A former Great Neck urologist was found guilty Wednesday on federal charges of sexually abusing five minors and two adults after prosecutors presented evidence showing he utilized his medical position to commit the abuse.
Dr. Darius Paduch, 56, worked at Northwell Health in Great Neck and Lake Success from 2019 until his arrest and subsequent termination in April 2023. He previously was employed at Weill Cornell Medicine in Manhattan for 16 years.
“As a unanimous jury has just found, Darius A. Paduch leveraged his position of trust as a medical doctor for his own perverse gratification,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said. “For years, patients seeking needed medical care, many of them children, left his office as victims.”
Paduch was convicted on six counts of inducement to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity and five counts of inducing a minor to engage in sex.
He faces a maximum sentence of life in prison. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 19.
Paduch’s lawyer, Michael Baldassare, told Newsday in a statement that Paduch has maintained his innocence and an appeal will be filed.
Hundreds of ex-patients, including minors at the time of the alleged offenses, have named him as a predator, which has resulted in several civil lawsuits in tandem with the federal conviction.
The federal conviction involves abuse that occurred from about 2007 to 2019, yet the multiple lawsuits claim it spanned more than two decades.
The lawsuits are being presented by multiple “John Does,” with one lawsuit including 58 anonymous minors and adults alleging abuse.
One lawsuit states the alleged abuse is “almost indescribable,” but that Paduch “digitally-raped, fondled, groped, ogled, masturbated, objectified, and sodomized patients with both his ungloved hands as well as phallic shaped sex toys.”
Some victims are alleging that the abuse was ongoing over multiple years, with one stating it occurred over five years while his patient, according to court documents. This victim was also a minor during the five years of alleged abuse.
“For nearly two decades, Defendant Darius A. Paduch pretended to practice medicine in the field of urology, while instead engaging in a career of racketeering, sexual exploitation, sexual abuse, and sex-trafficking of both minors and adults,” one lawsuit states. “During this time, defendant Darius A. Paduch acted as a disgusting, sadistic and perverted sexual predator who used his esteemed and trusted position with “corporate defendants” to sexually groom, exploit, abuse, rape, molest, fondle, sodomize, and commit various acts of physical, verbal, and sexual assault and battery on thousands of patients, including the plaintiffs herein, all under the pretense of providing legitimate, medically necessary, medical care. [sic]”
Another lawsuit states the victim experienced “severe emotional and psychological distress, humiliation, fright, dissociation, anger, depression, anxiety, a severe shock to his nervous system, physical pain and mental anguish, and emotional and psychological damage,” due to the alleged abuse.
The suits also are being brought forward against the hospitals, accusing them of negligence. One suit says Weill Cornell Medicine was aware or should have been aware of the alleged abuse that was occurring.
One lawsuit alleges the medical centers and their associated organizations – including Northwell Health – conspired with Paduch to shield the alleged abuse and sexual assault.
Allegations contend other healthcare employees were present in the room during some instances of abuse yet did not do anything to stop it.
The lawsuits contend that multiple victims had reported the alleged abuse to the hospitals before his arrest.
