By Susan Svrluga. At the time, Leonard was the papers law enforcement editor. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times) Tronc described the personnel moves as a response to The Times flagging performance. The prosecutor asked about others Voigt, the dealer in jail; an addict named Ashley; a Santa Monica heroin user named Nicole. Yoder gave birth last year to a second child, a girl, with Franko, according to birth . Carmen Puliafito, the former dean of USCs medical school. In a letter Tuesday, USC President C.L. Every time you would interview one person, they would mention another person in this little world.. 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 . 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.. Max Nikias acknowledged concern on campus following the Los Angeles Times report that Dr. Carmen Puliafito, 66, was seen on video apparently using illegal . The other attorney who signed the November stipulation for USC was Carol Mauch Amir , then USCs general counsel. Puliafito spoke openly with the jailed men about illicit substances, associates who overdosed and young female addicts in their circle, a lawyer for the board told a judge at the hearing. He drove over to her apartment, but it was swarming with EMTs. He did not stop. Pringle told him about the dean, the young woman, the overdose, USCs silence, the 911 recordings., Leonard agreed that the story was amazing and then asked a question that Bad City asserts would define the next several months of Pringles life. Her babys father, who was suspected of procuring drugs for her, among other offenses, received a sentence of 18 years. Los Angeles Times co-owner Michele Soon-Shiong shakes hands with journalist Paul Pringle, right, after it was announced that Pringle and fellow reporters Matt Hamilton, left, and Harriet Ryan won the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. Questions are multiplying after Carmen Puliafito, MD, who had been dean of the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles from 2007 . [5] Before that, he had been director of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine, and chair of the department of ophthalmology. Puliafito and his attorney said he had done nothing wrong. Photos, videos emerge of drug parties with Carmen Puliafito, who chaired the University of Miami's Bascom Palmer Eye Institute from 2001-2007. The Medical Board of . 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. Five months after the Puliafito investigation was published, newsroom employees formed a union, by a vote of 248 to 44. Max Nikias, who was in office at the time and Amirs boss, knew nothing about the destruction of the images and other material, his attorney said in an email to The Times. She checked a box indicating accident.. They called the Sheriffs Department, reiterated their concerns about Puliafito and encouraged investigators to look closer at Boazs death. The stipulation for a settlement between USC and the Warrens was reached a few weeks after the district attorneys office issued an internal document assessing whether felony charges should be filed against Puliafito, including for allegedly providing drugs to Warrens younger brother, Charles, when he was a minor. Maharaj called assertions that decisions about The Times coverage of USC ever tilted in the universitys favor ridiculous. I and the other honorable senior editors who worked with me would never let any person or entity, including USC, dictate any aspect of our coverage, he said. Performance & security by Cloudflare. He perjured himself on the stand here today, the prosecutor declared. Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito boosted the medical school's ranking as its dean and raised hundreds of millions of dollars, becoming one of the highest-profile figures at a university packed with star . On 01/27/2016 JANET H PINE filed a Family - Marriage Dissolution/Divorce lawsuit against CARMEN A PULIAFITO. Yoder said she went to a pediatrician the next day, a visit the coroner confirmed. Matt Hamilton is a reporter for the Los Angeles Times. 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. Eventually he emailed the Pasadena city attorney. Until now. 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. The deal, which forbids the Warrens from ever publicly discussing it or their dealings with Puliafito and USC, was struck as the #MeToo movement took hold across the country and highlighted criticism of financial settlements that silenced victims of sexual abuse and harassment. Carmen A. Puliafito, MD, MBA. [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. Yoder did not respond to interview requests. You can email the site owner to let them know you were blocked. He attended the State University of New York Plattsburgh but discontinued his studies to join the Navy in 1967. Please include what you were doing when this page came up and the Cloudflare Ray ID found at the bottom of this page. The state agency that regulates physicians on Friday ordered USCs former medical school dean stripped of his license to practice medicine, citing an appalling lack of judgment in his use of drugs and association with a circle of addicts and criminals while leading the major institution. Los Angeles Times investigative reporter Paul Pringle. The story begins in Pasadena, on March 4, 2016, when Devon Khan, reservations supervisor at Hotel Constance, was summoned by a housekeeper to a room on the third floor. His drug use continued even after Warren overdosed in his presence in a Pasadena hotel room and he was forced from his deans post in March 2016. 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. This was after [the attorney] had already signed off on it., Duvoisin defends all his editing decisions on the Puliafito story. She admitted to using methamphetamine twice since giving birth and one time being the night before the infant died, according to an email by the coroners investigator. A woman dressed in a robe and pink panties was unconscious. Deputy Dist. Puliafito's lawyer, Timothy Reuben, insisted in an email that despite the law enforcement findings, the physician "was simply a good Samaritan." "Dr. Puliafito did NOT provide any methamphetamine to Dora Yoder nor was he using any," Reuben wrote. The action you just performed triggered the security solution. The USC medical school dean is Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, reports the Los Angeles Times, which broke the . That it might be wiser just to let the information speak for itself and not characterize it as an investigation.. It has surfaced that the former dean engaged in some pretty scandalous things during his tenure. In the case of the newborn, Boaz Yoder, Puliafito paid the rent on Dora Yoders Altadena duplex, where the baby died. [4], Puliafito was appointed dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC in December 2007. Sarah Warren and her family left Southern California and moved to Texas. In those cases, however, drugs were the clear-cut cause of death. Jackie Lacey, who was in office at the time, said in a recent interview that she was unaware of the settlement agreement and the wiping of the images and other material. Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito. Yoder told investigators that, the week before he died, the then-18-day-old infant reached his hand out of a baby wrap and touched a hot pan. [9] Three weeks later, on March 24, 2016, Puliafito resigned as dean of the Keck School of Medicine. The USC Keck School of Medicine, left, and the former Los Angeles Times building in downtown. The first OCT atlas was organized by Carmen Puliafito in 1996 (Optical Coherence Tomography of Ocular Diseases, Slack, 1995). Youre basically taking the evidence away from the victims, Jackson said. Later that week, Szymanski learned from the coroners investigator about Puliafitos involvement and the attendant interest in the case from The Times. 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. Warren had told the newspaper that she met Puliafito in early 2015 and that they were constant companions for more than a year and a half. The marks are evidence of blood pooling after death, they said, and suggest Boaz could have died on his stomach and was flipped over sometime later. She asked for a meeting with the head coroner, Dr. Jonathan Lucas. Yoder wasnt real receptive, the detective recalled, but agreed to a brief interview in the driveway. The family of a woman who had a drug-fueled relationship with former USC medical school dean Carmen Puliafito received $1.5 million to head off a lawsuit. The apartment was neat and clean and filled with good baby equipment, Davis recalled in an interview. 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 agreement was reached four months after a Times investigation disclosed Puliafitos relationship with Warren and a circle of other young addicts and criminals. 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. Duvoisin said the companys lawyer, Jeff Glasser, advised that those details be omitted because the evidence didnt really support regularly using and that they should stick to a more conservative description of what the evidence was., Pringle said Maharaj and Duvoisin ordered the attorney to go into the story and come up with the most conservative version. Max Nikias says officials will "examine and address" a newspaper report that the Puliafito, who recently resigned as dean of the medical school, abused . USC President C.L. August 1, 2017. Khan was outraged. As he left the newsroom for the last time before the operation, he stopped by Jack Leonards desk. Yoder told the investigator that she asked Franko what to do because she didnt know CPR. He told her to use a mirror to check for breathing. But you have used with her, correct? Smith continued. Read more about Dr. Carmen Puliafito, former dean of USCs Keck School of Medicine. [3] He completed a residency in ophthalmology and a fellowship in vitreoretinal surgery at the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary. Jared Goff and Christen Harper are sharing exciting news. We had no information on that, Davis said. This California farm kingdom holds a key, Six people, including mother and baby, killed in Tulare County; drug cartel suspected, Im afraid for her life: Riverside CC womens coach harassed after Title IX suit, New Bay Area maps show hidden flood risk from sea level rise and groundwater, Who would execute a baby? Thats a circumstance that calls for the greatest precision, care, evenhandedness, concern for accuracy, concern not to overreach.. Because Puliafito is a public figure, Caplan said, he would have to prove Sampath wrote with actual . Los Angeles Times. Puliafito testified at the medical board hearing that he never provided any drugs to Yoder or used drugs with her. Dr. Carmen Puliafito was dean of the medical school at the University of Southern California. and it's now reduced . 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 . Pringle was assigned to check it out because of his earlier expos about USCs football program and the fact that he and a colleague were investigating the universitys athletic director at the time. From 2001 to 2007 he was director of the Bascom Palmer Eye Institute of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He said that the mother was his girlfriend but that he was in Pasadena. "[9] The reporters reviewed video and photographs of Puliafito engaging in these activities in hotel rooms, apartments, and the dean's office. 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. Puliafito, 66, resigned from his $1.1 million-a-year job at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine in March 2016 three weeks after Warren overdosed in his hotel room . Gen. Rebecca Smith asked. Then, the book maintains, he tried to stop Pringle from approaching the USC president at his home. Pringle was furious. Puliafito also did not respond to The Times requests for an interview about the settlement. Rosenfeld PJ, Moshfegi AA, Puliafito CA. California law makes it a misdemeanor for someone to destroy or conceal such material with the intent to prevent it from being produced in evidence upon a trial, inquiry, or investigation, authorized by law.. . But now, everyone is curious to know more about the well-known surgeon, Dr. Carmen Puliafito and his wife. You dont base a diagnosis of asphyxia solely on the report of the mother when she was high at the time she placed the baby to sleep, Bertone said. Carmen Puliafito and Janet Pine haven't been seen since Dr. Puliafito's sudden resignation as dean of USC's Keck School of Medicine. Societys trust in once-revered institutions has tumbled, and pressure has grown for media companies to provide greater transparency about how they do their work and their relationships with those they cover. Carmen Puliafito resigned in March 2016 as dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. It took 15 months from the time Pringle got the first tip about the doctor before the Times reported a word about him. The university had long refused to make the report public, but detectives obtained a warrant and, eventually, some of the report. Investigators enlisted another pathologist to weigh in, and emails show that, as recently as May, one of the detectives sought to meet and discuss the case with the head coroner. He gives my daughter money and he pays for her rent, and he pays for all that stuff.. (2005). Bad City is part expos, part primer on investigative journalism, part saga about the abuse of power. 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. To find out how the baby died, detectives set out to understand how his mother and Puliafito lived. Buffalo, NY . 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. One of Yoders sisters later met with detectives. This was about real people, human beings. are made possible by generous people like you. After a coroners toxicology test found traces of meth in the 25-day-old boys blood, the detectives embarked on a lengthy investigation into whether Puliafito was the source of the meth. 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. Our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct requires me to make this report.. In 2012, he was 21st of the highest-paid research university executives in the United States. In 2017, USC terminated former Keck Dean Carmen Puliafito following drug use, on-campus partying and keeping company with criminals. For Dr. Carmen Puliafito and a group of younger people he befriended, life was a photo-op. Nor had an editor ever required that I get clearance to do so. No details of the agreement had been publicly disclosed until now. The report she filed listed the cause of death as asphyxiation from blankets on the babys chest, with methamphetamine exposure from breast milk listed as a contributing condition not related to the immediate cause of death., She next had to rule on the manner of death accident, natural, suicide, homicide or undetermined. Getting the story into print, Bad City argues, was at least as arduous as the investigation itself. By Davis estimation, the Yoder case took more detective work than 90% of his other investigations, including those that ended with convictions. 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 And they agreed, according to Bad City, that we would do this quietly that is, without telling Maharaj and Duvoisin.. The University of Southern California paid Dr. Carmen Puliafito, its former medical school dean, nearly $1 million in severance along with a bonus, according to tax filings disclosed this week. He was in an intense relationship with a 21-year-old escort named Sarah Warren, lavishing her with more than $300,000 in gifts and living expenses, according to an accounting he later provided a judge. 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. Manly said he would not have allowed his clients in the Tyndall case to enter into an agreement that resulted in them giving up material like the photos and videos in the Puliafito matter in part because the same material could be useful in a future lawsuit. Then-Dean Carmen A. Puliafito, left, Dr. Inderbir Gill, actress Shirley MacLaine, actress Annette Bening and actor Warren Beatty at a USC event at the Montage Beverly Hills hotel in May 2009 . 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. Video of Dr. Carmen Puliafito, then dean of the Keck School of Medicine at USC, in September, 2015. She has covered six presidential elections and served as bureau chief in San Francisco and Seattle. 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. 173.212.230.148 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. Puliafito was fired by the university shortly after the investigation was published. Sarah Warren, left, and Carmen Puliafito. 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. July 24, 2017. The Times could not determine whether USC retained copies of the images and other material. Puliafito had three Ivy League diplomas. I wasnt trying to publish something about a defense contractor skimming, he said in an interview. Maharaj remains in Southern California, where he said he is involved in several journalism and literary projects. Still, she noted, no meth should be present in an infant.. A photo in the LA Times shows a man in a dark suit and tie, a white shirt and a serious expression. Shes a known drug user, right? Deputy Atty. That was like saying we couldnt publish a story on the occurrence of a crime without first solving it., And that, he wrote, made him realize what was happening: Nikias was essentially in charge of the story. Sarah Warren had told The Times that she witnessed Puliafito giving Yoder meth numerous times in 2015 and 2016, before Yoder was pregnant. Law enforcement is increasingly targeting people who provide illegal drugs that cause overdoses. The Puliafito story, which The Los Angeles Times published in July 2017, eventually led the reporters to discover more male employees who either crossed ethical lines or committed crimes that the . The man who called for an ambulance at an Altadena apartment last fall had the calm and direct manner of one familiar with healthcare emergencies. 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 . The grave of Boaz Yoder, an infant who died in 2017, at Hillside Memorial Park and Mortuary in Culver City. Jon Hatami, shown in court in the Netflix series on Gabriel Fernandez, considered bringing an involuntary manslaughter case against Carmen Puliafito. This time around, Pringle figured out who she was. In one of the few studies, a review of eight newborns who died with the drug in their systems, the ones clearly due to meth were a little bit higher level than that of Boaz, Armenian said. 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. Puliafito denied an ongoing relationship with Voigt and said he had never heard of the women. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. He cautioned that his opinion was based on the written report, not the photos of the injury. Your IP: I thought the story was too thin and we needed to know more., The next day, according to the book, Matt Lait, Pringles editor, called with a proposition: Lets put four more reporters on the story. The Times newsroom lawyer had reviewed it. He had some French ancestry on his mother's side. Jon Hatami. A grand jury indictment accuses three men of providing cocaine and oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl that caused rapper Mac Millers death in 2018. Former Los Angeles County Dist. The official finding that Boaz was suffocated accidentally by a pile of blankets presented a challenge to the district attorneys office. There should be accountability for this, she said. . The University of Southern California paid Dr. Boaz was born Sept. 10, 2017. The agreement was negotiated while L.A. County sheriffs detectives were investigating the October 2017 death of a newborn whose mother had a relationship with Puliafito. 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.. Atty. In "Bad City," Times investigative reporter Paul Pringle who led the paper's efforts to scrutinize Puliafito and USC dissects how the university and several of The Times . 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. 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. In emails between them that were reviewed by The Times, he wrote that he loved her, and she described his interest in helping her as sexy. He was a regular presence at her home. Confidential payouts to settle legal disputes are common, but one provision of the Warren pact was not, according to legal experts: To receive the money, family members had to turn over to USC all of their videos and photographs showing Puliafito using illegal drugs to allow the university to destroy them, two sources with knowledge of the agreement told The Times. As an eye doctor, he diagnoses and treats diseases, injuries, or trauma of the eye such as glaucoma or cataracts. What is clear is that the totality of evidence Morse and Davis gathered prompted a prosecutor to mull an involuntary manslaughter case against Puliafito and a child neglect charge against Yoder, according to a memo by the Los Angeles County district attorneys office. Nothing., Maharaj denied the allegations and said the story was sent back for more reporting., I specifically said at the meeting that I was not killing the story and that Pringle needed to do more reporting and not rely so much on a heavily redacted police report, he said. She called me crying, he replied. Carmen A. Puliafito is an opthamologist and is the former Dean of the University of Southern California Medical School. He acknowledged going to the apartment the night before to see the baby but said he observed no drug use. He insisted he was at home with his wife in Pasadena when Yoder called him in a panic. Carmen A. Puliafito (Photo by Tonya Wise/Invision/AP) One of the most damning accusations was that USC staff knew of Puliafito's behavior. A newborn was found dead in this Altadena duplex, spurring a child death investigation by L.A. County sheriffs detectives. Nikias was ousted as president of USC after the Tyndall scandal, although he remained a professor. Two months earlier, in January of 2016, Dr. Carmen Puliafito was behind the wheel of his Porsche, tooling up Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu. 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. LOS ANGELES, CA Former USC Keck School of Medicine Dean Carmen Puliafito is officially without a medical license Tuesday. 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. Three experts found the burn on the babys hand to be suspicious. It describes his year-long struggle to get the story published over the objections of his superiors at the Times, who did not want to offend USC. 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. Pringle said yes. We were investigating a criminal case, and if there was evidence of said criminal activity we were investigating, I definitely would have been interested in seeing it.. 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. . [2], Born and raised Buffalo, New York, Puliafito received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard College in 1973 and a Doctor of Medicine from Harvard Medical School in 1978. After Puliafito left the witness chair, Smith revealed the existence of the jail recordings that proved he was in close contact with Voigt and Franko and knew the female addicts. 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. [7], In March 2016, Puliafito resigned as dean of the Keck School of Medicine, and USC professor Rohit Varma was appointed interim dean. Its unclear whether any signed. This article originally appeared on New York Post and was . To stay on top of the voluminous calls in the Yoder case, Davis took to playing the jail recordings in his car as he drove home. Yoder gave birth last year to a second child, a girl, with Franko, according to birth records. Carmen Anthony Puliafito (born 1951) was an American ophthalmologist and academic administrator. Cloudflare Ray ID: 78bba401eaef915f But Davis and Morse requested access to calls placed from jail to the cellphone numbers of Puliafito, Yoder and the babys father, Franko, anyway. 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 . The police officer who last year questioned the then-dean of USC's medical school about his role in the drug overdose of a young woman expressed skepticism at Dr. Carmen Puliafito's account . Lucas, the head coroner, reiterated confidence in Szymanski in an email to The Times this month. The temperature outside had dipped to 55 degrees; she said the heater inside the apartment wasnt working, and it felt like the air conditioner was on instead, according to the investigators report. Warren later bends over lines of white powder on a tray. Duvoisin concurred: There was no time when I was not aware of it.. They later learned that a private investigator and another person working on the doctors behalf had contacted members of the Yoder family, according to interviews and documents reviewed by The Times. Dr. Carmen Puliafito, former dean of USC's medical school, took the stand in his own defense Thursday in a high-stakes hearing that will determine if he will lose his medical license. Puliafito also earned an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. The newspaper is in better hands, Pringle said. Thats when a young drug addict overdosed on crystal meth and GHB in a Pasadena hotel room while partying with Dr. Carmen Puliafito, dean of USCs Keck School of Medicine. Optical coherence tomography findings after an intravitreal injection of bevacizumab (Avastin) for neovascular age-related macular degeneration. Homicide investigations are rarely easy or quick, but Boazs case is notable for the time and resources that law enforcement committed as they sought justice. Now, she's worried about getting sued. Yoder claimed she phoned for an ambulance at 7:30 a.m. Law enforcement records do not reflect such a call. 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., Dr. James Ribe, a specialist in pediatric autopsies. Without that, the prosecutor and the detectives concluded they could not take the investigation further. 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. Yang declined to comment. A Shasta County woman suspected of nursing her newborn while using methamphetamine and heroin is serving a life sentence following a conviction of first-degree murder by poisoning. Duvoisin and Maharaj both dispute how the team was formed and that it worked even briefly without their knowledge. In Bad City, Times investigative reporter Paul Pringle who led the papers efforts to scrutinize Puliafito and USC dissects how the university and several of The Times top editors, now no longer at the paper, allegedly fell from grace together. 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. On a November day in 2017, USC entered into a secret mediation agreement with the family of a young woman whose drug-fueled relationship with the former dean of the universitys medical school had engulfed the institution in scandal. Managing Editor Marc Duvoisin and publisher and Editor-in-Chief Davan Maharaj were fired in 2017. Family members received prewritten affidavits to sign containing explicit denials that Puliafito used drugs as well as denials that Yoder harmed the baby. Szymanski, who now works at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, declined to discuss her work. Clockwise from top left: reporters Harriet Ryan, Adam Elmahrek, Sarah Parvini and Matt Hamilton. As detectives worked, a blood sample taken from Boazs heart awaited testing in the lab of the L.A. County medical examiner-coroner. I knew and approved of their work from the beginning, Maharaj said. 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. [11], Puliafito was one of the inventors of optical coherence tomography;[12] for this work, James Fujimoto, Eric Swanson and Puliafito received a Rank Prize for Opto-Electronics in 2002. Pringle's new book, "Bad City: Peril and Power in the City of Angels," recounts his pursuit of a story about Carmen Puliafito, a former dean of the University of Southern California's medical . In this 2003 photograph, Dr. Carmen Puliafito is shown second from the right. He gave a note on Times letterhead to Nikias wife. Right Now. Carmen Puliafito, the former dean of USC's medical school. He claimed in his testimony that he was no longer in close touch with Yoder and had cut off contact with other members of his drug-using circle. She told the investigator that she last saw her son alive about 2 a.m., when she nursed him. 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He called The Times but was too terrified to leave a message. A rumpled Puliafito answered the door. The last stop for the investigation was the coroners office on Mission Road. Must Reads: A USC doctor was accused of bad behavior with young women for years. The now-former dean of the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine routinely partied hard with a band of drug users which included a 21-year-old prostitute and a troubled karaoke deejay with a lengthy rap sheet. She said she immediately called Ariel Franko, the childs father. He perjured himself on the stand here today., a state prosecutor representing the medical board. 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. The Times similarly could not determine whether the medical board had collected all the emails, text messages and other material cited in the agreement. Atty. The reporting team handed in the next draft of the story at the end of March 2017. The largest, most important media company west of the Potomac and one of Los Angeles oldest institutions had an opportunity to do the right thing and lost its way, Pringle said in an interview. eye surgeon Carmen Puliafito, . From 2007 until March 2016, he was dean of the Keck School of Medicine of USC. In USCs lecture halls, labs and executive offices, Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito was a towering figure. Among the images The Times reviewed was a video of Puliafito inhaling from a large methamphetamine pipe. It was a cover-up artists dream.. The medical license of former USC medical school dean Carmen Puliafito has been revoked for violations . Yoder had grown up Amish and did not have a college degree. He won the 2019 Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting with colleagues Harriet Ryan and Paul Pringle and was part of the team of reporters that won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the San Bernardino terrorist attack. The secret double life of former USC dean Dr. Carmen Puliafito - a tale involving drugs, prostitution and alleged extortion - is detailed through photos and interview transcripts. And in 2017, USC fired its former medical school dean Carmen Puliafito, after a Los Angeles Times investigation documented not only his alleged heavy drug use but also his alleged enabling of other addicts with whom he socialized.. Flynn is contesting the charges. It was scheduled for publication. The terms were finalized the following January or February and noted that the Warrens were seeking damages from USC and Puliafito for his alleged use of illegal narcotics and alleged illegal sexual contact with Sarah Warren, the sources said. She is a graduate of Columbia University. Instead, it was a male caller who dialed 911 at 7:40 a.m. to report a baby who wasnt breathing. An LA Times piece alleges that Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, founding director of the New England Eye Center at Tufts Medical School, led a double life while dean of USC's Keck School of Medicine. A disgraced medical school dean at the University of Southern California used methamphetamine while working at the school but only because his mental illness . Usc Care Medical Group Inc. 1520 San Pablo St 1st Floor N, Los Angeles, CA 90033 map. When detectives went to interview Yoder again, they found Puliafitos red BMW parked outside her apartment. The Chronicle of Higher Education, which first reported the University payments, stated that USC paid Puliafito $850,000 in severance along with $624,000 in base . They have their opinion and we have our different opinion.. 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. [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. 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