New Jersey urologist convicted of sexually assaulting patients, including minors

A Manhattan-based Hudson County urologist was convicted Wednesday of sexually assaulting eight patients, including six minors, while conducting exams, federal prosecutors said.

Darius Paduch, 56, of North Bergen, was found guilty in federal court in Manhattan on all 13 counts, including soliciting a minor to engage in unlawful sexual activity and soliciting a victim to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity, according to the authorities.

“As a unanimous jury has just found, Darius A. Paduch used his position of trust as a physician for his own perverse gratification,” Damian Williams, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in a statement. “For years, patients, many of them children, seeking urgent medical care left his practice as victims. I commend the prosecutors in this office for bringing this important case to a just conclusion.”

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, Paduch was arrested on April 11, 2023 after being accused of molesting two former patients who were minors at the time, and has been in custody since then.

He previously worked at NewYork-Presbyterian Weill Cornell Medical Center and Northwell Health, according to a New York Post report.

From 2007 to 2019, while working as a urologist, Paduch lured and persuaded several people to travel to his doctor’s offices so that he could, among other things, sexually abuse them, the office said. He also tricked his people into traveling to New Jersey, where he abused and assaulted them while claiming he was providing them with medical care.

In 2019, he began practicing at another hospital on Long Island, where he continued to sexually abuse patients, investigators said.

He continually used his position as a urologist at these prominent New York medical institutions to lead his patients to believe that the sexual abuse he inflicted on them was medically necessary and appropriate, often instructing them to schedule follow-up visits, federal prosecutors said .

As a result, some of the victims attended many appointments with Paduch over several years, during which he repeatedly abused them, officials said.

His lawyer, Michael Baldassare, told the New York Post that his client will seek to appeal Wednesday’s ruling.

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Chris Sheldon can be reached at [email protected].