More IU Basketball Alums Allege Sexual Misconduct by Former Team Physician

The total number of former Indiana University men's basketball players who allege they were sexually abused by a former team physician has reached at least 15, with 10 individuals planning to pursue litigation in addition to the five named in a lawsuit filed last fall.

As reported by ESPN, the 15 former Hoosiers are alleging improper sexual conduct by Dr. Bradford Bomba and saying Indiana officials, including the late coach Bobby Knight, were aware of the behavior.

Since two former Hoosiers sued the university last fall, five ex-athletes are now named in the lawsuit, and 10 additional men are also planning to pursue litigation against Indiana, their attorney, Michelle Simpson Tuegel, told ESPN.

Even though their legal path grew more difficult with Bomba's death last month and the release of an outside investigation that cleared him of sexual misconduct, the men say they are driven to share their stories, in part to protect others from such behavior.

Related: Former Indiana University Team Doctor at Center of Abuse Investigation Dies

"I have two sons who are the same age that I was when that happened to me. At the time I viewed myself as an adult, but now I realize, looking at my own kids, how young and powerless me and my teammates actually were," Haris Mujezinovic, who was one of the two original plaintiffs, wrote in an email. "The adults within the basketball program who were entrusted with our care knew what was happening to us. They joked about it and let it continue."

Per the reporting of ESPN's Paula Lavigne, the men say Bomba, who worked as an Indiana men's basketball team physician for nearly 30 years up until the late 1990s, routinely gave male athletes rectal exams during physicals even though medical guidance did not recommend them for college-age men. The lawsuit claims the behavior amounted to sexual misconduct and that university officials aware of the issue — including Knight, who died in 2023 — failed to stop it.

Players allege that they complained about the exams, and some said they asked to see a different physician. But they said Knight and head athletic trainer Tim Garl ordered players to see Bomba regardless.

Butch Carter, who played at Indiana in the late 1970s and went on to play and coach in the NBA, is not a plaintiff but wrote in a letter included in the lawsuit that he told Knight he never wanted to see Bomba again for medical care and that he "complained multiple times" to Knight about the doctor's "abusive behavior during physical examinations."

Related: Indiana University Cuts Ties With Longtime Basketball Athletic Trainer Named in Lawsuit

Garl, who is a defendant in the lawsuit, was the head athletic trainer from 1981 until this year, when Indiana announced it would not renew him for a 45th season. His attorneys argued in court filings that the men filed their complaints "decades too late" and that Garl didn't supervise Bomba in any "relevant sense." When reached for comment, one of Garl's attorneys cited the outside investigation, writing that the report found that rectal exams are a normal part of a physical, Lavigne reported.

When he was initially deposed last year, Bomba refused to answer 45 questions by invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. Shortly before Bomba's death at age 89, a judge ruled that Bomba was not competent to be further deposed. 

Related: IU Men's Basketball Team Doctor Pleads the Fifth in Title IX Lawsuit

If the case proceeds to a jury, Kathleen Delaney, the attorney who filed the lawsuit, said she plans to present evidence that Bomba invoked the Fifth Amendment so that the jury could "draw adverse inferences from those refusals."

Last month, an investigation that Indiana commissioned found that while Bomba did routinely perform digital rectal exams, those were done in a "clinically appropriate manner" and there was "no evidence to suggest that Dr. Bomba achieved sexual gratification." Investigators spoke to 100 individuals, examined 10,000 emails and reviewed more than 100,000 pages of physical documents spanning six decades, according to the April 25 report by law firm Jones Day, which conducted the investigation, ESPN reported.

Simpson Tuegel, the attorney representing the 10 men who are preparing to file suit, said she has two clients whose stories contradict the finding that Bomba's actions were not sexual: One man who played in the late 1990s said that Bomba "fondled his genitalia" during a physical, and another man said he was subjected to a rectal exam at Bomba's clinic when he was a minor in high school.

Medical experts cited in the Jones Day report noted that Bomba's use of the rectal exam in young men without any concerning history or symptoms was "uncommon." But they were divided on whether the practice was inappropriate or considered part of a comprehensive exam given how standards evolved since the early days of Bomba's practice in the late 1960s.

"Rectal exams are generally used to screen for prostate and other cancers, and in the 1990s, when most of the men played for Indiana, the American Cancer Society recommended them for men aged 50 and older," Lavigne wrote. "Guidance updated in 1997 stated that men in high-risk groups or those with a family history of cancer may begin the exams at a younger age, giving the example of 45 years. It did not recommend them as standard protocol for healthy, college-age men."

The report found that players would "joke or engage in what they characterized as 'locker room banter' " regarding Bomba's exams, within earshot of staff. Investigators noted that Garl characterized it as harmless "razzing" and said that no players ever complained about the exams as "being inappropriate or sexual in any manner."

Another legal hurdle the men face is the statute of limitations. Indiana University has argued in a court filing that the ex-athletes' claims are invalid because they fall outside the state's two-year statute of limitations for bringing sexual assault claims in civil litigation, Lavigne reported.

She wrote, "The former Hoosiers also are up against a Supreme Court ruling in 2022 that prevents plaintiffs from recovering damages for emotional distress in federal Title IX claims, which means a lower likelihood of a monetary award. In their initial demand letter to the university regarding only Mujezinovic's claim, attorneys asked for $5 million. Earlier this year, they added a claim of negligence against Indiana University, and other claims against the school and Garl, who was added to the lawsuit as a defendant in January."

On May 22, a magistrate judge ruled that the plaintiffs can move forward with gathering records and information, including questioning Garl, while the presiding district court judge decides whether to dismiss the claims, Lavigne reported.