[3] He completed a residency in ophthalmology and a fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Former USC medical school Dean Carmen Puliafito, left, with Dora Yoder, her boyfriend and Sarah Warren in a Las Vegas hotel with drug paraphernalia scattered on a table. The campus of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. He became increasingly erratic at work and, under pressure from USC, resigned as dean in March 2016. They called the Sheriffs Department, reiterated their concerns about Puliafito and encouraged investigators to look closer at Boazs death. The Times was later sold to biotech billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. This case was filed in Los Angeles County Superior Courts, Stanley Mosk Courthouse located in Los Angeles, California. A newborn was found dead in this Altadena duplex, spurring a child death investigation by L.A. County sheriffs detectives. Atty. Dr. Carmen Puliafito is an ophthalmologist in Palm Beach Gardens. Its unclear what, if anything, she said about Puliafito. He initially said he had no firsthand knowledge of Yoders drug use but later acknowledged her previous heroin addiction. Now that we're part of KPCC, those stories (including this one you're on right now!) Performance & security by Cloudflare. Atty. Cookie Duration Description; cuid: 2 years: This cookie is set by the provider Curalate. Dr. Carmen Puliafito, USC's former medical school dean at a state medical board meeting on May 30, 2018. Jon Hatami. Puliafito also did not respond to The Times requests for an interview about the settlement. So many staffers wanted to talk to HR about the two men that interviews with them had to be scheduled on weekends and evenings, according to Bad City.. None of that mattered. The physician also had multiple conversations with Kyle Voigt, a convicted dealer who had partied with both parents and was on his way to prison, the transcript indicates. Yoder claimed she phoned for an ambulance at 7:30 a.m. Law enforcement records do not reflect such a call. She is a graduate of Columbia University. Six months after the overdose, five months after he began reporting on Puliafito, Pringle felt he was ready to start writing. There are a lot of unanswered questions about this death, said Dr. James Ribe, a specialist in pediatric autopsies who retired from the L.A. County coroners office in 2018. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. According to the book, he nodded toward Maharajs and Duvoisins offices and asked, What makes you think theyll run it?. They turned up evidence in County Jail, a toxicology lab and the confidential files of USCs white-shoe attorneys. No details of the agreement had been publicly disclosed until now. There are a lot of unanswered questions about this death., Dr. James Ribe, a specialist in pediatric autopsies. According to Warren, the photos that show Puliafito and Yoder in the Las Vegas hotel were taken in 2015. Max Nikias acknowledged concern on campus following the Los Angeles Times report that Dr. Carmen Puliafito, 66, was seen on video apparently using illegal . A spokesman for Gascn did not respond to a request for comment. She asked for a meeting with the head coroner, Dr. Jonathan Lucas. A woman dressed in a robe and pink panties was unconscious. Her sister Miriam Jones reacted angrily: I know hes responsible for this babys death, indirectly or directly., Puliafitos lawyer, Timothy Reuben, insisted in an email that despite the law enforcement findings, the physician was simply a good Samaritan.. The former dean's license was revoked but he currently awaits a hearing on its possible . Sex Scandals and the Paper That Tried to Cover Them Up", "Carmen Puliafito named new dean of the Keck School of Medicine", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Carmen_Puliafito&oldid=1123775258, This page was last edited on 25 November 2022, at 16:36. They obtained about a hundred recordings, including more than a dozen to Puliafitos phone in the period around the babys death, according to Davis and a transcript of a medical board hearing. (2005). The Detroit Lions quarterback and the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model are set to tie the knot after being together since 2019. Former USC President C.L. Prosecutors elsewhere have gone after parents in the deaths of babies that were blamed on drugs. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information. Find Dr. Puliafito's address and more. "[18], In July 2022, Paul Pringle, the reporter who first uncovered and reported the story of Puliafito's activities, published a book Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels. This whole storyline about a corrupt newsroom management at The Times that protected USC and that tried to suppress the Puliafito story in its broad outlines and in its details is untrue, period, Duvoisin said. Report: Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito used methamphetamine and consorted with a prostitute who overdosed during one of their trysts. Discolorations on the babys chest and face also cast doubt on Yoders version of events, four experts said. The blankets, she said, were not covering his face. Deputy Dist. During her pregnancy, he took her on trips to Hawaii and Israel, he later testified. During its 2017 investigation of Puliafito, The Times obtained or reviewed many of the images in the Warrens possession. A rumpled Puliafito answered the door. At the end of June, Pringle wrote to the companys president of publishing and its chief legal counsel: This is to report actions by Davan Maharaj and Marc Duvoisin that I believe have harmed, and could further harm, The Times and the corporation. Duvoisin is now editor-in-chief of the San Antonio Express-News. The article says Buffalo native Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, who was the Dean of the Keck School of Medicine, used methamphetamine and other drugs with criminals during . The apartment lease was in his name, and her family and friends suspected he paid for almost everything: furniture, groceries, baby supplies and, disturbingly, drugs. Ribe, the retired pathologist, said the wounds severity indicated a hot object was probably against the childs hand long enough or with sufficient pressure to burn through the skin. The acknowledgement came in a late Friday letter to the campus community in response to concerns Dr. Carmen Puliafito, 66, was dean of the Keck School of Medicine for nearly a decade, even as he . Optical coherence tomography findings after an intravitreal injection of bevacizumab (Avastin) for neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Tronc, which owned The Times then, stated publicly that they were terminated as part of a management restructuring and there was no conflict of interest between the two men and USC. When she spoke with the coroners investigator at the scene, Yoder did not mention contacting a man in Pasadena for help, according to the investigators report. (2005). Eventually, Warren and her family agreed to talk, and so did others with whom Warren and Puliafito had illicitly partied. Much of this activity occurred while he was dean, and it is a shocking story: A 66 year . But several days before it was supposed to run, according to the book, Duvoisin emailed Pringle that Maharaj, the papers top editor, needed to think on it overnight and will meet with us in the morning., At the meeting, according to Bad City, Maharaj said, We are not going to publish this story., His reasoning, Pringle wrote, was that the paper could not prove conclusively that Nikias removed Puliafito because of the overdose. [4], Puliafito was appointed dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC in December 2007. Ed Buck, who was indicted last year in connection with the overdose deaths of two Black men in his West Hollywood apartment, now faces four additional charges. Now Puliafito is back representing USC at public events and seeing patients at the university's eye clinics, the Times reports. In 2012, he was 21st of the highest-paid research university executives in the United States. The other attorney who signed the November stipulation for USC was Carol Mauch Amir , then USCs general counsel. Carmen Puliafito resigned in March 2016 as dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. The story was killed, according to the book. Experts in civil and criminal law said it can be risky to destroy original videos, photos and other material amid an ongoing inquiry, depending on the intent of those signing the agreement. Detectives went to Puliafitos home, but he declined to talk and referred them to a criminal defense attorney. Carmen A. Puliafito (seen in 2014) resigned from his $1.1-million-a-year job in March 2016 after Sarah Warren overdosed in a hotel room with him in Pasadena three weeks earlier He gives my daughter money, and he pays for her rent, and he pays for all that stuff.. The university let him continue treating students, An overdose, a young companion, drug-fueled parties: The secret life of a USC med school dean, The Times investigation of George Tyndall, former USC gynecologist accused of sexually abusing students. By jdubble07 @ 2017-07-17 15:55:08. Editors are supposed to make certain that reporters knock on those doors if all other attempts to reach the subject failed., Duvoisin said he thought Pringles efforts to contact Nikias were a bit over the top and verging on harassment. But, he said, I did not try to prevent him., Pringle countered that characterization: It could not be more routine to knock on the door of the subject of a story when that person does not respond to phone calls, emails and other attempts to engage him., He said he would expect to be disciplined by an editor if I failed to do that on a story of such importance., When Pringle went to Nikias house, the university president wasnt there. Pringle wanted to confirm that Puliafito had been demoted because of the overdose and subsequent Times reporting. Neither man has read Bad City. When told of allegations made in the book, they vociferously denied them. Another resource for detectives was a confidential report about Puliafitos misconduct prepared for USCs trustees by former U.S. Atty. It provided proof that more had been going on in the Altadena home when Boaz died than Yoder had let on. Carmen A. Puliafito is an opthamologist and is the former Dean of the University of Southern California Medical School. USC President C.L. Tulare sheriff said a drug cartel, then backtracks, These are the 101 best restaurants in Los Angeles, California vs. Florida: A tale of two Americas, Prosecutors sought 33 years to life, but Mongols biker who killed cop may be freed by March, Disneyland cast members laughed before disabled woman was injured on ride, lawsuit alleges, Five ways you can use Shape Your L.A., The Times civic engagement tool, Plane crash near Modesto airport leaves one dead, Essay: Martin Luther King Day should make you uncomfortable. Ocular Surgery News | From early in his life, Carmen Puliafito, MD, MBA, began to emerge as a leader. L.A. Times Editor-in-Chief Davan Maharaj, left, and Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin, who were fired in 2017, have vociferously denied the claims in the new book Bad City.. The official finding that Boaz was suffocated accidentally by a pile of blankets presented a challenge to the district attorneys office. The Times similarly could not determine whether the medical board had collected all the emails, text messages and other material cited in the agreement. Shes a known drug user, right? Deputy Atty. DeAratanha listened closely, Pringle wrote, and I got Khans tip two days later.. Youre basically taking the evidence away from the victims, Jackson said. It also reflects the challenges of the modern media landscape and the intense discussions surrounding the medias traditional role of holding the powerful accountable. He was just found like this by his parents? the emergency dispatcher asked. She checked a box indicating accident.. Several of those photos show Puliafito with Yoder, including in a Las Vegas hotel room with a meth pipe and butane torch in the foreground. Debra Wong Yang and her firm, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher. The last stop for the investigation was the coroners office on Mission Road. Puliafito had three Ivy League diplomas. Nor had an editor ever required that I get clearance to do so. 173.212.230.148 The team put together a paper trail linking the USC medical school dean to all the players involved, a group the book describes as much younger drug addicts and criminals.. Nikias was ousted as president of USC after the Tyndall scandal, although he remained a professor. Among the images The Times reviewed was a video of Puliafito inhaling from a large methamphetamine pipe. The detectives listened closely for information about Boaz. They found a map to that world in the County Jails pay phones. In early 2017, she turned to him after discovering she was pregnant, and he paid for her detox program, according to medical board filings. [9] According to the newspaper, a 21-year-old prostitute had overdosed while taking drugs with Puliafito in a Pasadena hotel room on March 4, 2016; the article included a recording of a conversation between a 911 operator and Puliafito. But he clearly doted on her. The Harvard-educated ophthalmologist later testified at a Medical Board of California hearing that he used meth and heroin with Warren. In the morning both suspects discovered that the victim had died. The double life of ex-USC med school dean who did 'meth and ecstasy, partied with criminals and abruptly quit his job after prostitute, 21, overdosed on meth in his hotel room'. LOS ANGELES, CA Former USC Keck School of Medicine Dean Carmen Puliafito is officially without a medical license Tuesday. She cautioned that there was little research on what constitutes a lethal dose for a baby. He perjured himself on the stand here today, the prosecutor declared. As he left the newsroom for the last time before the operation, he stopped by Jack Leonards desk. He also was scheduled to have knee-replacement surgery. Her landlord said Puliafito continued to pay the rent at the Altadena apartment and was a frequent visitor there. Because Puliafito is a public figure, Caplan said, he would have to prove Sampath wrote with actual . She told The Times that Puliafito had a daily drug habit for most of the roughly 20 months they were together. Atty. She and USC did not answer several written questions from The Times, including whether the university retained copies of the photos and videos or provided them to local, state or federal authorities. Sarah Warren, left, and Carmen Puliafito. Then he met Times photographer Ricardo DeAratanha at a neighbors house. Sheriffs Det. Jared Goff and Christen Harper are sharing exciting news. On 01/27/2016 JANET H PINE filed a Family - Marriage Dissolution/Divorce lawsuit against CARMEN A PULIAFITO. [6] While dean, he served on the board of the Children's Hospital Los Angeles. We understand he is doing his job, but we also expect a degree of respect and professionalism between our organizations., Four editors worked on the story. Yoder recalled putting extra clothing on Boaz, then piling blankets on top of his chest: two muslin, then a woolen one, followed by a crocheted blanket and a queen-size gray quilt that one detective estimated at 4 to 5 pounds. There's no question it was a slog getting the Puliafito story published. Yoder, who had long struggled with heroin addiction, subsequently assumed a more central role in his life. The Times could not determine whether USC retained copies of the images and other material. For 2 years, the detectives and a child-abuse prosecutor circled Puliafito and the babys mother, a hairdresser and former nude model. Faculty and staff at the University of Southern California complained about Dr. Carmen Puliafito's worrisome behavior for years leading up to his public ousting amid accusations of illicit drug use and solicitation while dean of the Keck School of Medicine, according to an ongoing Los Angeles Times investigation.. Current and former university employees, as well as documented letters of . She told the investigator that she last saw her son alive about 2 a.m., when she nursed him. He negotiated a $7.6-million severance package and separately received a $3-million loan to buy a home in Manhattan Beach. are made possible by generous people like you. The Times newsroom lawyer had reviewed it. As a practicing Catholic, if someone comes to me and says, Im interested in saving the life of my unborn baby, I was sympathetic, Puliafito told the judge. It was a cover-up artists dream.. As is the norm for homicide detectives, the pair were responsible for more than a dozen investigations at any given time. The floor was scattered with drug paraphernalia. Carmen Puliafito is shown on the first day of a 2018 state medical board trial where he said hed completely rehabilitated from drug use. Gen. Rebecca Smith asked. Carmen A. Puliafito FilmMagic. Never in my career had an editor tried to stop me from knocking on the door of the subject of a story, Pringle wrote. Four decades separated them. Neither Duvoisin nor Maharaj was fired because of a conflict of interest in their dealings with USC, said the company, which immediately installed a Tronc executive as interim editor of the paper. A child-abuse expert was also consulted. These events happened years before President Folt arrived at USC; it would be inappropriate for her to comment, a spokeswoman for Folt said in an email. The Times story on the management changes said the two men were fired in a dramatic shake-up. The company also terminated a deputy managing editor; an assistant managing editor; reporter Jill Leovy, who is Duvoisins wife; and Maharajs executive assistant. Carmen Puliafito, the former dean of USCs medical school. Professor and Chair of Ophthalmology at Tufts University School of Medicine with our moderator Dr. Carmen Puliafito Watch Now Panelists Jay S. Duker MD, Moderator Carmen Puliafito MD, MBA Interview Spotlight on Dr. Thomas Ciulla of Clearside Biomedical . . As they approached, the doctor spotted them and left, Davis said. (Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Read Less Local News I just couldnt believe what I was going through every day.. The closer investigators from the L.A. County Sheriffs Departments Homicide Bureau looked, however, the more doubts they had. Three medical experts The Times consulted said they disagreed with aspects of her report, starting with the manner of death. . Warren got clean later that year and cut ties with Puliafito. The case of the death of newborn Boaz Yoder plunged detectives into the murky world of USCs ex-medical school dean, Carmen Puliafito. There was nothing out of the ordinary there, he said. A photo time-stamped 3 a.m. shows a convicted drug dealer named Kyle Voigt and Warren in Puliafitos office at Keck. Khan was outraged. Read more about Dr. Carmen Puliafito, former dean of USCs Keck School of Medicine. But Davis and Morse requested access to calls placed from jail to the cellphone numbers of Puliafito, Yoder and the babys father, Franko, anyway. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) That should be looked into, Lacey said. Their relationship was not sexual, he testified. Stanford Law School professor Robert Weisberg said it would be somewhat tricky territory to destroy images like those on the Warrens devices if the parties to an agreement werent certain that an investigative agency such as the medical board already had all of the material. Szymanski, who now works at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, declined to discuss her work. Determining the cause and manner of death is a matter of professional judgment, he said. He was, his lawyer noted, one of the foremost ophthalmologists in the world. The physician, whose license was suspended in September 2017, promised that if he was allowed to practice again, he would devote himself to treating the underserved Latino population in East L.A. On the witness stand at a hearing in June 2018, nine months after Boazs death, Puliafito portrayed himself as completely rehabilitated and said he hadnt used drugs in almost a year. [13], Puliafito participated in research into the use of bevacizumab for the treatment of retinal disorders. Emails obtained through a public records request show that she and her supervisor initially decided it was not possible to determine how Boaz died. On Aug. 21, 2017, Justin Dearborn chief executive of the Times parent company, which at that point was called Tronc announced that Maharaj and Duvoisin had left the paper, along with several others. His medical licence was revoked in 2018, and the episode . An unlikely whistleblower exposes the former dean of the University of Southern California medical school for leading a double lifefunneling . Duvoisin and Maharaj both dispute how the team was formed and that it worked even briefly without their knowledge. Marcia Frellick. Only later would detectives learn that the caller was Puliafito and that the physician, who was 66 at the time, played an outsize role in Yoders life. Harriet Ryan is an investigative reporter for the Los Angeles Times. They have their opinion and we have our different opinion.. Puliafito left Yoders home before he called 911 to report the baby was not breathing., After being informed of what the prosecutor wrote, Puliafito told The Times in an interview that it was absolutely not true.. Bad City contends that the actions Duvoisin and Maharaj took to stymie the USC investigation went against the most basic tenets of journalism and tarnished the news organizations credibility at a time of rampant distrust of the media. eye surgeon Carmen Puliafito, . A photo in the LA Times shows a man in a dark suit and tie, a white shirt and a serious expression. Yoder wasnt real receptive, the detective recalled, but agreed to a brief interview in the driveway. From 2007 until March 2016, he was dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. Carmen Anthony Puliafito (born 1951) was an American ophthalmologist and academic administrator. A Times Investigation: The Secret Life of a USC Dean did not run in the paper until more than a year after Sarah Warren survived that overdose. It would be hard to find a worse couple of years than 2016 and 2017 for two major Los Angeles institutions: the University of Southern California and The Times. PULIAFITO - Dominic F. January 10, 2010, age 87, of Williamsville, New York, beloved son of the late Carmelo and Salvatora (Trifilo) Puliafito; beloved husband of 61 years of Marie (Nigro); loving fat Tyndall was born and raised in Plattsburgh, New York as one of five children. The sources said the agreement also required the Warrens to provide a list of other people to whom they had given the images and material. There was no immediate indication of abuse or neglect. One bill to which he contributed outlawed secrecy pacts in sexual abuse cases. and it's now reduced . Two months earlier, in January of 2016, Dr. Carmen Puliafito was behind the wheel of his Porsche, tooling up Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. She declined to discuss the images or the other evidence. The team found her parents. By the time he stepped down from running the Keck School of Medicine . Video of Dr. Carmen Puliafito, then dean of the Keck School of Medicine at USC, in September, 2015. In 2017, the Los Angeles Times revealed that Puliafito had engaged in parties with young recreational drug users and prostitutes, including at the Keck School's offices, and that Puliafito had smoked methamphetamine at these events. To find out how the baby died, detectives set out to understand how his mother and Puliafito lived. The piece kicked off a series of hard-hitting stories on Puliafito and led to a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into Dr. George Tyndall, the USC gynecologist accused of sexually abusing hundreds of students. Its unclear whether any signed. In USCs lecture halls, labs and executive offices, Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito was a towering figure. She previously worked at Court TV and the Asbury Park Press. My daughters been known to do drugs, and shes involved with a doctor thats also been known to do drugs, Menno Yoder told a deputy on Aug. 30, 2016, according to a recording of the call. Dr. Carmen Puliafito was once among Boston's most prominent physicians, building a clinic from scratch before leaving more than a decade ago for prestigious roles in Miami and then in Los Angeles. During its investigation of Puliafitos drug use, the Medical Board of California obtained a large number of the videos and photos. There should be accountability for this, she said. Plan for medical costs now so unexpected expenses don't derail your retirement. The Medical Board of California on Friday ordered USC's former medical school dean Dr. Carmen Puliafito stripped of his license to practice medicine, citing "an appalling lack of judgment . Then, the book maintains, he tried to stop Pringle from approaching the USC president at his home. The search for the truth plunged Dets. Its a case that demonstrates the challenges of child-death investigations and the particular complications of a wealthy and connected suspect in this case, a world-renowned physician with a legal team and private investigator at his disposal. Jon Hatami, shown in court in the Netflix series on Gabriel Fernandez, considered bringing an involuntary manslaughter case against Carmen Puliafito. A graduate of Boston College and the University of Southern California, he joined The Times in 2013. The agreement was reached four months after a Times investigation disclosed Puliafitos relationship with Warren and a circle of other young addicts and criminals. Law enforcement is increasingly targeting people who provide illegal drugs that cause overdoses. The Advanced Ophthalmic Diagnostics (AOD) company set up by C Puliafito, E Swanson, and J Fujimoto in 1992, was acquired by Humphrey Zeiss two years later and went on to develop machines that were introduced into . She asked him when he had last communicated with Franko. Geragos and a member of his firm who signed the November stipulation declined to answer questions about the settlement terms. Franko, a felon described in a police report that year as a daily user of methamphetamine and heroin, lived about 20 miles away in Sherman Oaks with his parents. Later that week, Szymanski learned from the coroners investigator about Puliafitos involvement and the attendant interest in the case from The Times. Usc Care Medical Group Inc. 1520 San Pablo St 1st Floor N, Los Angeles, CA 90033 map. In this 2003 photograph, Dr. Carmen Puliafito is shown second from the right. Dr. July 24, 2017. Still, she noted, no meth should be present in an infant.. Mike Davis and Gene Morse into a murky world of desperate young addicts and small-time drug dealers with a disgraced multimillionaire at the center: Dr. Carmen Puliafito, former dean of USCs Keck School of Medicine. For Dr. Carmen Puliafito and a group of younger people he befriended, life was a photo-op. August 1, 2017. That it might be wiser just to let the information speak for itself and not characterize it as an investigation.. The first OCT atlas was organized by Carmen Puliafito in 1996 (Optical Coherence Tomography of Ocular Diseases, Slack, 1995). In a second video, Warren asks Puliafito to help her crush some meth in preparation to do a hot rail, a method of inhaling the drug. The USC Keck School of Medicine, left, and the former Los Angeles Times building in downtown. This time around, Pringle figured out who she was. His largesse included funding Warrens drug habit, she later wrote in a sworn affidavit. His mother told investigators she had put the baby boy to sleep under blankets on a chilly autumn night in 2017 and found him the next morning lifeless in his crib. The newspaper is in better hands, Pringle said. Paul Pringle. A board spokesman declined to comment and did not answer questions about the images its investigators obtained or whether they knew about the agreement that allowed USC to destroy the images on the Warrens devices. Atty. Maria L. La Ganga is city editor for the Los Angeles Times. [8] After leaving USC, he took a role as chief of strategic development with a pharmaceutical company called Ophthotech that was developing new drugs for eye diseases; he was laid off along with 80% of the staff in December 2016 when two phase III clinical trials produced negative results. And her brother, for whom Puliafito also allegedly provided drugs when he was underage. The dean of its medical school, Carmen Puliafito, resigned from leadership in 2016 after allegations about drug abuse surfaced, and he was fired from the school in 2017 when the LA Times published them. Yang was among the USC signatories on a November stipulation for settlement, which was the basis of the agreement, the sources said. Carmen Aguilera-Marquez said last month in a Times interview that the district attorneys office did a good job reviewing the case, and she noted there is a higher standard of proof in criminal cases than in medical board proceedings. For Dr. Carmen Puliafito and a group of younger people he befriended, life was a photo-op.. Partying in Las Vegas or shopping at Target, pumping gas or playing cards, the dean of USC's medical . Nevertheless, she disagreed with the decision not to prosecute Puliafito. Every time you would interview one person, they would mention another person in this little world, Davis said. Independent, local . He said it was a piece that had the potential to and did destroy the reputation, career and livelihood of a human being.