Content warning: This story includes mentions of sexual abuse.
Dr. George Tyndall, a longtime USC gynecologist accused of sexually abusing hundreds of patients, was found dead inside his home Wednesday, his attorney said in a statement. He was 76.
For nearly 30 years, Tyndall was the only full-time gynecologist at USC. Despite complaints dating back to the ‘90s, he was not suspended from the university in 2016 after a nurse reported him to a rape crisis center. Tyndall resigned from his position the following year.
Tyndall was set to go to trial next year for alleged sex crimes related to the care of 16 former patients, a small subset of the hundreds who have accused him of harassment, inappropriate touching and other misconduct.
He pleaded not guilty in 2019, and was out on $1.3 million bail while awaiting trial at the time of his death. Leonard Levine, Tyndall’s attorney, told the Los Angeles Times that he notified the court and will present Tyndall’s death certificate at the next hearing. According to the Times, an autopsy will not be conducted.
“It’s a really sad day for survivors, because we’re now denied justice,” Audry Nafziger, a prosecutor and former patient who accused Tyndall of abuse, said in an interview with Annenberg Media. “This case took more than five years, and four years to get the preliminary hearings completed on a handful of survivors.”
Nafziger said the case has been “slow-walked” ever since.
“And now, with Mr. Tyndall’s death, the truth will never be publicly known,” she said. “He took all of the secrets with him to the grave.”
Nafziger said Tyndall’s death denies survivors the closure they would have received in open court by hearing how “this horrible situation evolved and occurred.”
“At the conclusion, where we believe he would have been justly convicted, we were denied the opportunity to see him put back in jail where he belonged because of the atrocious acts he committed against so many women,” she said.
In February 2020, the university settled a class action lawsuit related to the accusations against Tyndall for $215 million. In 2021, the university settled another suit for $852 million in connection with the allegations, bringing the total paid to nearly $1.1 billion — the largest settlement ever paid in higher education.