Physician accused of abusing Indiana College basketball gamers discovered competent

The 88-year-old physician accused of sexually assaulting Indiana University basketball gamers within the Nineties shall be deposed Wednesday after a choose dominated he was competent to be questioned in regards to the allegations.

Dr. Bradford Bomba Sr. “was in a position to precisely determine the distinction between the reality and a lie,” U.S. Magistrate Judge Mario Garcia wrote in a ruling Tuesday after Bomba was questioned on the federal courthouse in Indianapolis.

Bomba’s guardian, Joseph Bomba, had requested for the deposition to be delayed, arguing that Bomba, the previous Indiana College workforce physician, “doesn’t know the distinction between a fact and a lie, making him incompetent to testify,” in response to court docket papers dated Friday.

The choose disagreed.

“In making this willpower, the Court docket considers Dr. Bomba’s recollection of his schooling and understanding of fundamental ideas, his consolation and confidence through the listening to, noting that he didn’t exhibit any anxiousness or misery,” Garcia wrote. “The Court docket additionally considers Dr. Bomba’s consciousness of the overall nature of the proceedings and the identification and position of his attorneys in these proceedings and that he would comply with their recommendation.”

Two months in the past, Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller, who performed for the Hoosiers within the Nineties below legendary coach Bob Knight, sued in U.S. District Court docket for Southern Indiana. They alleged that their coaches and trainers have been conscious that Bomba was subjecting basketball gamers to pointless prostate examinations and did nothing to cease him.

Kathleen Delaney, who represents Mujezinovic and Miller, stated within the lawsuit that there could possibly be “a minimum of 100” alleged victims.

The lawsuit named the college’s trustees as defendants and alleged Title IX violations by the college for failing to guard the scholars. Beneath that federal legislation, universities that obtain federal funding are required to have security measures to guard college students from predators.

Neither Knight, who died last year at age 83, nor Bomba was listed as a defendant.

Delaney declined to remark Tuesday on the most recent authorized improvement however confirmed that the entire legal professionals concerned agreed to conduct the deposition on the places of work of William J. Beggs, the Bloomington, Indiana, lawyer who’s representing Bomba.

Beggs didn’t reply to an electronic mail searching for remark.

Indiana College is represented by the Indianapolis-based Barnes & Thornburg legislation agency, college spokesperson Mark Bode wrote in an electronic mail.

The college employed Bomba to offer medical care to all its sports activities groups from 1962 to 1970, and from 1979 till the late Nineties he was the basketball workforce’s physician, in response to the lawsuit.

Mujezinovic and Miller stated of their lawsuit that they “have been routinely and repeatedly subjected to medically pointless, invasive, and abusive digital rectal examinations” by Bomba.

Bomba had played football for Indiana University and was nicknamed “Frankenstein” by coaches and gamers “as a result of massive measurement of his palms and fingers,” the lawsuit added.

“Dr. Bomba, Sr.’s routine sexual assaults have been brazenly mentioned by the Hoosier males’s basketball gamers within the locker room within the presence of IU staff, together with assistant coaches, athletic trainers, and different Hoosier males’s basketball workers,” in response to the lawsuit.

Mujezinovic, who spent two seasons at Indiana from 1995 to 1997, and Miller, who performed for the Hoosiers from 1994 by 1998, search unspecified damages. They’ve additionally urged former teammates to return ahead and be part of their lawsuit.

The accusations that the college turned a blind eye to allegations {that a} workforce physician was sexually abusing gamers echo a scandal involving a workforce physician at a rival college. In 2018, former Ohio State College wrestlers alleged that their coaches knew Dr. Richard Strauss, who died in 2005, was preying on them however did not act.

Corky Siemaszko

Corky Siemaszko is a senior reporter for NBC Information Digital.