Federal jury rules in favor of former Rothman orthopedic surgeon against Jefferson in sex discrimination case

A federal jury found Thursday that Thomas Jefferson University conducted a gender-biased investigation into allegations that former Rothman Orthopaedic Institute surgeon John Abraham raped a former medical resident.

After a four-day civil trial in U.S. District Court, jurors determined that Jefferson’s leadership violated Abraham’s civil rights by discriminating against him as a male and intentionally interfered with his ability to earn money as a Rothman surgeon and partner.

The jury took an hour to reach a verdict that is likely to reverberate nationwide in the world of federal Title IX law. Jefferson and other universities that receive federal funds are required under Title IX to maintain an educational environment free from sex discrimination, including sexual assault. The law was revamped under former President Donald Trump, following criticism that the process favored female victims over accused male counterparts.

Abraham is seeking at least $5 million in damages from Jefferson to compensate him for financial losses. He’s also seeking punitive damages, arguing that Jefferson should be financially punished for its unlawful actions. Rothman fired Abraham last year for allegedly failing to bring in $1.3 million in annual revenue, a requirement for partners, court documents show.

The jury is expected to deliberate over damages on Friday.

A tearful Abraham told jurors he has lost his reputation, his ability to help patients with bone and tissue cancer, and his friendships with former Jefferson and Rothman colleagues. His losses also included: the roughly $2.2 million he spent to “buy in” as a Rothman partner; a $2.5 million job offer, which materialized and then evaporated last year, to work as the orthopedics director at Lehigh Valley Health Network; and his nine-bedroom home on four acres in Gladwyne.

While unable to work for Rothman and Jefferson, Abraham said, he felt isolated and spent most of his time going for long walks.

“I talked to the animals because I had no one else to talk to,” he testified. “It was very devastating.”

The case hinged on whether jurors believed that Jefferson’s leadership ignored Abraham’s claims that a second-year resident in Jefferson’s orthopedic program aggressively pursued sex with him at a June 2018 pool party that he hosted at his Main Line home.

Under Title IX, Jefferson was obligated to investigate Abraham’s allegations, which he said he relayed to multiple Jefferson officials. He claimed the resident, Jessica Phillips, got him so drunk that he was unable to consent to sex and tried to resist, his lawyers argued.

Jefferson’s sexual misconduct policy prohibits students and faculty from behaviors of a sexual nature when the other party doesn’t consent.

“We’re not saying there was any sort of physical pinning-him-down type stuff, but when he says, ‘Wait a minute, this is a bad idea. No, knock it off,’ that’s a withdrawal of consent. That’s enough under the misconduct policy,” Abraham’s lawyer, Lane Jubb Jr., told jurors during his closing statement. “How is it that gender didn’t play a role when Dr. Phillips is permitted to continue her residency, continue her education with leniency? Can you imagine if that was a man at that party?”

Phillips said she woke up in Abraham’s bed the morning after the party naked, disoriented, and covered in bruises. She said Abraham sexually assaulted her and filed a criminal complaint against him in early July 2018. Montgomery County prosecutors closed their investigation with no charges about four months later. Abraham’s lawyers argued that Abraham had asked Jefferson to hold off on finishing its Title IX investigation until the criminal investigation concluded so that he could provide his side, but that Jefferson’s leadership refused to wait.

Abraham, a former associate professor at Jefferson, didn’t dispute during the trial that he “made a mistake” when he had sex with Phillips. She was a subordinate required to complete a rotation under him in the hospital’s orthopedic oncology department to finish her training.

His legal case focused on the actions subsequently taken by Jefferson and affiliated leaders at Rothman. While Rothman and Jefferson are separate institutions, they are academically and financially linked. They share office space, and Rothman’s doctors serve as faculty and supervising physicians at Jefferson.

Within days of the party on June 23, 2018, Rothman suspended Abraham and Jefferson forced him to take a leave of absence.

Rothman’s all-male board voted 8-6 to keep him on as partner in August 2018, but he was moved to Capital Health, a much smaller hospital network in New Jersey.

Ultimately, in December 2018, Abraham said, he resigned from Jefferson in order to avoid a Title IX hearing. He told jurors he had no choice because Jefferson’s leadership told him he would likely be found culpable at a hearing. With such a proceeding, he risked being fired and reported to a national database that tracks physician sexual misconduct.

» READ MORE: How Jefferson and Rothman dealt with an alleged sexual assault involving an orthopedic surgeon and a medical resident.

Jefferson’s lawyers highlighted the power imbalance between Abraham and Phillips during the trial, arguing that it had conducted a fair investigation.

During a closing statement, William Harvey, a Jefferson lawyer, told jurors that Abraham refused to take responsibility for sleeping with a student. When Jefferson hired an outside law firm to investigate the allegations, Abraham later resigned to avoid accountability, Harvey told jurors.

The law firm produced a 58-page report that did not draw any conclusions, but Zoe Gingold, Jefferson’s Title IX coordinator, believed there was enough evidence in the report to warrant a hearing.

“He resigned because he did not want to go to that hearing board. He did not want to tell his story,” Harvey said. “Because he wasn’t vindicated in the report, which is what he thought was going to happen … he’s upset and, therefore, he wants you to help him out with the next mansion.”

However, Abraham’s lawyers told jurors that Jefferson’s Title IX investigation had uncovered evidence that Phillips had engaged in alleged sexual misconduct during the party, specifically nibbling on a male nurse’s ear in a way that made him uncomfortable, but that Jefferson took no action against her.

Phillips, now an orthopedic surgeon on the West Coast, was not a party to the case and refused to testify for Jefferson. In an interview earlier this year with The Inquirer, she said she felt betrayed by leadership at Jefferson and Rothman. She was upset when Jefferson brokered Abraham’s resignation in December 2018 and closed the Title IX case without her knowledge, rather than move the case to a hearing, she said.

“There was no one in the process who I felt like really cared about me,” she said.

During the trial, the jury panel of five woman and three men appeared riveted. Some took notes, scribbling in court-provided notepads and listening with pens poised. Their heads ping-ponged between the witness stand and sparring lawyers, who at times shouted at one another.

The university initiated the Title IX complaint after Phillips confided in James Purtill, the residency program director for both Jefferson and Rothman. Purtill testified that she sounded so distraught over the phone that he left Philadelphia International Airport, where he was waiting to board a plane to attend a conference in Boston, and drove over to Bryn Mawr Hospital, where she was working. He picked her up and took her to his house, where his wife tried to console a sobbing Phillips.

Jennifer Fogerty, Jefferson’s assistant provost for student affairs and Abraham’s point of contact in the Title IX process, testified that during the investigation, which lasted from late June to October 2018, Abraham never told her that he believed Phillips sexually assaulted him.

Abraham testified that he tried to contact Purtill to make his own complaint against Phillips, but that Purtill never responded to his text or voicemail messages left three days after the party.

Purtill said in court that Phillips was at his house at the time and he didn’t think it was appropriate to call him back.

“I had a woman in my house who was distraught, in a crisis,” Purtill said.

Purtill, Abraham’s former partner at Rothman, said he had concerns that the sex wasn’t consensual. He never contacted Abraham and hasn’t spoken to him since.