Former Boston doctor freed without bail after pleading not guilty to 81 new sexual assault charges
Derrick Todd, a former doctor at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston, pleaded not guilty in Suffolk Superior Court to 81 new sexual assault charges on Thursday. The 52-year-old rheumatologist was released without bail and ordered to stay away from the patients who made the accusations, and wear a GPS monitor to ensure he stays in Massachusetts and obeys a 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew.
The clerk magistrate agreed with the defense team that Todd was not a flight risk.
Todd, who was already facing multiple rape and assault charges in Middlesex County, has now been charged with more than 100 cases of sexual assault. He's also being sued by more than 200 former patients who claim that he sexually molested them in medical settings.
Brigham & Women's fired Todd in 2023 amid allegations that he was performing inappropriate pelvic and breast exams.
Derrick Todd accused of assaulting "vulnerable" patients
Prosecutor Ashlee Mastrangelo told Clerk Magistrate Ed Curley that Todd's patients at Brigham and Women's and Faulkner Hospital came to him "in a vulnerable place." The new accusers range in age between 17 and 56 years old.
"Some were seeing Derrick Todd because they could no longer hold a glass of water," Mastrangelo said. "He manipulated and he coaxed them into agreeing to these so-called exams."
Todd made "crude sexual remarks" while touching them, Mastrangelo said.
"The Commonwealth expects at trial to introduce medical testimony about how a standard women's wellness exam is done, both a breast exam and a pelvic exam" she said. "What I expect a jury to hear in this case is that neither of the things that Derrick Todd did ... even remotely mirrors a standard women's wellness exam."
Derrick Todd's defense
Todd's lawyer, Ingrid Martin, started off by saying "my client is innocent until proven guilty."
"This is clearly a highly unusual case," Martin said. "All of the complainants in this case are patients, some of those were his patients for years and never raised a complaint to him or anyone else at the hospital about his care."
Martin said that Todd "has frankly been looking forward to challenging the accusations" in court.
"This case will be about medicine, about what a rheumatologist or a primary care physician should or can do during a medical encounter," she said.
The Suffolk County trial could begin in May of 2027, the clerk magistrate said. Todd is due back in court on June 8 for a pre-trial hearing.
Todd is currently out on $10,000 bail in a separate case after pleading not guilty to two rape charges last year in Middlesex County, where he also was also charged last month with three counts of rape and 17 counts of indecent assault and battery.
