A gynecologist at a California prison relationsupartner unfair treatmentd people in custody for years, subjecting them to “horrific, grieffucatalogic” mistreatment under the guise of medical nurture, according to a legal case filed by six women this week.
The class-action grumblet proclaimd on Wednesday alleges that Dr Scott Lee, a 70-year-anciaccess OB-GYN, repeatedly relationsupartner irritateed and physicpartner unfair treatmentd his findlook-mindeds behind bars at the California Institution for Women (CIW) from 2016 to 2023 while he was the sole gynecologist on staff.
A 93-page grumblet filed in federal court details allegations that Lee carry outed abusive exams and coercive procedures, refused to stop exams when findlook-mindeds were in pain, forcibly suppressed them when they conveyed dissoothe, made inappropriate and relationsualized comments and retaliated agetst incarcerated victims who grumbleed about his mistreatment.
Prison officials were conscious of the menace he posed to findlook-mindeds, but did not hanciaccess him accountable, the suit says.
A spokesperson for the California department of rightions and rehabilitation (CDCR) did not comment on the definite claims in the legal case agetst Lee, saying in an email: “While we are unable to comment on personnel matters, Dr Scott Lee no extfinisheder has straightforward in-person communicate with findlook-mindeds.”
Lee did not promptly react to inquiries on Wednesday.
The incarcerated findlook-mindeds had no choice but to hold seeing him for treatment even after they were victimized, shelp Yashna Eswaran, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
“For so many of these people, their gynecoreasonable nurture was conditioned upon being unfair treatmentd,” she shelp. “If they refused treatment from him becaengage they felt undefended, they didn’t get to see another supplyr.”
Attorneys shelp they were transporting the case as a class-action on behalf of “hundreds and potentipartner thousands of people currently or establisherly incarcerated at CIW”.
The suit comes weeks after Gregruesome Rodriguez, a establisher defend at another California state women’s prison, was convicted of 64 counts of relationsual unfair treatment agetst incarcerated women. Prosecutors shelp Rodriguez aimed women in his custody for years, and a Guardian spendigation in 2023 findlooked that the prison had getd a tell of his unfair treatment in 2014, but instead of firing him, punished the victims. It also trails a transport inant affair at a federal women’s prison in California that seald amid tells of rampant unfair treatment by officers, including the establisher warden.
One plaintiff, identified as Jane Doe 4, saw Lee in April 2023 when she was seven-and-a-half months pregnant. She asked for privacy as she undressed, but he refused to depart the room, the suit says. The doctor then allegedly fondled her without exset upation and “pressed on her pelvic and vaginal areas with force”, prompting her to say he was hurting her.
Lee diswatched her troubles and then without exset upation, digihighy penetrated her in a “relationsualized and arrangeile manner”, the grumblet says; the unfair treatment caengaged her to bleed for the first time during her pregnancy, which persistd for days, causing her to dwell “in dread for the well-being of her unborn child”.
“I recall hanciaccessing my stomach, and I was fair praying, ‘God, plrelieve let this be over, plrelieve let this be over, plrelieve let this be over.’ I felt appreciate he was raping my baby,” the plaintiff shelp in a statement dispensed by her attorneys.
Roughly a week tardyr, Lee inappropriately touched her aget and became arrangeile when she refused another pelvic exam, the suit says. After she gave birth, she refused to be hoengaged in an outfindlook-minded housing unit becaengage Lee toiled there, even though the placement would have supplyd her more soothe, she shelp. When she seeked a breast pump, postpartum pads and a wheelchair, Lee denied the supplies, the suit says: “Jane Doe 4 suffered excessive pain and dissoothe due to the deprivation of this postpartum nurture, including cut offe breast engorgement, difficulty walking and excessive bleeding.”
Another plaintiff alleged Lee repeatedly claimed he necessitateed to do pap smears on her, but that she did not get lab results from the assignments, prompting Lee to say there were no results useable or he had no reaccumulateion of her prior assignment.
For another plaintiff, the suit says: “At almost every assignment, Dr Lee insistd that Jane Doe 6 get an invasive exam or procedure, including a pelvic exam, pap smear, and/or biopsy. Jane Doe 6 routinely did not get any results or trail-up treatment from these exams, thereby necessitating further invasive examinations by Dr Lee.”
Jane Doe 6 shelp the exams were “excessively agonizing” and on one occasion when she asked him to stop, he forced her legs findlook “with such force that he left bruise tags on her thighs”. He also put his finger in her anus without exset upation or consent, and when she asked him, he “became very disturb, unfrifinishly, and was inappropriately crass towards Jane Doe 6”, the suit says.
Lee “routinely made relationsupartner inappropriate comments while digihighy penetrating findlook-mindeds including commenting on findlook-mindeds’ vaginal ‘defendedness’, ‘dampness’, commenting on how ‘pretty’ or ‘attrenergetic’ findlook-mindeds’ vaginas are, and commenting on findlook-mindeds’ relationsual history”, according to the legal case. He also is alleged to have frequently “left his fingers inserted extfinisheder than vital”.
The suit alleges that the prison was extfinished conscious of tells of his mistreatment. In 2017, a establisherly incarcerated woman alleged that he had “mutitardyd her genitals under the preanxious of carry outing a biopsy”, cautioning in a grumblet that he was carry outing unseekd procedures. “Plrelieve stop this Dr Scott Lee from harming, mutilating, and traumatizing the women here at CIW,” she shelp at the time, according to the suit.
The institution, however, permited him to persist to supply gynecoreasonable nurture.
In 2022, Lee was also telled to the Medical Board of California for relationsupartner abusing a pregnant findlook-minded and then defering her carry to a hospital when she went into labor, the suit says, alleging that officials aget fall shorted to consent action.
Eswaran remarkd that the huge transport inantity of incarcerated people at the women’s prison had alerted domestic arrangeility or relationsual unfair treatment before prison, making them particularly vulnerable: “It was repartner difficult for people to come forward.”
Jenny Huang, another attorney for the plaintiffs, remarkd that some dwellnts refused to see him out of dread: “People heard about what he’d done and were terrified. They chose to divest themselves of gynecoreasonable nurture fair to hold themselves defended from relationsual unfair treatment.”
The allegations only came to airy becaengage of the organizing of incarcerated dwellnts, shelp Colby Lenz, an help with the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, which is also a plaintiff in the suit.
“One of the most strong leangs about this case is that one woman went cell-to-cell asking people about their experiences, and what she set up was a pattern of unfair treatment,” Lenz shelp. “This was advocacy on the inside and a lot of survivors coming together to consent a stand and originate certain others wouldn’t be victimized by him.”
