Two women filed a class action lawsuit on Wednesday against Borough Park doctor Robert Goodman, who they say has sexually assaulted his patients, many of whom were Haredi, “hundreds of times.” The women also sued Maimonides Medical Center, which was affiliated with Goodman, saying it turned a blind eye to allegations.

The suit was filed by Malky Wigder, a former member of the Satmar community, and a Borough Park woman identified as “Jane Doe,” who say that Goodman groped their breasts when they visited him as patients. Wigder says that when she made a Facebook post about her allegation in 2018, “dozens” of women contacted her to describe similar experiences.

According to the complaint, Goodman assaulted Wigder in 2005 after she came to him for a cold and sore throat. “As he spoke to her, he began to rub her arm. He moved his hand to her upper arm and then over to her breasts, which he began to grope,” the complaint says. “Ms. Wigder was shocked. She stood up, walked to the door, unlocked the door, and exited the exam room. She left the office and never returned.”

The unnamed woman, who lawyers said used a pseudonym “to protect herself from humiliation and scorn in the community,” said Goodman assaulted her in a similar way in 2016.

Reached by phone, Kim Bauer, an employee at Goodman’s office, said that Goodman couldn’t speak because he was with a patient, but that he told her he had not heard of the lawsuit before Shtetl’s inquiry. “He doesn’t know nothing about this,” Bauer said.

The complaint was filed by attorneys Ali Frick and Allana Kaufman, who specialize in civil rights law. Frick told Shtetl that people who are interested in joining the class action lawsuit should reach out to her and Kaufman by emailing them at africk@kllf-law.com and akaufman@kllf-law.com.

Ordinarily, victims of sexual abuse can only file lawsuits within a certain time frame. That is, they must file a lawsuit before the statute of limitations for the crime committed against them expires. However, the Adult Survivors Act, a law passed in New York in 2022, opened up a “lookback window,” a one-year period during which victims who were harmed as adults can file lawsuits regardless of how long ago they were assaulted. 

That lookback window will end on Nov. 24. Therefore, those who were assaulted should reach out to Frick and Kaufman “as quickly as possible,” Frick said — although it might still be possible to join the lawsuit after Nov. 24.

“Speaking up about my experience has been difficult, but my hope is that it helps empower others to come forward,” Wigder said, according to a press release from the lawyers.

Dov Hikind, a former New York State Assembly member who represented Borough Park until 2018, looked into allegations against Goodman while he was in office. Lawyers argued that since nothing came of Hikind’s work, he “lulled [Wigder] into further silence, believing that something was being done,” according to the complaint. Reached by phone, Hikind detailed how he encouraged the New York State Department of Health to investigate Goodman.

“I wrote a lengthy letter to the Department of Health, the people who are in charge of investigating doctors, outlining, without mentioning names, many of the allegations against Goodman,” Hikind told Shtetl. “I had conversations with people in that department.”

But the health department didn’t bring a charge against Goodman, according to a letter Hikind shared with Shtetl.

“Staff members of the Office of Professional Medical Conduct (OPMC) have investigated your complaint concerning Robert Goodman,” said the letter, which the DOH sent Hikind in November 2020. “All relevant evidence was gathered and reviewed.”

“There is insufficient evidence to bring a charge of professional misconduct,” the letter said. It was signed by DOH employee Sandra VanAuken.

Hikind said he was “extremely disappointed” when he read the letter, and he suspects that government employees failed to earn enough trust from members of insular Haredi communities in order for victims to tell their stories.

“You really need to know how to deal with people in a Borough Park type of community,” Hikind said.

Maimonides Medical Center declined to comment on the lawsuit.