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Then-USC Keck School of Medicine Dean Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito arrives at the Second-Annual Rebels With A Cause Gala at Paramount Studios on March 20, 2014, in Hollywood. (Credit: Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)
Then-USC Keck School of Medicine Dean Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito arrives at the Second-Annual Rebels With A Cause Gala at Paramount Studios on March 20, 2014, in Hollywood. (Credit: Frazer Harrison / Getty Images)

Faced with mounting anger and questions, USC announced Friday it was hiring an ex-federal prosecutor to investigate reports in The Times that the former dean of the university’s medical school associated with criminals and drug abusers and used methamphetamine and other drugs with them.

“We are outraged and disgusted by this individual’s behavior,” USC President C.L. Max Nikias said in a letter to the campus community, referring to Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito, former dean of the Keck School of Medicine.

“It is crucial that we understand how these events occurred,” Nikias said.

The investigation will be overseen by Debra Wong Yang, a partner at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher in Los Angeles and a former member of the Los Angeles Police Commission, which oversees the Los Angeles Police Department. She was an L.A. Superior Court judge and was appointed U. S. attorney for the Central District of California in May 2002 by President George W. Bush. She is a graduate of Pitzer College and Boston College Law School.

Read the full story on LATimes.com.