A children’s hospital in Virginia and its former director may be ordered to pay $300 million damages to three women who claimed they were sexually abused while receiving treatment.
Dr. Daniel Davidow, who was was acquitted in a criminal trial by a judge earlier this year of sexually abusing two teenage patients during physical exams, was named as a co-defendant in a civil trial along with Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents in New Kent. The hospital, which treats young patients with complex medical needs, including chronic illnesses, brain injuries, psychiatric problems and neurobehavioral disorders, was run by Davidow starting in 1996.
On Friday, on the 15th day of a civil trial, the Richmond Circuit Court jury verdict awarded each woman $60 million in compensatory damages and $40 million in punitive damages, according to CBS affiliate WTVR-TV in Richmond. The hospital and Davidow were facing a $930 million lawsuit.
In what may be the first of several trials against Davidow, who taught at Virginia Commonwealth University for 20 years, the three plaintiffs accused Davidow of inappropriately touching them during femoral pulse exams, a clinical assessment used to evaluate the pulse in the femoral artery, located in the groin area. To date, 46 former patients have sued Davidow over similar claims.
Kevin Biniazan, the women’s attorney, said, “Having a group of strangers listen to them and affirm their beliefs broke them down in tears immediately. It moved us all to tears.”
In his opening statements, Davidow’s lawyer, Bob Donnelly, stated that Davidow “unequivocally denies” the allegations of sexual assault. He noted that the femoral pulse exam performed by Davidow has been a “standard examination” since the 1960s and 1970s.
When Davidow was acquitted in April, Judge B. Elliot Bondurant found Davidow not guilty of two counts of a felony indecent liberties charge and two counts of object sexual penetration, also a felony, the Associated Press reported per Fox News.
During the April criminal trial, T. Scott Renick, elected in 2019 as New Kent County’s Commonwealth Attorney, the top prosecutor in the county — located east of Richmond — stated in his opening remarks that the girls were in highly vulnerable circumstances, living at the hospital’s residential facility with patients from other states under court order, and without their parents or other caregivers. In his role as medical director for Cumberland Hospital, Davidow “had complete control over them,” Renick said in his opening statement.
Kevin Biniazan, an attorney who represents the two women in a civil lawsuit, said the women “knew they were fighting an institution, not just a man, and they were not deterred..”
“Our clients displayed true courage,” he said.
The next trial against Davidov, who had been investigated beginning in 2017, is scheduled for March 2025, WTVR reported.
For live updates on this story, follow CBS 6 reporter Laura French on X @lfrenchnews.
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