Rick Caruso’s testimony revealed 


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In Oct. 2020, Rick Caruso, then chair of USC’s governing board, underwent a nine-hour secret testimony regarding who was to blame for the sexual abuse and harassment inflicted on students by campus gynecologist George Tyndall.  A slew of attorneys representing 710 USC students and alumni grilled Caruso in the remotely held deposition.

Tyndall worked at the clinic for 27 years, serving as the only full-time gynecologist at USC. Allegations initially surfaced in 2016 following a report by a chaperone nurse of inappropriate conduct with a student patient, inspiring hundreds more victims to come out and starting an investigation into his career.  

The Los Angeles Times released Caruso’s answers from the testimony Tuesday. A protective order in the case kept the testimony from public view until this point. The secrecy surrounding the testimony raises questions as L.A. mayoral candidate Caruso has prided his campaign on his success in steering USC out of a scandal. 

According to the Times, the testimony’s transcript revealed that Caruso failed to answer many of the lawyers’ pressing questions. Over half a dozen USC legal team attorneys advised Caruso throughout the testimony. Caruso turned to attorney-client privilege repeatedly when declining to disclose information on administrative discussions regarding Tyndall or the conclusions of the investigation of Tyndall’s three-decade-long abusive history at USC.

Following the Times investigation, USC’s then-president C.L. Max Nikias and the general counsel alerted the board’s executive committee, including Caruso, of Tyndall’s actions over the phone. Lawyers in Caruso’s testimony drew attention to this phone call and the discussions to follow, yet Caruso once again referred to attorney-client privilege as the reasoning behind his failure to comment.

According to the Times, Lawyers from the O’Melveny & Myers law firm engaged in some of the most controversial lines of questioning in the entire testimony. Though Caruso promised reporters in 2018 and 2019 to release these questions to the public, he has yet to do so. 

Mayoral candidate Karen Bass has used this false promise as a point of attack against Caruso in her campaign, questioning in a radio debate this month “What about the victims? If that’s what they wanted, they should have had it.” 

Lead attorney in the deposition John Manly went on to question Caruso’s transparency. Despite having issued a public apology to Tyndall’s victims and helping oust Nikias as president, Caruso did not answer questions about assigning fault to USC. Similarly, Caruso did not blame supervisors or administrators.