Former USC gynecologist who was accused of abusing patients surrenders his medical license

The former USC gynecologist accused of mistreating scores of patients has surrendered his medical license, state officials said Monday.

The announcement came two months after George Tyndall was arrested and charged with committing more than two dozen felonies at the campus clinic where he practiced for decades.

“The incidents outlined in the Board’s accusation against George Tyndall are egregious violations,” Kimberly Kirchmeyer, executive director of the California Medical Board, said in a statement released by the board.

“On behalf of California consumers, the Board achieved the highest level of patient protection with the surrender of Tyndall’s license.”

Tyndall chose to give up his license rather than contest a 13-page accusation filed by the Medical Board of California last September. The decision officially took effect Thursday, though his license had been suspended since August 2018.

The attorney representing Tyndall before the medical board, Peter R. Osinoff, said the state had denied a request to put Tyndall’s license revocation proceeding on hold until after his criminal trial. Tyndall would have had to invoke his 5th Amendment right against self-incrimination in the hearing rather than testify in his own defense.

“It’s much more important that he defend himself and save his resources for the criminal case,” Osinoff said.

USC did not immediately comment on the license surrender.

The medical board’s accusation outlines a series of appointments with five patients in which Tyndall allegedly made lewd remarks, performed “non-clinical” breast and pelvic exams, and in one case, mocked the injuries of a patient after she told him she had recently been sexually assaulted.

Tyndall began working at USC in 1989, but the board’s accusation contains the accounts of patients who saw him during his final decade at the university.

“For a guy whose lawyers say all his treatment was legitimate, he doesn’t have a lot of confidence in his defense,” said John Manly, an attorney who is representing more than 200 of Tyndall’s alleged victims in civil actions. “George Tyndall is a predator and I am thankful the medical board took action against him.”

The 29 felonies laid out in a criminal filing by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office concerned allegations by 16 women involving incidents between 2009 and 2016, and carry a potential prison term of up to 53 years, authorities said. Tyndall has pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The arrest was the capstone of a yearlong investigation that ballooned into the largest sex crimes inquiry involving a single suspect in Los Angeles Police Department history. The charges represented only a tiny fraction of the allegations made to police and prosecutors by nearly 400 women and spanned the final seven of Tyndall’s 27 years at the university.

In addition, more than 400 former patients are suing USC, alleging that the school deliberately concealed abuse by Tyndall for decades.

“This could have happened 30 years ago if USC reported when they first knew,” Manly said. “The fact Tyndall is on the street remains very disconcerting.”

Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.