USC’s $1.1 billion settlements to former patients of Dr. George Tyndall was the largest sex-abuse payout in education history. Behind the numbers lies a lopsided economic landscape.He said he first learned about allegations of sexual abuse in May 2018 from questions The Times asked the university about Tyndall.
A detective who worked on the case said he knew of no high-ranking USC administrators, Nikias included, who were questioned about how they or the university handled complaints about Tyndall. The detective was not authorized to speak publicly and thus requested anonymity.
In his statement, Nikias said he met Lacey on occasion but “never had a business or social relationship” with her.Joshua Ritter, a former deputy district attorney under Lacey, said he believed she is a “woman of integrity” who was not swayed by her USC connections, but he added that “political considerations” often influenced the office’s decision on whether to pursue prosecutions involving powerful institutions such as USC.
For women who received a settlement payment in the Tyndall matter, the anger and frustration over the absence of a wider investigation are compounded by the fact that Nikias and Quick“It sickens me for them to still be working there,” said Riley Ransom, a 2018 graduate. Jane Junn, a USC political science and gender studies professor and associates chair in social science, said a fuller investigation by the district attorney’s office into how administrators dealt with the Tyndall allegations could help restore broken trust in the university’s leadership. “You can’t heal the wound without knowing how it got there,” she said. “And you can’t avoid another injury.
Just becoming a male gynecologist sounds like a recipe for self-inflicted disaster.
No evidence has surfaced that implicates administrators in criminal conduct.