09/13/23 09/13/23 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracy now! >> and we heard the dam had burst. people were asleep and no one was ready, but this is what happens. what can we do? my house is next to the valley. the whole family lives next to each other. we are all neighbors. we lost 30 people so far.

30 members of the same family. we have not found anyone. amy: more than 6000 people have died in wadi derna -- derna. entire neighborhoods of the city were swept into the sea. thousands remain missing. we will go to libya for the latest. then "how columbia ignored women, undermined prosecutors and protected a predator for more than 20 years." that is the headline of an explosive new investigation by propublica and new york magazine. we will speak to the journalist who wrote the piece about dr. robert hadden, an ob/gyn, who was sentenced to 20 years in a federal prison for sexually assaulting patients during exams over two decades. we will also speak to a survivor . more than a decade ago, her sexual assault led to hadden's

arrest but columbia allowed him to go back to work. >> 2012i called police after my appointment. i had just given birth to a baby girl. in that 11 years, we have been fighting to incarcerate robert hadden for the heinous crimes he committed on hundreds of women. now we have to look forward and continue our fight to bring the hospital accountable and to the forefront of this concealing of this crime. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. in libya, rescue efforts continue in the city of derna following the catastrophic flooding brought about by storm daniel's torrential rains, which caused two dams to burst.

an estimated 6000 people have died, though that number is expected to go up. bodies have been buried in mass graves. in front of derna's hospital, people are searching for their loved ones amidst the dead bodies lined up on the ground. this is the hospital's manager mohamad al-qabisi. >> the number of dead here is 1700 so far. we count them as they were lying in the hallways. whoever is identified has been buried. there are some who have not been identified, so we started photographing them and assigning numbers to them and then bearing them as well. on the other site, they buried 500 people. the hospital is to levitated. -- dilapidated. amy: derna's mayor said the city's dams have not been maintained since 2002. much of libya's infrastructure has crumbled during the years-long war and political instability, fueled by u.s. and foreign intervention, that has gripped the nation. after headlines, we'll speak with a climate activist in tripoli. house speaker kevin mccarthy has ordered three congressional

committees to launch an impeachment inquiry into president biden. >> it appears the president's family had been offered special treatment by biden's own administration, treatment that not otherwise would have received if they were not related to the president. these are allegations of abuse of power, obstruction, and corruption. they warrant further investigation by the house of representatives. amy: the move came under pressure from far-right republicans who threatened to remove him as speaker. house investigations led by republicans have not produced any evidence that biden personally benefited from his son hunter biden's business deals. mccarthy did not schedule a full house vote on opening the inquiry as some more moderate republicans have opposed the action. this all comes as mccarthy is trying to gain his party's support for a deal to keep the government funded beyond a looming september 30 deadline. florida's far-right lawmaker matt gaetz threatened tuesday to

bring a motion that could oust mccarthy over the spending bill, investigations into the bidens, and other issues. >> mr. speaker, you are out of compliance with the agreement that allows you to assume this role. the path forward for the house of representatives is to either bring you into immediate total compliance or remove you pursuant to a motion to vacate the chair. amy: the white house said the impeachment inquiry was "extreme politics at its worst," while house minority leader hakeem jeffries dismissed it as illegitimate and "a kangaroo court, fishing expedition, and conspiracy theater rolled into one." north korean leader kim jong-un and russian president vladimir putin met earlier today at the vostochny cosmodrome in far-eastern russia. just hours before the leaders met, pyongyang fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its east coast. kim spoke as the brief summit opened. >> russia is now in a fight

against hegemonic forces in order to protect its sovereignty and security interest. we have expressed our full and unconditional support for all the decisions taken by the president and the russian leadership, and i want to assure you we will always be together with russia in the fight against imperialism. , could the details of the cam- putin summit are not known, but north korea and russia are expected to be in talks over the trade of weapons and defense technology. meanwhile, during a speech at the eastern economic forum in vladivostok tuesday, putin said donald trump's prosecution shows the rottenness of u.s. politics. in vietnam, dozens of people are feared dead after a massive fire broke out late tuesday at a nine-story apartment building in the capital hanoi. an official death toll has not been released but local outlets say at least 30 people were killed, including children, as the blaze was extinguished in the early hours of wednesday. more than 50 others were severely injured and taken to the hospital. witnesses who live near the apartment building described

hearing residents screaming for help as they tried to flee the building, which reportedly only had one exit. the small apartment balconies were also surrounded by iron bars. another witness said a small boy was thrown out from the building as the flames consumed the complex. several others reportedly jumped out to escape. in the philippines, nobel peace prize laureate and journalist maria ressa and her website rappler have been acquitted of their final tax evasion charge. they were acquitted of four other tax evasion charges in january. maria ressa had been systematically persecuted for her work by former president rodrigo duterte. ressa still faces three other cases, including a six-year sentence for cyber libel from 2020 which she is now appealing at the supreme court. to see our interviews with maria ressa, go to democracynow.org. here in the u.s., new data shows the poverty rate among children more than doubled last year due to record inflation and the expiration of the child tax credit. the pandemic relief helped

decrease the child poverty rate to a historic low of 5.2% in 2021. that figure surged to over 12% after conservative democratic senator joe manchin and congressional republicans opposed an extension of the relief. manchin was the decisive vote. he falsely claimed some low-income parents used the payments to buy drugs when data showed most families used the money to buy food and help with rent. the debt collective said on social media -- "joe manchin's legacy includes artificially manufacturing child poverty for no reason other than his callous disregard for human beings." overall, poverty also increased in 2022 to 12.4%, up from 7.8% in 2021, with more than 37 million u.s. residents living in poverty, the largest single year jump ever recorded in the u.s. the center for reproductive rights filed lawsuits on behalf of eight patients and four ob/gyn's in three states --

idaho, tennessee, and oklahoma. the plaintiffs argue abortion bans led to doctors refusing to provide the procedure even in emergency situations over fears of prosecution and other penalties. one of the patients, nicole blackmon, was forced to carry out her pregnancy after doctors in tennessee refused to provide an abortion even though there was no chance the fetus would survive. she went on to suffer from preeclampsia, which can be fatal, and delivered a stillborn seven months into the pregnancy. nancy northup, head of the center for reproductive rights, said -- "no one should have to be at death's door to receive essential health care, but that is exactly what happens when doctors are forced to practice medicine under threat of imprisonment. the women standing up today survived, but it is only a matter of time before someone does not." in tennessee, a federal grand jury indicted five former memphis police officers for the beating death of tyre nichols in january. in addition to state second-degree murder charges, the officers now also face federal civil rights, conspiracy, and obstruction charges.

video footage shows the men brutally beating, tasing, and pepper spraying the 29-year-old black father during a traffic stop, which led to his death three days later. tyre nichols' father rodney wells spoke tuesday following the new indictment. >> this is a long time coming, and we are so glad we have reached this point. the next milestone is the actual convictions. close justice for tyre! amy: in ohio, the family of ta'kiya young is demanding justice weeks after the 21-year-old pregnant mother was shot dead as she was attempting to drive away from a kroger grocery store parking lot. the police pursued the young black woman after accusing her of shoplifting. body cam video was released friday. the family's lawyer sean walton

said -- "what is clear is that petty theft does not justify murder and comply or die is not the rule of law in this country. the fact that an unarmed woman was shot unjustifiably, then dragged from her car and handcuffed after being shot should shock the conscience of everyone." opening arguments took place in a d.c. courtroom tuesday in the closely watched antitrust case brought by the federal government and 38 states and territories against google. they accuse google of illegally protecting its search engine monopoly by paying billions of dollars to apple and other smartphone companies and web browsers to be their default search engine. it's the largest antitrust lawsuit brought by the u.s. government against a major tech company since the justice department sued microsoft over 20 years ago. u.s. district judge amit mehta is presiding over the case. he could theoretically order the breakup of google should the company lose, though analysts say it's more likely google would be forced to change its business practices. a loss for the government could

have implications for its ability to regulate tech and other industry monopolies. the trial is expected to last 10 weeks. in a major victory for climate activists, new york university plans to divest from fossil fuels. student organizers have been pushing for the divestment for nearly 20 years. the guardian reported chair of the nyu board of trustees announced the decision in an august letter addressed to sunrise nyu. the group wrote on social media -- "this is a huge win for climate justice! congratulations to every student organizer who made this happen." an and washington, d.c., at least 34 indigenous activists were arrested as they rallied in front of the white house calling on president biden to grant political prisoner leonard peltier clemency. peltier has maintained his innocence over the 1975 killing of two fbi agents in a shootout on the pine ridge reservation. his conviction was riddled with irregularities and prosecutorial misconduct. this is indigenous writer and

historian nick estes speaking at yesterday's action, which took place on peltier's 79th birthday >> all leonard peltier was fighting for was the future of our people as indigenous people because they try to take that away with warning schools, they tried to erase our children. it is not just about taking them and making them speak english. when you still youth, you try to steal the future. amy: and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. coming up, more than 6000 people have died in the libyan city of derna after a massive storm led to a catastrophic flood. we will go to libya to speak with a youth climate activist. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman in new york, joined by democracy now!'s juan gonzález in chicago. hi, juan. juan: hi, amy. welcome to all of our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. amy: in libya, at least 6000 are feared dead and thousands remained missing after a catastrophic flood in the eastern city of derna. torrential rains caused two dams to burst, wiping out whole sections of the city. water reached 10 feet high in parts of the city. the united nations has called the flood a "calamity of epic proportions." rescue operations have had difficulty reaching derna because there's only one unobstructed road into the city. in front of the hospital, people are searching for their loved ones amid piles of bodies. >> the number of dead in this

particular section is 1700 so far. we count them as they were lying in the hallways. whoever is identified has been buried. there are some who have not been identified so we started photographing them and assigning numbers to them. on the others, they buried 500 people. things are very bad. the hospital is dilapidated. amy: any people were slipping when the dams fell. >> then we heard the dam had burst in the water flooded the area. people were asleep and no one was ready, but this is what happens. what can we do? my house is next to the valley come opposite the mosque. the whole family lives next to each other. we lost 30 people so far. 30 members of the same family. we have not found anyone. amy: much of libya's infrastructure has crumbled since 2011 when the obama

administration and nato backed an uprising against the longtime leader muammar qaddafi, setting off years of war and political upheaval. derna's mayor said the city's dams have not been maintained in over 20 years. the flood was caused by rare hurricane-like cyclone known as a medicane. it brought unprecedented flooding to greece, turkey, and bulgaria last week. the floods come just a week for a major summit on the climate crisis at the united nations here in new york. greenpeace international said -- we go now to libya to the city of tripoli where we are joined by the youth climate activist nissa bek. thank you so much for being with us. i know tripoli itself was not physically affected by this catastrophe in derna, but if you can describe what you understand has happened there.

we are talking about 6000, perhaps 10,000 people dead at this point. condolences. >> thank you so much. first of all, allow me to clarify all the tripoli itself is not affected by this specific event, it does not mean the west part of libya is usually not affected by heavy rain falls or even other smaller storms. just last week, a city located in the western part of libya drowned completely. it was flooded completely because of six hours of rain. the whole flooding thing is not news to us. we have been struggling with this for years. as you mentioned, libya is struggling with poor infrastructure. it has been like that for years beyond the 2011 revolution. even

during the time of muammar qaddafi. most of the well constructed buildings, we have had them since the time of the italian colonization, constructed by the italian government over 100 years ago. those remain until today. however, most of the structures that were felt during the 1960's, -- that were built during the 1960's, it is affected by rain or even simple weather changes. after what happened in derna, it was expected -- i have expected this to happen for the longest. as a climate activist, i am always doing my best to communicate whatever information that i have. this is not the first time derna goes through this. it went through it twice before in the past decade. it did in the 1940's and again

in the 1980's. two years ago, a civil engineer published a paper with university where he warned both of the dams are very fragile and he expected they would be falling apart very soon. he also mentioned we need to have a lot of treeplanting in the area in order to combat the desertification because the dry area will only make the flooding much worse. it is something we have expected. in fact, ever since this catastrophe happened, they talked about it a lot in the news from many different aspects but not climate aspects. they did not mention anything about climate change. how the government was at fault, how it happened. as we mentioned before, derna is

like the fourth start of the -- stop of the daniel storm, however, it is the one most affected. just to give you bit of a background of the climate crisis here in libya, libya did sign the framework back in 2015 with the u.n. and did ratify the paris agreement back in 2021. however, although the government has been active at cops, they did not submit any of the national -- necessary contribution or national adaptation plans. these documents are supposed to include the risk reduction strategies. so in case something such as this happens, what will they be doing. the thing is, most of the other countries already declared emergencies and they did evacuation's in advance. libya did not.

we knew the storm was coming our way, on his way to the libyan coast. the government did not announce emergency. they did not have any evacuations. not to mention, it was not until yesterday when the president came out and mentioned and said, please stop sending medicine and food, we don't need this type of aid. what we need is rescue teams, search teams, as well as aid flights. we are talking about a country that does not even have an aide flight. so when the roads collapsed, they were not able to reach the people. so all of the aid being sent by the other countries is not even making it to the people. every minute passed meant tens of thousands of other people dying. it took them two days to ask for that. then they claimed on tv, oh,

yeah, we have a strategy and we are working on it right now. obviously, they did not have a strategy, they do not have a plan. juan: i wanted to ask you, what has been the role of the ministry of environmental affairs and also given the fact for the past 10 years, ever since the killing of muammar qaddafi, libya has had to deal with competing -- conflicting governments. two governments within the same country. >> yeah. they did have an effect, just a goal effect. -- logistical effect. for example, even the aid that egypt is offering, they're not communicating with the government that is acknowledged by the eastern international community. which means whatever agreements

taking place right now come the actual president of the country has no idea what is going on. it is quite an issue logistically, but like i said before, it is mainly a climate environment issue. like i said, huge part of climate or our strategy to combat climate or natural disasters is about the risk reduction strategies that is supposed to be submitted during cop but they are not cementing anything. as for the role of the environmental affairs industry, they're supposed to be playing the biggest role but they are not playing any role at all. to be completely honest, i have a source that told me the minister of environmental has been submitting a lot of projects and proposals to the president. however, he is the one who is rejecting all of those proposals. he keeps postponing them. therefore, the ministry of

environmental affairs is not receiving any funding. according to the employees of the ministry, they have not received their paychecks for over two years. so they are working without getting paid. it has been like that for over two years. juan: what about the reality that as libya confronts the increasing dangers of the climate crisis, it still depends largely as a nation for its foreign income on oil and gas? >> yes. we have spoken about that, you know. we have spoken a lot about that. signing deals with countries such as italy for the next 20 years and the next 30 years, so they don't seem to take the whole climate issue seriously. in fact, if you have spoken to any of the decision-makers regarding their like, yeah, we

understand but we don't have to worry about that now. that is usually the reply. i am hoping this strategy could be the turning point for all of this and for them to exit take the climate crisis more seriously. amy: rich countries agree to establish a loss and damage find at the close of last year's u.n. climate summit in egypt. dealing specifically with the global south, the worst effects of the climate catastrophe. the find was a major breakthrough for global south countries which have been demanding a similar mechanism for the last 30 years but faced opposition from the united states and other large polluting nations. what are your demands of wealthier nations? >> to be completely honest, the main issue or the root of the issue goes back to the polluting countries such as the united states.

but in this very specific situation, i cannot really say that it is their responsibility to fix what happened. like i mentioned earlier, it is obviously our government's fault stop the problem with this fund, it is not when you bring the lives we lost back. it is something that comes later on when it is time to actually reconstruct derna, a lot of these countries will be putting some funds in order to help us reconstruct it. what cost? at that point, we have already lost so many people and we don't know how many other people we are going to lose in the upcoming few years if we don't actually deal with the problem more seriously. right now i cannot think of, oh, it is because of the u.s., it is because of china, you know, i don't have that kind of mindset. right now it is because of my own government. in the future, however, i need

all states whether from the global south or global north, to take this fund seriously and most importantly, take cop seriously. take their ndc's more seriously. they have seen what happens when you don't. you need the risk reduction strategy. you need to put forward a plan on, what are we going to do in case this happens? libya has a very low level of precipitation. we don't even have a lot of rainfall. and they're like, flooding? what are the chances? there you go. that is what i am expecting. amy: i want to thank you for being with us. we will continue to follow what is happening in libya. nissa bek is a youth climate activist joining us from tripoli. coming up, how columbia university ignored women, undermined prosecutors, protected a predator for more than 20 years. stay with us. ♪♪ [music break]

amy: "crucify" by tori amos. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. a warning to our viewers and listeners, this story includes graphic descriptions of sexual assault. we spend the rest of the hour looking at "how columbia university ignored women, undermined prosecutors and protected a predator for more than 20 years." that is the headline of a damning new investigation by propublica and new york magazine. it lays out how columbia university shielded obstetrician robert hadden for more than two decades. more than 245 patients have now alleged hadden abused them. in july, we spoke with two of hadden's former patients after he was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison. this new report details how

columbia often undermined the process of bringing him to justice in order to protect its reputation instead of acting in the victims' interests. today we will be joined by laurie kanyok, a former patient of hadden, who survived his assault in 2012 and even called 911, which led to his arrest. but columbia allowed him to come back to work the next week come after he was arrested in his office. we will also speak with propublica journalists. two their report begins with laurie kanyok who was she was a 38 year old professional dancer and sought the care of hadden because he of his association with the prestigious university. at first lori --laurie dismissed hadden's strange behavior while she was pregnant. but after she gave birth and saw him for a post-partem appointment in 2012, he

assaulted her in a way she suspected he had also done in past exams. as she laid on examining table, he licked her vagina. she texted her boyfriend, who paid a cab driver $50 to rush to pick her up and then called 9-1-1 twice -- first on the drive back to their apartment and again once they were inside. this is part of his conversation with the 9-1-1 operator. >> how long did this happen?

>> half-hour, 40 minutes. amy: once home, two police officers came to take kanyok's statement. as they did, dr. hadden called her cell phone. this is the voicemail he left. >> it is dr. hadden calling. it is like 4:30 on friday. i just got word you call the office and you are upset and you are calling the police. what the heck cap in? what is going on? please, can we talk? if you can, give the office a call and war, back -- or comeback and talk face to face. i just know i just got word from, like, first the secretary and then from our office manager here and the nurse. i am very upset. i don't know what is going on.

please call me back or all right. take care. amy: later that day, police went directly to dr. hadden's office and arrested him. it was a friday. but by tuesday, hadden had been told he had to have a had a chaperone with him while examining patients and was then "back in the exam room. columbia let him continue practicing for another five weeks. eight patients say he assaulted them in that time." columbia has declined any interviews. in an emailed statement to democracy now! an unnamed spokesperson said columbia was "profoundly sorry for the pain that robert hadden's patients suffered and his exploitation of their trust," before reemphasizing that his "conviction of federal crimes showed how he purposely worked to evade our oversight and engineer situations to abuse his patients." the statement continued -- "we also deeply regret, based on what we know today, that hadden saw patients for several weeks following his voided arrest in 2012."

for more, we are joined by laurie kanyok and laura beil and bianca fortis who cowrote this investigation. laura beil narrated and cowrote a podcast series called "exposed." laurie, let us begin with you. laurie kanyok, described that day. i hate to make you go back in time but you have done this repeatedly now and you are determined to make the university accountable for what happened. why did you go to this doctor? what caused you to make your first appointment with dr. hadden? then take us from there. >> sure, thank you for having me. i learned i was pregnant in

september i think that year and i was on tour with a show. i had an ob/gyn who did not take insurance, so we determined the pregnancy was viable and all the things and i was "geriatric." she sat down and explain the process and what it would entail and said to us, this is costly. we can do it. you can pay out of pocket and submit it and you will get back a fraction of that. she said, this happens quite often and if you want to seek other medical attention, you can. we decided to do that and find somebody that would take my insurance. i had a series of spinal injuries and things like that so i had just had a procedure on my lower lumbar right at the same time. so i was concerned for the safety of the fetus. my best friend of life worked at columbia and was a patient of

robert hadden. it is reputable. back then, anyway. i felt privileged almost to be under their care. the father and i met with robert hadden and he seemed like a grandpa, like a santa claus type. soft, mild, you know, unassuming . the reputation was there. he was protected by the university hospital. we decided to go with that. i had not given it a not that he was a man, seeing a man. i was concerned with the safety of this fetus and seeing that everything was ok. so we were off to the races with him. i guess it was late october, i don't remember exactly when, and he began the treatment. i had a series of genetic testing and we learned the fetus

was completely healthy and we were fine and we decided, let's do this. we began. because i was geriatric, because i had all of these things, my main concern was her heartbeat and her health. as you mentioned, there were a couple of instances while i was very pregnant -- it was sort of an afterthought. i said to myself the first time, that felt strange. but again, i was laid back and would say, is there heartbeat? that was every visit. amy: what felt strange, laurie? >> there is the first time that i say that he licked me, that i did not realize it was that in that moment. it was a cold sensation. i was very pregnant and i could not see past anything, i am

laying back. he was doing an internal exam, which was sort of rare. i had never carried to term so i did not know what was normal. and you are trusting and believing and hoping and waiting on bated breath every exam. so that was the first time and i felt that cold sensation. it was very quick. i thought, i must be crazy. that felt like maybe lubrication on gloves or something like that. i let it go. then later in the pregnancy, he did my dilation check. i had never had that before. he announced to me that it would hurt, i would be in pain, and i would bleed after. what did i know? he proceeded to do the exam and was lifting my body off the table with his fingers inserted

inside of me, and i clutched the side of the table with both hands. he sort of moaned were granted -- or grunted. it was so got awful and i just wanted it to stop. again, he announced it. he told me exactly what it was going to be like and i believed it. i thought, ok, this is how it is. then i gave birth. he wasn't there, thank god. i had a woman. i had a team of women actually in the labor room. she had come in after 18 hours of labor and did a dilation check and i just remember afterwards thinking, god, that wasn't the same thing. i was sitting up, it was very quick, and then i let it go because now i am in labor and pushing. i did not think of it. i had this beautiful baby girl.

i was in love. i am focused on the real thing. and i had gone back for my postpartum appointment on june 29 not thinking of any of that. by way is back down and he did a full exam and checked all the things, recorded all of the stats. the nurse recorded everything and she left. he came back and said,, i forgot, how are your hemorrhoids? i said, you were just there. he just did a full examination. "oh, well, your stitches." i said again, excuse me. he said, "why don't you lay back down and let me see." and i knew. i was naked in a room with a man and i froze because, what do you

do? how do you fight? i thought anybody that is capable of doing something like that, i wasn't sure what else he would be capable love. -- he would be capable of. in the rest we know. i am happy to keep talking about it, though. juan: laurie, i wanted to ask you, in the wake of this horrific assault by him, could you talk about -- the police handled it properly, but then what happen with the prosecutors, with the manhattan district attorney's office? what did you feel afterwards of how they handled your complaint? >> aside from the day of june 29, i had been hustled over to get a rape kit. the police were amazing and the detective. they were pretty strong in their

conviction to arrest him. and then i ended up at the ada's office late into the evening giving my statement. at that point i thought, ok, i am being cared for and this is being heard and they are going to do something about it and i have stopped him. in the weekend had passed and when i learned he had gone back to work -- other than disbelieve. i was in shock and processing all of this, but i thought, i just did what i thought was right as a human and to report a crime that was -- a heinous crime and it was really unnoticed. i did not know all of the inner things going on until this incredible article was released. i was sort of kept in the dark.

there's a lot of "you can only know so much" and "answer the questions" and dismissed me in a way, "ok, let us take it from here." amy: let's bring laura beil and bianca fortis into this conversation who wrote this explosive investigation "how columbia ignored women, undermined prosecutors and protected a predator for more than 20 years." and reported the podcast "exposed" cover-up at columbia university. i have listened to the first two parts. those are the first out. laura, you also narrate this podcast series, which is incredible and you hear all of the women's voices. if you can talk about what then was known that laurie could not have known -- he is arrested, she think things are taking care. but dr. hadden is allowed to come back to work the next week. he was arrested in his office. the authorities at columbia knew

this. explain how this happened when he would then go on to assault one woman after another in the weeks he was allowed to work. >> i think that was one of the most shocking single discoveries in almost two years we reported this story. we knew that he had gone back to work. laurie had told us, the attorneys had told us. we knew at some point he had returned to work and was in exam rooms with patients. what we did not know is how soon he went back. we discovered the letter that had been sent to him the next day. laurie's assault was on a friday. on monday, they sent him a letter that said, "oh, but you can go back to work as long as you have a chaperone." that was shocking to us how fast he went back. it also documented they knew he had been arrested and the

highest levels of administration at columbia knew he had been arrested because they are all cc'd on that letter. we were so surprised about it. the statement you read earlier from columbia where they say, were sorry he would back to work knowing what we know now. in my mind, a 911 called should have been a red flag enough to at least keep them away from patients while you investigate. one of the people quoted in our story brought up the fact that it wasn't even like they talked to laurie and said, "we don't believe her, we're letting him go back to work." they never talked to laurie even while they were investigating. i think that in terms of their behavior, that is the most inexplicable decision in a whole

series of inexplicable decisions. juan: laura beil, as anyone in the hierarchy of columbia university, the medical school, been held responsible for their supervision or their lack of supervision, lack of seriousness in terms of dealing with a doctor who had been doing this for 20 years? >> not that we can tell. not that we can tell. which differs from similar cases , serial sexual predators at medical institutions there have been consequences at the institution. there had been outside investigators coming in. there have been people who resigned, lost their jobs, changes made. and we can't tell any individual at columbia has been held

responsible in any way that we know. and we asked. amy: i want to bring bianca fortis into this conversation. you are in new york. i believe it was in this time after laurie had called the police, they went in arrested him. her partner doing the 911 calls, that he goes back to work for a few weeks. in that period, he assault evelyn yang. people may know evelyn yang's husband who ran for president of the united states. evelyn bravely came out to talk about what happened to her and her shock when she realized columbia had let him go back to work. that is when she was assaulted. am i correct, the younger --bianca that is correct? . she told us when she learned? >> -- she learned later on that hadden had been arrested. she looked at the dates and she said, how is that possible?

that can't be right i was assaulted in july he was arrested in june. he had been allowed to return to work and practice for another five weeks. amy: let's talk about that question, go further into the manhattan d.a.'s office. talk about from one phase to the next what happens to him. i want to go to a former chief assistant district attorney in cy vance's office, the manhattan d.a. the time, speaking in the podcast series "exposed." >> we believed these women. it is not like we didn't believe them. what we were doing was a cold assessment of how this is going to play out at trial. we thought the survivors are going to get beaten up pretty badly. our office is going to get eaten up pretty badly.

-- beaten up pretty badly. >> she had seen women ripped apart on the wit to stand by defense attorneys not even half as clever as kershner. >> we were worried the survivors would be re-traumatized. amy: laura beil, she was referring to the columbia university attorney hard for dr. robert hadden. let's take the phases. he is let back to work. explain how the das office then went after him, a very diligent ada, but overruled by the chief ada karen friedman we just heard, given a kind of slap on the wrist, charged with a felony but is allowed -- he never sees a night in jail. explain the series that happens from 2011, 2015, 2017 and where

we are today. >> so at the time -- i mean, the short story is the case really got consumed by the culture of the district attorney's office at the time, circumstances at the time. laurie's case was originally dropped. so she filed a civil suit to try -- laurie is not the kind of person who is just going to let this go. so she filed a civil suit to try to serve as some warning, a public message out there that he was a predator. it was a small amount of publicity about that suit and more women came forward. so he was finally charged in 2014 when the ada on the case thought she had enough information to take it to a grand jury and get an indictment, which she did. but over the course of the next

two years, the case really faced a lot of headwinds both within her own department and also facing a very aggressive, skilled, and capable defense attorney who knew the culture of the office. she was very aggressive in defending her client. all of these forces came together. when we talked to the district attorney on the case, she never felt like she had just of -- had the support for the case within her own department. she is dealing with a massive case. she had not only the six indicted victims, but then she decided to introduce the testimony of another dozen witnesses and something called a motion that allows you to basically bring non-indicted testimony from other witnesses just to show this was a pattern of behavior. there was resistance -- she felt

resistance to that. she was working on the case and eventually, she felt her own supervisors just wanted to make a plea deal. one of the surprising things we learned -- and not go to trial. i should say she very much wanted to take this case to trial. she knew the witnesses. she knew the survivors. despite the tape you heard about the survivors might get beaten up very badly, she felt very strongly that they could handle cross-examination. but the decision was above her head. surprisingly, we learned the first deal on the table was only a misdemeanor. it was a misdemeanor. which would have, of course, allowed him -- if you only have a misdemeanor on your record, you could have just gone somewhere else and practiced medicine, which doctors do.

i report on medicine and it is an unfortunate reality that bad doctors are able to escape their past and set up shop somewhere else. eventually, karen and niccolo became involved in the case and she reviewed the case and decided it had to be a felony. it was not a misdemeanor. so at least he got a felony to the charge. but there would be no trial. and that was pretty devastating to laurie and the other witnesses, that the decision was made that there would not be a trial and there would be no jail time. it is really just surprising how the case disintegrated -- not the strength of the case, but the prosecution of the case. i think it was a number of factors that just came together against -- to work against these survivors. so he was let go. he was let go. that is -- when i first learned

about the story, that is one of the surprising things to me is that not only had this horrible thing happened, but at the time i learned about the case, he was living in retirement in new jersey and no one had been held accountable. that is one of the reasons i got interested in looking at this story, is to try try to figure how this happened. amy: how did he end up getting tried and then criminally charged for 20 years? let's not forget columbia university settled with over 200 patients for something like $250 million. >> some of the survivors started speaking out publicly, first verse hoechstetter, and then evelyn yang who was able to use her platform while her husband was running for president. they started to speak out

publicly. it was revealed another woman named diane who lives in utah, she saw evelyn yang's cnn interview and diane had actually reported hadden to columbia in 1994. she had written a letter to the acting chair of the ovi jen and risk management departments. -- ovi jen and risk management department's. they said, we will look into but never got back to her. more and more of the former patients started to come out publicly. as the numbers grew, the doj started looking into the case so they indicted him in 2020. juan: i like to bring laurie kanyok i the conversation. laurie, your response to how long it took for some measure of justice against this predator

and the role of the legal system in it? >> through the course of the last 11 years, i was in hiding for a while. they had me sign a release --laura beil mention my civil suit i file back in 2013 perhaps, that sparked the felony and the plea deal. at that juncture, i just thought, this is not a win. they hushed me and gave me a little bit of money and made me sign my rights away and said i could never talk about this again to my family, my friends, nobody. and so i did that and i focused my attention on my daughter and raising her. but then when i saw evelyn's cnn interviewed and i learned about diane's letter, i decided it was

time to come back out of hiding and stand with my fellow survivors. because i knew in my heart that plea deal was unfair most of nothing about that felt right. amy: we have less than 30 seconds. he is now imprisoned for 20 years. you feel columbia has been held accountable. what are you demanding? >> i want to see columbia stepped forward the people who work responsible for concealing this crime for decades. in all of the other instances, usc, michigan, there were people that were brought forward and charged. they are complicit. these people are complicit with his crime. amy: we have to leave it there but i thank you so much for being with us and highly recommend this propublica/new york magazine exposé. laurie kanyok is a survivor of dr. robert hadden.

laura beil and cowrote -- and bianca fortis cowrote "how columbia ignored women, undermined prosecutors and protected a predator for more than 20 years." laura beil also host the podcast "exposed."

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