Columbia gyno Robert Hadden convicted of sex trafficking patients

Disgraced ob-gyn Robert Hadden was convicted Tuesday of preying on and sexually trafficking vulnerable patients while he worked at prestigious Manhattan hospitals for nearly two decades.

Hadden, who spent his career at well-regarded hospitals associated with Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian, was convicted on all four counts of enticing women to travel across state lines so he could abuse them. 

He will face a maximum of 80 years in prison when he is sentenced at a later date by Judge Richard Berman.

Over the course of the three-week trial in Manhattan federal court, prosecutors called an array of witnesses who testified in detail how Hadden carried out his abuse. 

In her closing statement Monday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jane Kim told jurors the evidence and testimony presented at the trial was “devastating” and “damning” to the disgraced doctor, describing Hadden as a calculated predator who abused women for his entire career. 

“He donned his white coat and took the oath all doctors do to ‘do no harm’ and then he did the exact opposite,” Kim told the jury. 

“Robert Hadden is a sexual predator,” she said. 

Hadden previously pleaded guilty in state court to abusing a number of patients and was forced to turn over his medical license and register as a sex offender. But under the 2016 plea deal, he dodged prison time. 

Hadden’s attorneys at his federal trial highlighted his state court guilty plea in an attempt to persuade jurors he had already accepted guilt for the abuse – and he should not be convicted of federal charges. 

“What they experienced was real, painful and deserves to be listened to,” defense attorney Kathryn Wozencroft said of Hadden’s victims

“Nothing about this case is trivial. Not for the women who testified, not for Robert Hadden who’s on trial,” she added. 

But Wozencroft went on, Hadden did not knowingly entice his victims to cross state lines so he could abuse them – a point key to his defense. 

“Robert Hadden didn’t induce people to cross state lines. He just didn’t,” Wozencroft said. “Do not convict him of a crime he didn’t commit.”

Hadden, who lives in New Jersey, has been free on $1 million bail since his 2020 arrest.