This ‘John Doe’ Really Wants to Keep the Jeffrey Epstein Docs a Secret

An unnamed man is asking a judge to keep a deposition in a case against Epstein's alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell from becoming public.

An anonymous man would really like to keep his name — and his alleged connection to the deceased child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein — a secret.

His fear, according to court documents filed Tuesday, is that past legal challenges implicating the disgraced financier may also “implicate the privacy and reputational interests” of people like him, who haven’t been directly involved in any litigation against Epstein, according to Bloomberg News.

The unnamed man, otherwise known as “John Doe,” asked that the judge overseeing the sealed deposition of Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s more vocal accusers who sued his alleged madam Ghislaine Maxwell for defamation in 2015, keep those documents sealed or at least partially redacted. read more »

Doctors fight bills sparked by sex abuse scandals

Daniella Mohazab didn’t know what to expect from her first pelvic exam in 2016. The University of Southern California sophomore, then 19, was startled when her doctor examined her vagina for several minutes without gloves, but assumed it was standard procedure.

It wasn’t until two years later, when she read about Dr. George Tyndall’s alleged sexual abuse against USC students, that she realized she may have been sexually violated by him as well.

Driven by stories like Mohazab’s, California Assembly members Ian Calderon (D-Whittier) and Cottie Petrie-Norris (D-Laguna Beach) have proposed a bill to require doctors to give first-time pelvic exam patients a pamphlet about how the exams are supposed to be conducted, and a phone number should they want to report misconduct to the state medical board. Doctors would face a fine if they did not collect a patient’s signature confirming they received the pamphlet.

Legislators in Michigan proposed similar legislation last year in response to the scandal involving Dr. Larry Nassar, the former Michigan State University and USA Gymnastics team physician who pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting minors and possession of child pornography.

Doctors have pushed back hard on the bills in both states, mostly because of the signature requirements.

Health researchers say these measures are part of a broader national shift in the doctor-patient relationship. The old-school dynamic, in which the doctor is viewed as the ultimate authority, is giving way to another perspective: Physicians can be questioned, and patients have a right to speak up if they feel uncomfortable. read more »