The University of Southern California has been dealing with a major sex abuse lawsuit involving a former campus doctor and over four dozen men. Now, it is being reported that abuse may have also happened at UCLA.
Earlier this year, former USC campus doctor Dennis Kelly was accused of sexual battery, gender violence, sexual harassment, negligence, and fraud by a small group of former USC students, all of whom happen to be gay or bisexual men.
Over time, the number of accusers grew from one dozen to two dozen to thee dozens to, now, 48 former USC students.
The accusations made against 72-year-old Kelly included “shaming and humiliating” the men for engaging in sexual acts with other men, using “demeaning and derogatory” language towards them, and asking inappropriate and invasive questions about their sex habits, including if they watched “internet porn” or if they hooked up with guys they met online.
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But perhaps the most shocking allegation is that Kelly subjected the young men to “intrusive and medically unnecessary rectal examinations” which he did not perform “on heterosexual men who had similar sexual practices.”
At least five of the men say they reported the abuse to the university but nothing was ever done about it.
Buzzfeed reports:
Of the five men who said they’ve complained to USC about Kelly, three said they’ve never heard back. One man said a USC official told him the incident occurred too long ago to determine what had happened. Another man said the university didn’t respond to his complaint for more than a year — until this February, after the first lawsuit was filed against Kelly and USC. Only then, he said, did the university reach out and acknowledge his complaint.
Now, for the first time, a former UCLA student has come forward to allege he, too, was abused by Kelly prior to the doctor transferring to USC’s clinic in 2002.
LA Mag reports:
Quentin Lee, who entered UCLA as a graduate student in 1994, says that Kelly gave him two unnecessary and invasive rectal examines there, starting when he was about 23, and describing them as “the two most unpleasant medical experiences I’ve had.”
Lee says he was first examined by Kelly because he was suffering “cold or flu” symptoms in 1994, and that Kelly “insisted” on giving him a rectal exam. “I definitely thought it was strange,” Lee, now 48, says in an interview with USC’s student journalism program, the Beacon Project.
In 1996, Lee says he returned to the health center seeking any doctor but Kelly for treatment of another mundane health issue, but was told by a receptionist that no other physician was available. He was then pressured by Kelly, he claims, to succumb to another rectal exam.
“It was the ’90s, before #MeToo,” Lee says. “I was thinking that I was just alone.”
According to the school, “UCLA has very limited records, including no clinical complaints, from Dr. Dennis Kelly’s tenure at the UCLA student health center.”
Lee says he doesn’t plan to sue college or Kelly for the alleged abuse, but he wanted to share his story and voice his support for Kelly’s other alleged victims.
“I just want him to be put to justice,” he says.
Meanwhile, Kelly, who retired last year, told the Los Angeles Times in February that he was totally blindsided by the claims being made against him, calling the whole thing “terribly hurtful.”
“I can’t second-guess or question anything I’ve done,” he says. “I know I did it all professionally and without any other motive.”
When approached by Buzzfeed for comment last week, Kelly declined to speak other than to say,” This is all very traumatic to me.”
Related: More gay and bi men come forward, alleging unwanted rectal exams by USC doctor
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
You’re 23 you come in with a cold and the Doctor wants to do some spelunking in your rectum?? And you allowed it??? Sorry dude that one is your fault..,
Chrisk
Ha. I must be having my mid life crisis (ok a little late) because all I can think of is that lee was a 23 yo kid in 94 and now almost 50 like me. My grandparents were right. It really does go by fast the older you get.
Oh yes. Subject. Even at 23 that’s beyond naive. Maybe he thought it was for a porn. 😉
Bryguyf69
ChrisK – Quentin Lee is 48, but like many people of Asian descent, he doesn’t look like it. He can easily pass for early to mid 30s. As for naivete, it has more to do with the Chinese subservience to authority. Lee didn’t emigrate to Canada from Hong Kong until he was 16, so he was raised with that mindset. I have several Chinese patients and they do not question medical advice, even when I encourage them to do so. Their attitude is that “the doctor is always right,” and would never do anything to harm them. Pretty scary to have such power considering that I’m only in my 20s and some patients are more than twice my age.
Quentin is now a notable subversive writer and director of gay cinema. I assume that means that he’s now less subservient to authority. I’m going to update his Wikipedia page tonight to include this news.
Chrisk
Oh and the shithead spammer needs to stop copying and pasting I agree with you…bla bla on every single posting.
Rex Huskey
“oh and the shithead spammer needs to stop copying and pasting….”
you two gurls…. tis tis tis
Chrisk
Wow. You sure showed me troll. I’m sure you were cackling away writing your nonsense.
rustyiam
Sounds like mass hysteria thanks to the pound me too charade!
startenout
Sounds like the doctor was a complete ass who abused his position knowing people would be too ashamed to talk about it and people like you are why they stayed silent in the first place.
winemaker
How many of us over the years have had the ‘displeasure’ of dealing with crappy doctors, ones that were ambivalent about things, acted like they don’t really know what the hell they were doing and in some cases didn’t really know what the hell they were doing, made snap judgments without a formal diagnosis and made flip misdiagnosis’ leaving patients to deal with shit they never should have to deal with in the first place or scaring the crap out of them, subjecting them to unnecessary tests and often dangerous procedures that in some cases cause major problems.. As we all know the list can go on and on. Over time I’ve come to not like doctors and don’t trust a lot of them. The biggest offenders: those who work for the public health departments and clinics. It seems with these venues, the doctors are either there ’cause they’ve got huge student loans to pay off and went into medicine ’cause it’s big money. Others were not good enough to go into private practice and so not to have wasted the years in med school and the expenses, go to work for the public health dept. where it seems standards are rather low. Speaking from experience in dealing with the public health dept facilities and clinics, many of them are a disgrace and should be shut down.
Bryguyf69
It’s bizarre that he only allegedly abused gay and bisexual students. Most predators don’t care about the victim’s sexual orientation. In fact, if the doctor is gay, be may get more of a thrill and power trip over abusing a student that he’d know he can never get. With gay students, at least there’s a chance that they’d run into each other at a bar, or that they can have a relationship based on his wealth and power. There’s always a chance that he did abuse straight students but they have been more reluctant to talk about such things.
Bryguyf69
The writer is clearly ignorant of the fact that Quentin Lee is a noted gay Asian director and writer. Otherwise, the headline would be something like, “Gay Film Director says that he too was abused by USC doctor. ”
Here’s a list of his films: Here is a list of his movies: The Unbidden (2016), White Frog (2012), The People I’ve Slept With (2009), Ethan Mao (2004), Drift (2000), Flow (1996), and the film short To Ride a Cow (1993). Lee also co-directed Shopping for Fangs (1997) with Justin Lin, known for his controversial film Better Luck Tomorrow (2002).
Bryguyf69
Quentin Lee’s willingness to speak out is notable. Not only is he a rare Asian voice in such matters, but he is also a famous writer and director of gay and Asian cinema. If yiou think it’s rare for a man to admit to sexual abuse, it’s exponentially rarer for an Asian male to do so. So way to go, Quentin! Especially laudable is his public statement that he is not seeking money from the doctor or the university. Also nice is that he’s speaking while the doctor is still alive. Too often these accusations are made after the alleged perpetrator is dead and unable to defend him/herself.
Many question how a 24yo male would allow an unwanted rectal exam. Lee didn’t emigrate to Canada from Hong Kong until he was 16 so he grew up with the mindset that doctors are anyways right, and can do no harm. I know this firsthand from my Chinese patients. They trust me without question even though some of them are twice or even three times my age, and highly-educated.
baggins435
People should trust their doctors, but they should also educate themselves. One of my grandmothers had the same dr since he started his practice, yet she kept the Physician’s Desk Reference and used it frequently so they understood each other when discussing any issues. The other, mom’s mother, never questioned her doctor, and mom now uses him also. He has the bedside manner of a post, is belligerent, very impatient, and barely listens to mom (or me, now that she is elderly). We can’t get her to even consider finding another doctor, so I can understand how a young man got into such a position with a supposedly respected doctor.
Bryguyf69
I’m gonna update Quentin Lee’s Wikipedia page tonight to include this news. Yup, I’m one of Wiki’s volunteer contributors on LGBTQ topics. I also do physics, math and medicine. I look forward to the day when I can do a gay physics contribution. Someone already beat me in gay math with Alan Turing. And I’ve already done the gay Bio/medicine stuff with LeVay’s gay hypothalamus study, etc, as well as HIV. So if anyone can suggest a gay physics topics, I’d appreciate it.
nitejonboy
I’m sorry, I hope they get justice from this bastard and all that good stuff, shame on that freak, but is anyone else reminded of the episode of SOUTH PARK where they install security guards in Cartman’s bathroom and it’s a black woman and she says ” I just need to check inside ya azzhole ? “. each time he has to go to the bathroom ? lol