A jaw-dropping report published Tuesday details the horrific sexual assaults allegedly committed against students at a Caribbean research facility by retired Yale University psychiatry professor Dr. D. Eugene Redmond.
The report, authored by former prosecutor Deirdre Daly and commissioned by Yale, accuses Redmond of assaulting at least five students at the faciliy in St. Kitts and conducting “inappropriate genital and/or rectal exams” on three others.
Dr. D. Eugene Redmond is accused of engaging in sexual misconduct with at least eight undergraduate students, recent graduates and one high school student while running a summer intern program in St. Kitts. (Photo: Yale University)
“Each of these incidents occurred in a bedroom that Redmond required each student to share with him and after each of the students had been drinking with Redmond,” according to Daly’s investigation. The report goes on to state that the ex-lecturer, who retired from the Yale School of Medicine last summer after 44 years, had also engaged in sexual conduct with “at least eight other undergraduates or graduates, and a high school student” on the Caribbean island, Connecticut and beyond.
Redmond hasn’t been criminally charged in any of the incidents.
As part of her probe, Daly interviewed 110 witnesses, including 38 current and former Yale undergrad students who participated in a summer intern program he headed at the St. Kitts facility. The 54-page document contains detailed accounts of Redmond’s reported misconduct, including his sharing bedrooms with interns and other acts Daly described as “textbook grooming behavior.”
“The evidence indicates that Redmond carefully selected the interns he abused and harassed,” she wrote. “These interns explained how he often isolated them from their peers and flattered them, supported them financially, offered assistance for admittance to medical school, expressed deep affection, discussed intimate sexual matters, and sought time alone with them.”
“In some cases, he preyed on what some students described as a personal vulnerability,” it added.
Redmond’s alleged abuse spanned decades, with two of the assaults and two “exams” occurring in the early 1990s and the remaining three assaults and a third exam occurring between 2010 and 2017. Much of the other misconduct happened after 2005, the report states.
An independent investigation was launched into the then-professor in January after a student lodged a complaint against him early last year. The University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct found Redmond responsible after a group of students came forward with sexual misconduct/harassment allegations, prompting Redmond’s resignation from Yale in July 2018.
“We found the students’ accounts to be highly credible,” the report stated. “When interviewed, the students were candid and straightforward; they neither embellished facts nor appeared vindictive.”
Moreover, Daly’s report states that the university had previously received complaints about Redmond dating back to the early ’90s, but they weren’t addressed.
“The behaviors in question violate every expectation we have of our faculty and the trust our students, [and] society, place in educators,” Yale President Peter Salovey said in a statement. “On behalf of Yale, I’m deeply sorry that Redmond’s behavior wasn’t stopped once and for all when it was first reported.”
In her report, Daly made several recommendations and called on Yale to implement and enforce disciplinary sanctions against faculty members found responsible for sexual misconduct. She also emphasized the need for “bystander intervention as part of [Yale’s] existing sexual harassment training for all faculty, staff, and supervisors.”
A lawyer for Redmond has vehemently denied the allegations but couldn’t be reached for comment, the Yale Daily News reported. Redmond has also denied the accusations against him and reportedly tried to impede Daly’s investigation by encouraging former students to lie or not cooperate at all.
According to Salovey, university police and Connecticut authorities have contacted police in St. Kitts regarding the claims.
