A former University of Southern California gynecologist, charged with sexually abusing his patients, also enticed young women into foreign hotel rooms where he made sex videos that he later sold, a Los Angeles prosecutor alleged Tuesday.
George Tyndall “takes pictures, he takes videos, sex videos and then he sells them,” said Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Reinhold Mueller, adding that if Tyndall could do that in a hotel room outside the United States, “he can certainly do it in his bedroom, in his residence, in LA.”
Mueller made the sex tape allegations in arguing that the defendant’s bail, originally set at nearly $2.1 million, should not be lowered.
In the end, Superior Court Judge Teresa Sullivan lowered Tyndall’s bail to $1.6 million. She said Tyndall’s lack of a prior record, in addition to no previous attempts to flee, influenced her decision. Should Tyndall post the bail, he will be on GPS house arrest and he will have to surrender any documents needed to travel, including a passport.
Tyndall, 72, was fired in 2017 for inappropriate behavior by USC, which did not report him to law enforcement or state medical authorities. On June 26, Tyndall was arrested on sexual abuse charges for alleged assaults against 16 victims that occurred between 2009 and 2016 while he worked at the campus health center, authorities say.
He has not been charged in connection with the sex tape accusations.
Tyndall’s defense team, helmed by Leonard Levine, said their client had not tried to flee during the prior year though he was aware he was under investigation and he had not tried to contact any patients. For these reasons, Tyndall poses no flight risk, said Levine.
Levine also told the court that his client presented no danger to the community. He asked that his bail be set between $350,000 and $400,000.
Last week, Levine told CNN he hoped for a bail in the range of $400,000 to a half a million: “It’s probably the most that he can afford,” he said then.
College students, some as young as 17 and many coming in for a gynecologic exam for the first time, were the victims of the defendant, Mueller said.
One of the alleged victims, a woman identified as Jane Doe 2, called the defendant “a very skilled and resourceful predator.” She said Tyndall understood Asian culture and knew an Asian patient’s reputation — and that of her family — could be ruined if it becomes known she’s sexual active. The former college gynecologist took advantage of that fact, she said.
She also said that Tyndall has “extensive ties to the Philippines” and if he goes there “he will essentially disappear.”
Stating that Tyndall poses a danger to the community, Mueller said Tyndall was carrying a concealed and loaded handgun (with no permit), a box cutter and pepper spray when he was arrested at a traffic stop.
“This goes to his mindset of readiness to do evil,” Mueller said.
The prosecution presented a written statement from Jane Doe 6, another alleged victim, who referred to this gun and stated that, at best, it suggests the defendant is “a flight risk and at worse I feel he is a threat to me and the other survivors who have bravely come forward to share the trauma he has caused them.”
Tyndall is now unemployed, with a suspended license and no children and a wife who has separated from him, Mueller said.
“He has every incentive to flee, and he has no ties, no connections to this community.”
Tyndall’s next court appearance is scheduled for July 12.
