A prominent neurologist, already charged with groping patients at a Philadelphia clinic, is facing a growing number of accusations that he preyed on especially vulnerable pain patients at medical facilities in three states, using his reputation as a healer to trap women in long-term doctor-patient relationships marked by abuse.
At least 17 women in Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey have stepped forward to accuse Dr. Ricardo Cruciani of sexual misconduct that goes back at least a dozen years, either reporting him to police or retaining an attorney to pursue civil claims, according to an Associated Press review of documents and interviews with the lawyer and three of the accusers.
Women who say they were sexually abused by Cruciani said they felt they had no alternative but to continue seeing the Ivy League-trained neurologist, who specializes in rare, complicated syndromes that produce debilitating pain. Trapped in bodies that didn’t work, the women said, they viewed Cruciani as their only hope of getting better — and he knew it, taking advantage of their desperation.
Now, as police and prosecutors open a second investigation into Cruciani, some of the accusers and their lawyer want to know how closely the 63-year-old pain doctor was supervised and whether he could have been stopped sooner.
“These hospitals created this perfect storm of opportunity for him to victimize so many patients,” said Hillary Tullin, who saw Cruciani for years and said she was victimized repeatedly. “The system failed.”
A Philadelphia police affidavit said Cruciani, the former chairman of the neurology department at Philadelphia’s Drexel University, assaulted seven patients in 2016. The women described unwanted touching and kissing.