Dr. Puliafito Coverage EOD 7/20/2017

Traditional Media

1. USC bosses flunk the leadership test amid shocking allegations about former medical school dean

   Jul 20, 2017 | Los Angeles Times

   By Steve Lopez
   
   
   By now you probably know the details. Dr. Carmen Puliafito, a $1.1-million-a-year professor, doctor, dean and big-bucks rainmaker for the University of Southern California, left plenty of time in his busy schedule for extracurricular activities.
2. Report: Former USC Med School Dean Allegedly Partied with Prostitutes and Criminals

   Jul 20, 2017 | Breitbart

   By Tom Ciccotta
   
   
   During his tenure at USC, former Keck School of Medicine Dean Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito allegedly partied with prostitutes and criminals while high on a cocktail of illegal drugs, according to an investigative report from the Los Angeles Times.
3. 'Secret Life’ Of Hard-Partying USC Dean Exposed By Newspaper

   Jul 20, 2017 | The Fix

   By Victoria Kim
   
   
   The prominent former USC dean's double life was unveiled in a recent exposé by the LA Times. The former dean of the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California worked hard—but played even harder.

Traditional Media

1. USC bosses flunk the leadership test amid shocking allegations about former medical school dean

   Jul 20, 2017 | Los Angeles Times

   By Steve Lopez

   By now you probably know the details.

   Dr. Carmen Puliafito, a $1.1-million-a-year professor, doctor, dean and big-bucks rainmaker for the University of Southern California, left plenty of time in his busy schedule for extracurricular activities.

   They included drug-fueled parties with a prostitute, convicted criminals and drug addicts. Los Angeles Times sleuths dug up photos of Puliafito’s exploits in hotel rooms, apartments and even the dean’s office at USC, including a shot of him using a butane torch to light a glass pipe while a female companion smoked heroin.

   In Monday’s bombshell expose in The Times, reporters Paul Pringle, Harriet Ryan, Adam Elmahrek, Matt Hamilton and Sarah Parvini also reported the details of a 911 call from a Pasadena hotel where a woman had overdosed before being hospitalized. She later told reporters that she and Puliafito had been partying together for two days.No police report of hotel overdose

   But I’m not interested in pounding on Puliafito here. The man appears to have serious problems. He needs help and I hope he gets it.

   “Complex addiction doesn’t respect age, income or title,” said a USC-trained physician, who added that he thinks USC will survive this episode, but Puliafito and his family may need help to get through it.

   The physician, who didn’t want his name used, also suggested that, given the private school’s endless quest for money, Puliafito’s strengths made him “like a star quarterback … and he was worth keeping in the game if they could keep the incident private, too.”

   And that’s the part of the story that interests me most — the actions and non-actions of USC administrators and the Pasadena Police Department.

   Let me start with the latter.

   On March 4, 2016, paramedics and police responded to the call from the hotel where Puliafito’s companion had passed out. But the responding officer did not file a report on the incident, even though methamphetamine was found in the room. After dogged questioning by my colleague Paul Pringle, Pasadena officials said a report should have been filed and the officer had been disciplined.

   Does anyone think for a minute that if an average Joe had been in that room, he wouldn’t have been written up, investigated and possibly charged?Where’s the outrage?

   Did someone influential intercede on behalf of Puliafito to protect his reputation and preserve his status as a prodigious USC fundraiser who schmoozed with the likes of billionaire Larry Ellison, Jay Leno, Warren Beatty, Annette Bening, Martin Short and developer Rick Caruso?

   “If the allegations are true,” said Caruso, a USC graduate and member of the school’s board of trustees, “I'm very disturbed and condemn the illegal use of drugs, especially by someone who holds the highest level of trust and care.”

   But, like I said, I’m less disturbed by what Puliafito might have done, and more disturbed by what his bosses didn’t do.

   The Times reported that 10 days after the hotel incident, an anonymous complaint about Puliafito was submitted to two employees in the office of USC President C.L. Max Nikias. A week and a half later, Puliafito resigned as dean. He later told The Times by email that he had voluntarily decided to move on and pursue a job in biotech.

   That sounded suspicious, given what The Times knew. But a Nikias staffer told our reporters: “The president will not be speaking to The Times on this matter.”

   Maybe that’s because Nikias was too busy planning a celebratory, catered wingding for Puliafito. If you’re poor and have a drug problem, you land on skid row. If you’re rich and connected, it’s cocktails and kudos.

   In June of last year, three months after Puliafito’s resignation as dean, he was honored by various USC administrators, including Nikias.

   “Today, we have one of the, not just the area’s, but the nation’s preeminent medical schools and medical enterprises — and, in many ways, thanks to the leadership of Carmen,” Nikias gushed.It’s about more than money

   Are money and prestige all that matter?

   Did Puliafito’s prolific fundraising and ability to draw top medical talent earn him not just a pass, but a party?

   Reporter Pringle sent numerous emails to Nikias and his associates over more than a year, respectfully asking for an interview. He was ignored each time.

   Pringle sent Nikias an email with numerous questions about the Pasadena hotel incident and USC’s handling of the Puliafito matter, and requested, yet again, an interview with the president.

   No interview was granted. (Nor did I get anywhere Wednesday with my requests for an interview with Nikias and Puliafito).

   And here’s a detail that might make any self-respecting Trojan root for UCLA next year:

   Despite having resigned as dean, Puliafito remained on the faculty and continued to see patients for more than a year.

   Only after the story hit on Monday did USC release a statement saying Puliafito is “currently on leave from his roles at USC, including seeing patients.” And then on Tuesday, Nikias sent a letter to the “USC community” saying “we are working to determine how we can best prevent these kinds of circumstances going forward.”

   Shouldn’t that have begun more than a year ago, when The Times first started asking questions?‘Stunned depression’ at USC

   “The mood on campus is one of stunned depression,” a USC physician said in an email to me, asking me not to use his name. “Students are upset that this was allowed to happen at their medical school, while the faculty are flabbergasted as well as embarrassed.” The physician said that in his opinion, Puliafito should have been immediately suspended in March 2016 and an investigation launched.

   “By allowing him to continue to practice,” he said, “patients’ health was put at risk.”

   That’s consistent with sentiments expressed Wednesday when the dean who replaced Puliafito told a gathering of students that his predecessor’s alleged actions were “horrible and despicable.”

   Students at that meeting said university officials should have known more about Puliafito’s behavior. One woman said it “seems shocking that no one has been able to figure anything out.”

   “What an embarrassing time to work for USC and Keck School of Medicine,” said a second faculty member I heard from. “To me, it seems like the university needs a complete moral inventory/overhaul.”

   At the very least, Nikias needs to break the silence and tell what he knew and when he knew it.

   If he refuses, USC would be better off without him.

   Return to headline | Return to top

2. Report: Former USC Med School Dean Allegedly Partied with Prostitutes and Criminals

   Jul 20, 2017 | Breitbart

   By Tom Ciccotta

   During his tenure at USC, former Keck School of Medicine Dean Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito allegedly partied with prostitutes and criminals while high on a cocktail of illegal drugs, according to an investigative report from the Los Angeles Times.

   The Los Angeles Times report, which was published Monday, claims to pull back the curtain on the private life of the renowned eye surgeon who sat at the head of the prestigious Keck School of Medicine at the University of Southern California. According to the report, Dean Puliafito allegedly “kept company with a circle of criminals and drug users” during his tenure as dean of the medical school.

   A 22-year-old prostitute named Sarah Warren told the Times that she met Puliafito in early 2015. She claims that she and Dr. Puliafito were constant companions for more than a year and a half. During this time, Warren claims that she attended drug-fueled parties with Puliafito, some of which may have occurred after-hours on the USC campus.

   During their first encounter, Warren claims that she offered Puliafito meth, which he allegedly accepted. According to her interview, Warren claims that Puliafito was comfortable around illegal drugs. Warren, who was arrested four times on charges that included drug possession, petty theft, and drunk driving, claimed that she thought it odd that Puliafito had so much time to spend with her, given his commitments at the medical school.

   On March 4, 2015, around 5 PM, Puliafito spoke to a Fire Department Dispatcher to report that his “girlfriend” had suffered an apparent overdose. “My girlfriend here had a bunch of drinks and she’s sleeping,” he told the dispatcher according to a transcript. Asked whether the woman had taken anything else, he replied, “I think just the alcohol.”

   After the ambulance arrived, a hotel employee called the police after learning that Warren and Puliafito may have been consuming illegal drugs. “I got somebody in one of the rooms, they [were] doing drugs in the room,” the employee told an emergency operator. “I think they [were] doing crystal meth.”

   In her interview with the Times, Warren claimed that she had been partying with Puliafito in the hotel room for two days before the overdose. She claimed that she had consumed an excessive amount of gamma-hydroxybutyrate, or the “date-rape drug,” which some use recreationally in low doses for its euphoric effect.

   In videos obtained by the Los Angeles Times, Puliafito reportedly used a butane torch to heat a large glass pipe designed for methamphetamine use. Seated next to him in the video was a young woman allegedly smoking heroin from a piece of heated foil.

   Puliafito resigned in March 2016 from his position, which netted him an annual salary of $1.1 million. Just three weeks prior to his resignation, Warren had allegedly overdosed in his Pasedena hotel room. After he resigned, USC retained Puliafito as a faculty member and he continued to accept new patients at the campus eye clinic. He claims that his resignation was made voluntarily so that he could pursue biotech work.

   Following the publication of the Times report, USC announced that Puliafito had been placed on leave from all of his roles at the medical school, including seeing patients.

   Return to headline | Return to top

3. 'Secret Life’ Of Hard-Partying USC Dean Exposed By Newspaper

   Jul 20, 2017 | The Fix

   By Victoria Kim

   The prominent former USC dean's double life was unveiled in a recent exposé by the LA Times.

   The former dean of the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California worked hard—but played even harder. 

   In a detailed exposé of Dr. Carmen Puliafito, the Los Angeles Times outed the dean for living a “secret life” when he wasn’t raising money and academic talent for the school. Puliafito—also a renowned eye surgeon highly regarded in the field of ophthalmology—loved to party.

   Photos and videos shot in 2015 and 2016 obtained by the Times show the former dean enjoying meth and ecstasy with a cohort of “much younger” companions in hotel rooms, cars, apartments, and even Puliafito’s office at USC.

   The Times caught on to Puliafito’s extracurricular activities after one particular incident—in which a 21-year-old woman, Sarah Warren, passed out while using gamma-hydroxybutyrate (known as the date rape drug GHB) in a Pasadena hotel room while partying with Puliafito.

   Warren recovered in the hospital, but just six hours later was back at the hotel with Puliafito as if nothing had happened. According to a police report, meth was found at the hotel during the incident, but no arrests were made at the time.

   A witness had filed an anonymous complaint about the hotel overdose to Pasadena authorities and USC officials, but when nothing came of it, they contacted the LA Times alerting the newspaper to Puliafito’s questionable conduct.

   Just weeks after the incident, Puliafito resigned as dean of Keck. Puliafito has no criminal record nor issues with his medical license.

   The dean met Warren when she was working as a sex worker in early 2015. Warren, now 22, illustrated how the two were “constant companions” for more than a year and a half.

   Eventually the couple would spend much of their time getting high with a crew of likeminded people that included 39-year-old Don Stokes, who said Puliafito gave him meth while he was living in a sober home in Huntington Beach called New Life Spirit.

   The dean would provide the group with drugs and a place to stay, among other gifts, Stokes told the Times. He would even write them prescriptions for asthma inhalers so they could soothe their lungs from smoking meth and cannabis.

   Both Warren and Stokes have since entered treatment for their drug use and said they have lost touch with Puliafito.

   Return to headline | Return to top