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In lawsuit, former students alleges sexual battery by UCLA gynecologist who ran health center

A former UCLA student has sued the university, alleging she was sexually battered as a patient by gynecologist Edward Wiesmeier, who oversaw student health services for a quarter-century.

As an undergraduate in 2000 or 2001, the woman, identified as Jane Doe in the lawsuit, went to the UCLA Student Health Center for routine gynecological care. Instead, court documents show, she “was subjected to sexual contact and — later — to an excruciatingly painful and sexually abusive ‘procedure’ by Dr. Wiesmeier,” who at the time was an assistant vice chancellor at the university.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, alleges that Wiesmeier engaged in medically unnecessary touching of young women’s body parts for his sexual gratification. It names both the doctor and the university system as defendants and alleges civil rights violations, sexual battery, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

Wiesmeier, who worked at UCLA from 1974 to 2007, was one of a handful of physicians named in the UCLA Special Committee Review released last year detailing previous failures that mirrored complaints against Dr. James Heaps. Heaps has been charged with sexually assaulting hundreds of patients while working as a gynecologist at UCLA.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.

Related: UCLA releases statement