Former Rothman orthopedic surgeon takes on Jefferson in federal court over sexual assault allegations

In a federal civil trial this week, a former Rothman Orthopaedic Institute surgeon is claiming that Thomas Jefferson University engaged in male-gender discrimination when it investigated a female medical resident’s allegations that he raped her after a booze-fueled pool party at his Main Line home.

John Abraham, an orthopedic oncology surgeon and a former Jefferson professor, says Jefferson failed to investigate his allegations that he was also a victim. He claims that Jefferson’s leadership ignored his assertion that then-medical resident Jessica Phillips got him drunk at his June 2018 party and forced herself on him.

On Tuesday, Abraham testified that a top Jefferson officer wasn’t interested in hearing his side of what happened. Abraham claimed the hospital official threatened to report him to a national database that tracks doctor misconduct if he didn’t take a leave of absence from Jefferson. Such a report would mean career suicide, Abraham said.

“I had no choice. There was no option,” Abraham told jurors. Abraham later choked up and began to cry as he read aloud a letter he had written to Jefferson’s lawyers in which he repeatedly proclaimed his innocence.

Abraham is seeking at least $5 million in damages from Jefferson for financial losses and professional harm suffered.

“This case is about what happens when the defendants can’t put aside those archaic notions of masculinity and can’t put aside the bias and the consequences that can have on someone’s life,” Abraham’s lawyer, Lane Jubb Jr., told an eight-member jury of five women and three men during his opening statement on Monday.

The sexual assault allegations are not at issue in the federal civil trial in Philadelphia. Abraham’s case centers on whether Jefferson violated federal Title IX law, which prohibits sex-based discrimination at universities that receive federal funds.

“This trial is not about what took place at the party,” U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson told jurors. “The trial is about what happened after the party.”

Jefferson’s lawyers told jurors that the university conducted a fair investigation, and noted the power imbalance between Abraham and Phillips. In his opening statement, William Harvey, a Jefferson lawyer, said Abraham had a sexual encounter with a resident at his party. This involved “not a peer, but a student,” Harvey said, noting the university was obligated to investigate.

“What happened at the party? Who was more intoxicated than who? Who approached who? Who was more aggressive? That’s not the issue for this case,” Harvey said. “The issue for this case is that Jefferson did everything it could have reasonably done to investigate this account that took place off-campus at a party hosted by Dr. Abraham.”

Under federal law, Jefferson was required to conduct a Title IX investigation after Phillips told Jefferson’s residency program director that she awoke in Abraham’s bedroom naked, disoriented, and covered in bruises. Abraham, however, asserts that he relayed concerns that he was a victim of sexual assault by Phillips to his boss, Alexander Vaccaro, who held leadership roles at both Jefferson and Rothman.

During Monday’s hearing, Jubb told jurors that Vaccaro did not report Abraham’s allegations against Phillips to Jefferson’s Title IX office, even though Vaccaro was obligated to do so.

A police investigation at the time did not result in criminal charges against Abraham. Phillips, now an orthopedic surgeon on the West Coast, did not appear in court on Monday and is not a defendant in Abraham’s case against Jefferson.

In an interview with The Inquirer earlier this year, Phillips said she ultimately felt abandoned by Jefferson. The university closed its investigation without reaching a conclusion on whether a rape occurred after Abraham agreed to resign his faculty position and give up his clinical privileges at Jefferson’s hospitals.

About five months later, in June 2019, Abraham sued Phillips for defamation and libel in Philadelphia’s Court of Common Pleas. She countersued for assault and battery. That case settled in May of this year, with neither side winning monetary damages.

Phillips and Abraham each had sought to review Jefferson’s Title IX investigative report. For two years, Jefferson fought to keep the report confidential, arguing the report was protected under attorney-client privilege. Jefferson lost that argument in court and was forced to provide Phillips and Abraham with a redacted copy in late April 2023.

The 58-page Title IX report, now a public record, details interviews with 41 people, most of whom attended Abraham’s pool party. Phillips provides her account of what happened at Abraham’s house, answering written questions from Title IX investigators. The report notes that investigators tried to interview Abraham but he declined, citing the then-open criminal investigation.

During Monday’s hearing, Abraham’s lawyers told jurors that he had asked Jefferson to delay a final report until the criminal investigation concluded within “two or three more weeks.” Instead, Title IX investigators finished their report in October 2018 without a finding.

“As we have no assurance what, if any decision, the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office may reach, or its timeframe, we have concluded our work at this time pending further direction,” reads the last sentence of the Title IX report.

After reading the report, Zoe Gingold, the university’s then-Title IX coordinator, wrote to Abraham in October 2018 that she believed that “a no-charge decision is not possible in this case” and the matter would advance to a hearing.

About two months later, Abraham resigned.

Abraham’s lawyers called Gingold as their first witness. In nearly three hours of testimony, Gingold answered questions about the report’s contents. Andrew Marth, a lawyer for Abraham, focused on snippets of the report that he said amounted to sexual misconduct by Phillips.

In one example cited, a male Jefferson nurse told investigators that Phillips sat next to him on a piano bench and “nibbled” on his ear. That nurse recounted that Phillips “started rubbing me a little bit” as he played the piano and he felt “a little uncomfortable,” according to the report.

Marth asked Gingold why Phillips’ behavior in those instances wasn’t viewed as violations of Jefferson’s sexual misconduct policy.

Gingold said the male nurse at the piano didn’t complain about Phillips’ behavior and described her as “professional” at work. Gingold repeatedly told jurors that Phillips’ actions at the party “doesn’t compare” to her allegations that she was raped by Abraham.

“She was a student. He was a teacher. He was in a powerful hierarchy position to her,” Gingold testified.

Jefferson’s lawyer, Lisa Lori, focused on an interview in the report with one of Abraham’s college friends who slept over that night. The friend told Title IX investigators that Abraham told him he left bruises on Phillips’ body during sex, including “his hand marks on her back.”

“She woke up bruised, afraid,” Gingold told jurors. “She was afraid.”

William Harvey, one of Jefferson’s lawyers, questioned whether the university could be accused of gender bias in a case in which it took no formal action against Abraham.

“Jefferson never ever took any disciplinary action against Dr. Abraham. Never suspended him. Never fired him. Never took his privileges away. Did nothing,” Harvey told jurors.

Harvey said Rothman’s president, Vaccaro, suspended Abraham after he disclosed having sex with a medical resident. Vaccaro also serves as chair of Jefferson’s orthopedic department.

» READ MORE: An Inquirer investigation found that Jefferson and Rothman’s leadership worked out a deal to force Abraham’s resignation at Jefferson in exchange for keeping his partnership at Rothman.

Rothman and Jefferson are separate institutions, but they are academically and financially linked. They share office space, and Rothman’s doctors serve as faculty and supervising physicians at Jefferson.

After conducting its own investigation in 2018, Rothman’s all-male board of directors decided not to fire Abraham. Instead, they restricted him from working in Jefferson’s hospitals or interacting with Jefferson residents. Eventually, they moved him to a hospital network not affiliated with Jefferson in New Jersey.

Abraham’s lawsuit claims that Jefferson’s actions against him destroyed his financial agreement with Rothman. Abraham had been one of 15 shareholders at Rothman. The Harvard- and Yale-educated doctor earned about $2 million in annual income and performed about 500 surgeries a year, court records show.

“His career is in tatters. His practice, dismantled,” his lawyer, Jubb Jr., told jurors, adding that Abraham now lives in a one-bedroom apartment near the train station in Gladwyne.

Rothman fired Abraham last year for allegedly failing to bring in $1.3 million in annual revenue, a requirement for partners, court documents show. Abraham has a pending arbitration claim against Rothman.

Abraham’s federal case against Jefferson continued Tuesday. Closing arguments are expected by week’s end.