Suit alleges sexual violence by Chino prison gynecologist, says state failed to prevent it

LOS ANGELES — Six women and the California Coalition of Women Prisoners have filed suit in Los Angeles against the state Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, a prison gynecologist, and various officials with responsibility for overseeing the doctor, alleging ongoing sexual violence, according to court papers obtained Wednesday.

The lawsuit filed this week in federal court contends that Dr. Scott Lee’s history of sexual harassment was well known throughout the California Institution for Women while he was the sole women’s health specialist on staff.

Lee allegedly routinely made sexualized comments to patients and used his power as a health care provider to sexually assault patients, including requiring them to undress in front of him, fondling their breasts, and molesting them, according to the lawsuit.

“While we are unable to comment on personnel matters, Dr. Scott Lee no longer has direct in-person contact with patients,” a spokesperson on behalf of the CDCR and California Correctional Health Care Services told City News Service in a statement Wednesday.

In one of Lee’s exams, a patient alleges in the complaint, “I told him, `You’re hurting me.’ I remember holding my stomach, and I was just praying, `God, please let this be over, please let this be over, please let this be over.’ I felt like he was raping my baby. When he took his hand out, it was covered in blood.”

Patients who were seen by Lee also report that he would insist on doing unnecessary pelvic examinations, excessive Pap smears, and require patients to allow him to view and touch their genitals before he would give them medications that had already been prescribed to them by other medical providers, the suit alleges.

Attorney Jenny Huang of Justice First, one of three civil rights law firms involved in the lawsuit, stated, “CDCR has a long history of neglecting basic human needs at its women’s prisons, while prioritizing the needs of the male population. For too many years, Dr. Lee’s patients complained about his predatory behavior but no one listened, no one cared.”

For seven years, Lee was the only full-time gynecologist at the CIW, a high-security prison facility in Chino, according to the suit. The complaint accuses the prison’s leaders and other staff of failing to stop Lee despite past complaints.

In September, the U.S. Justice Department announced it had launched an investigation into conditions at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla and the California Institution for Women.

Numerous lawsuits have been filed by hundreds of current and former female prisoners in the state prison system since the passage of Assembly Bill 1455 describing numerous instances of sexual assault by correctional officers overseen by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Most of the plaintiffs in those cases are current or former inmates at the Central California Women’s Facility and the California Institution for Women.

AB1455 extended the statute of limitations for victims of sexual assault by police and correctional officers to sue their assailants in civil court.

The Inland Valley Daily Bulletin contributed to this story.