drug use and solicitation of prostitutes. Puliafito’s successor, Rohit Varma, was dismissed later that year after a sexual-misconduct allegation from 2003 was made public.

In the cases of both Kelly and Tyndall, students submitted complaints to the university long before the alleged abuse became public. In the lawsuit filed against Kelly and USC in February, the plaintiffs allege that the university was complicit in his abuse by ignoring, mishandling, and concealing student complaints.

The university disputed those claims.

“The notion that complaints were ignored is misleading,” the statement says. “USC followed up on the handful of complaints it received.”

Room for Reform

But Ariela Gross, a law professor at the university, said USC’s handling of sexual-misconduct complaints showed clear shortcomings. While she said not enough is known yet about Kelly’s case, such shortcomings were evident in the number of complaints about Tyndall before he faced any consequences.

“There’s no doubt that there was a serious problem with not taking women students and staff seriously,” she said. “One thing that’s quite clear, I think, is that an overhaul at the Office of Equity and Diversity, which handles our Title IX cases, is needed.”

According to the university statement, USC has begun changing its policies for responding to reports of sexual misconduct, “including the implementation of new protocols at the Student Health Center to ensure all complaints are investigated thoroughly.”

Gross is chair of Concerned Faculty of USC, which professors formed after the allegations against Tyndall surfaced, in 2018. She said that the university’s major effort so far — to create an Office of Professionalism and Ethics — is not a good solution to the problem.

The plan “essentially involves creating an enormous bureaucracy that would further insulate the presidency from many complaints,” she said. “It didn’t speak to the chief concerns of accountability and transparency.”

Gross said she hopes the university will handle the allegations against Kelly in a way that proves it learned from the Tyndall case.

“It’s an opportunity for the new president to show that things will be different in the way that terrible incidents are handled,” she said.

USC’s president during the scandals, C.L. Max Nikias, resigned in May 2018 amid pressure from faculty members and students. The current president, Carol L. Folt, who took office a little over a month ago, inherited a university reeling from scandal.

Gross said that the scandals had damaged the university’s reputation, and that the concerned-faculty group had formed, in part, to try to exert oversight on an institution that wasn’t living up to the caliber of its students and faculty.

“I’ve taught at USC for 23 years, and I’ve seen wonderful things happen at the university. My students are amazing. My colleagues are amazing,” Gross said. “But the last couple of years I think it’s taken a great toll on all of us.”

Correction (8/9/2019, 3:38 p.m.): This article originally misstated the number of plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed in February against Kelly and the university. Six people, not 21, filed suit. They were later joined by 15 others. The article has been updated accordingly.

Liam Knox is an editorial intern at The Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter @liamhknox, or email him at liam.knox@chronicle.com.