Women say they were failed by sexual abuse investigation of Oregon doctor

An Oregon physician who is accused of sexually abusing dozens of women in his care has evaded criminal charges – but patients hope to attain some level of justice by continuing to pursue a lawsuit against him demanding damages.

In a CNN article published on Sunday, patients of the former doctor, David Farley, said they hope their litigation holds him to some account after he subjected them to years of unnecessary breast, genital and rectal exams, adding to a spate of cases involving US physicians reported to have violated people in their care during their most vulnerable moments.

A grand jury declined to indict Farley in 2022 after saying there was not enough evidence to file criminal charges against him.

But Farley’s accusers maintain the police department of West Linn, Oregon, and the state’s attorney general, Ellen Rosenblum, conducted an inadequate investigation before their failure to secure charges against him.

While Rosenblum’s office told CNN that they were still reviewing criminal charges in the case, more than 100 people have turned to the civil court system to demand damages over their alleged abuse at the hands of Farley.

“Seeing these women’s faces [of other survivors] – and hearing a little bit about their stories – it’s more fire to keep going,” Katie Medley, a former patient of Farley, told CNN.

In addition to the unnecessary and abusive exams he performed on them, Farley also allegedly had child sexual abuse images on his personal cellphone, according to an investigation by the Oregon medical board, as the Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) reported.

Farley was a respected member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and met several of his victims through that institution, CNN reported.

“I remember very specifically as a teenager, he would chase me down at church, me and other friends my age, and really pin us in a corner and massage our arms and shoulders and say, ‘Hey, you need to come see me,’” former patient Nicole Snow said to CNN. “I would often try to leave early just to go hide in the car.”

The Oregon medical board revoked Farley’s state medical license in September 2020 after an investigation discovered he committed “unprofessional or dishonorable conduct” with several patients, CNN reported.

The medical board also found Farley had “ordered or administered unnecessary, outmoded tests contrary to acceptable medical standards which may have caused potential harm”, the outlet reported.

Nonetheless, Farley has yet to face criminal charges.

Victims said that the West Linn police department, led by former detective Tony Christensen, botched the investigations into their claims against Farley.

“Tony Christensen treated us like a nuisance, like we were annoying,” Snow said to CNN. “He just straight up said, ‘It’s going to be really hard to prosecute a doctor.’”

An independent review of the investigation, commissioned by the city of West Linn, found that Christensen did not have formal training on investigating sexual assault cases and lacked basic understanding of medical procedures, including the standard cervical cancer screening procedure known as a “Pap smear”, OPB reported.

The review also found that the police department violated several of its own policies during the investigation.

“It is clear from this report that we did not always follow our policies. We could and should have done better,” city officials said in a press release issued after the conclusion of the independent review.

The allegations against Farley called to mind the prosecution of Larry Nassar, who was convicted of using his former position as a sports physician to sexually abuse or assault hundreds of people, including Olympic and college gymnasts. He is serving what is essentially a sentence of life in prison – and in April, the US justice department agreed to pay more than $138m to victims of Nassar after the FBI failed to investigate repeated warnings about him.

• Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse issues is available from the following organisations. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In Australia, support is available at 1800Respect (1800 737 732). Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html