Preview Newsletter
Dr. Puliafito Coverage EOD 7/26
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A report of drugs, a prostitute, a med school dean — and a widening scandal for USC
Jul 26, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Susan Svrluga and Sarah Larimer
The University of Southern California, widely regarded as academically ascendant, faces a deepening crisis over a Los Angeles Times report that the renowned former dean of its medical school was apparently using illegal drugs even in his own office on campus. -
The Dean of USC's Medical School Used Addictive Drugs
Jul 26, 2017 | Psychology Today
By Stanton Peele
Developments concerning the use of a "very addictive drug" (this is how MedlinePlus refers to meth) by a prominent medical school administrator and physician seemingly call into question the verities with which medicine regards and deals with drug use. -
New police tape reveals how disgraced USC medical school dean told cops that overdose prostitute found in his hotel room was 'a family friend' - but they 'didn't buy' his story...
Jul 26, 2017 | DailyMail
By Hannah Parry
The investigator into the case of a prostitute who overdosed in the hotel room of a disgraced USC med school dean has revealed he was skeptical of his story. -
Physicians and drug misuse: 5 takeaways from allegations against former USC Keck medical school dean
Jul 26, 2017 | Becker's Hospital Review
By Alyssa Rege
Allegations Carmen Puliafito, MD, former dean of Los Angeles-based USC's Keck School of Medicine, used drugs such as methamphetamine and ecstasy have drawn attention to drug use and addiction among physicians — and how the healthcare industry may hinder a physician from receiving treatment. -
Police release audio recording of former USC Keck medical school dean's questioning: 10 things to know
Jul 26, 2017 | Becker's Hospital Review
By Alyssa Rege
The Pasadena (Calif.) Police Department released an audio recording of a police officer questioning Carmen Puliafito, MD, former dean of Los Angeles-based Keck School of Medicine of USC, about an overdose incident at a hotel in March 2016, according to The Los Angeles Times. -
'LA Times' Investigates The Double Life Of A Med School Dean
Jul 26, 2017 | WKMS 91.3 fm (NPR)
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST: Dr. Carmen Puliafito was dean of the medical school at the University of Southern California. A photo in the LA Times shows a man in a dark suit and tie, a white shirt and a serious expression. AUDIO LINK: https://ondemand.npr.org/npr-mp4/npr/me/2017/07/20170726_me_la_times_investigates_the_double_life_of_a_med_school_dean.mp4?orgId=1&topicId=1091&d=325&p=3&story=539438885&t=progseg&e=539438794&seg=5&ft=nprml&f=539438885
Traditional Media Coverage
Broadcast Media Coverage
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A report of drugs, a prostitute, a med school dean — and a widening scandal for USC
Jul 26, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Susan Svrluga and Sarah Larimer
The University of Southern California, widely regarded as academically ascendant, faces a deepening crisis over a Los Angeles Times report that the renowned former dean of its medical school was apparently using illegal drugs even in his own office on campus.
Stunned parents, students and higher education experts are asking a simple question: If the allegations are true, why didn’t the university do something sooner?
“This is really going to damage the school,” said Arthur Caplan, head of the division of medical ethics at New York University School of Medicine, not so much because of the alleged behavior but because of the university’s apparent response. “It didn’t look like people were moving quickly to handle these reports. Even when they had them in the newspaper they didn’t handle them quickly. That makes people wonder about leadership. …
“It strains credulity to believe, if the reports are true,” he said, “that somebody wouldn’t be picking up on something.”
A USC professor acknowledged that people inside and outside the university are upset about the story, but he praised the university’s leaders’ integrity. Jacob Soll, a professor of history and accounting who works with governments on ethics issues, said people need to keep in mind that personnel decisions are fraught and legally complex. He said the university’s president, C.L. Max Nikias, a friend, is “totally aware of the fragility of the operation … one scandal like this could ruin everything.”
Soll, a MacArthur Fellow, said he has seen Nikias choose academic integrity rather than following the money, numerous times. “The guy’s squeaky clean. He has wanted to avoid the kind of scandal where the university makes the wrong decision. He’s totally conscious of this.”
Last week, the Times reported that the former dean of the Keck School of Medicine, the Harvard-educated eye surgeon Carmen A. Puliafito, had a secret life: While he had raised millions of dollars in donations and grant money, and enticed academic stars to the school, he resigned as dean in March 2016 — three weeks after a 21-year-old woman who had been working as a prostitute allegedly overdosed in his hotel room. Police found methamphetamine in the room and talked with Puliafito but made no arrests. Puliafito later picked her up from the hospital, according to the Times, took her back to the hotel, and continued the party.
The Times story on Aug. 17 described numerous videos and photos from 2015 and 2016 showing Puliafito using drugs with much younger friends at several locations — including in the dean’s office at USC:
In one video, a tuxedo-clad Puliafito displays an orange pill on his tongue and says into the camera, “Thought I’d take an ecstasy before the ball.” Then he swallows the pill.
In another, Puliafito uses a butane torch to heat a large glass pipe outfitted for methamphetamine use. He inhales and then unleashes a thick plume of white smoke. Seated next to him on a sofa, a young woman smokes heroin from a piece of heated foil.
Puliafito could not be reached for comment.
The story continues to reverberate nationally, in part because it seems a particularly shocking example of the unprecedented reach of the epidemic of illegal drug use in the country, and in part because most people have so much respect, and trust, for doctors — especially those whose roles include furthering advanced research, educating the next generation of phsyicians, and caring for people who need help.
The university, a private school of 44,000 students in Los Angeles that has raised its reputation in recent years, initially responded with a brief statement that its leaders could not discuss personnel matters. The statement said that Puliafito was on leave from his roles at USC, was not seeing patients, and that, if the allegations were true, the university hoped he would get the treatment he needs for a full recovery.
On Friday, Nikias issued another public statement, telling the campus community that, “We are outraged and disgusted by this individual’s behavior.” He said that the school had hired Debra Wong Yang, a partner in the law firm Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, and a former federal prosecutor, for an inquiry into Puliafito’s conduct, the university’s response, and its policies and procedures.
The university’s provost, Michael Quick, also wrote a letter to the faculty Friday saying that he was aware many people “wanted us to act on allegations and hearsay, but we needed actual facts.” He said they had that day for the first time seen information firsthand of egregious behavior. “It is extremely troubling and we need to take serious action.”
Officials had begun the process of firing Puliafito and stripping him of his faculty tenure, Quick wrote. Puliafito is suspended, banned from campus and all university events.
But many asked why the university had not acted sooner.
“You can be fired for cause if you engage in behavior that is morally abhorrent,” said Raymond D. Cotton, a lawyer specializing in leadership and governance in higher education. He said he had already seen, while negotiating a contract, university officials insist on stricter controls over behavior in the days since the scandal broke.
“Boards need to keep their radar up – that’s part of their fiduciary duty. The president of the university has to keep his radar up, too. He’s the last person who should be in denial about serious allegations,” Cotton said. “This person is dean of a medical school – setting moral standards for his students. If allegations are made, they need to be looked into. They may turn out to be false, but at least look into them.”
The Medical Board of California is looking into the allegations based upon the information provided in the Times article, according to Cassandra Hockenson, a spokeswoman for the board, but she said the board does not discuss ongoing investigations or complaints.
Paul S. Rosenbloom, president of USC’s Academic Senate, said in an email: “I am appalled by what has been alleged concerning the behavior of the former medical school dean, and concerned about anyone who may have been hurt by his actions. Furthermore, all faculty have a stake in knowing that this particular situation has been, and will be, handled appropriately by the university; and that we are confident that the appropriate policies and procedures are in place for the future.
“I am thus looking forward to hearing the results of the separate proceedings that have been initiated to terminate the employment of Prof. Puliafito and to investigate both his actions and the university’s past and present responses, policies and procedures”
“The entire academic community has been shaken up by this,” said John Prescott, an emergency medicine doctor and former dean who is chief academic officer for the Association of American Medical Colleges. H said that in working with hundreds of medical school deans over years he had never seen anything remotely like the behavior the Times described. “There are a 100,000-plus faculty members currently in the United States. For any individual faculty member this would be an outlier,” he said.
“When it’s a dean – because of the position, the trust the university and the school places on that individual,” and the scrutiny and vetting they face before they are hired, he said, the situation is far more serious.
“It’s as important an issue as any that a school or could face; it’s a senior leader of an academic institution.” Deans are juggling the demands of shifting national health-care policy, fundraising, threats to research funding,” he said. “And lives are literally at stake.”
“I’ve heard from any number of deans who have sent me links to this,” the Times coverage, he added. “They’re quite frankly astounded and disappointed. But I’ve also gotten the same kind of emails from family members and others who are not physicians – this is shocking to them too. It is shocking.”
He said medical institutions across the country will be having ongoing conversations about how to better look out for one another, how to step in when someone needs help, and how to have the best possible programs in place to care for medical professionals when they need it.
Soll pointed out that the situation was complicated because police had not arrested Puliafito or charged him with anything. He said there is also a need to provide appropriate medical treatment to someone who might be struggling with substance abuse.
An audio recording suggests that the police officer who spoke with Puliafito about the overdose seemed unconvinced of the then-dean’s version of events, the Times reported in a follow-up story this week. That recording captures a social worker asking the officer whether he buys Puliafito’s story, according to the newspaper, which obtained the audio after filing a public records request. “No,” the officer responds.
The officer can be heard on the audio asking Puliafito how he knows the woman. Puliafito responds that he is a friend of her father. The officer also asks if the two were involved in a romantic relationship, which Puliafito denies.
Charles Sipkins, a partner with the crisis-management public-relations firm hired by university officials, responded on behalf of USC board chairman John Mork Wednesday, and said that the president, provost, and Keck School of Medicine dean were not available to talk.
Numerous trustees, alumni, faculty, and students did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Frederick J. Ryan Jr., the publisher and chief executive of The Washington Post, was elected to the USC Board of Trustees in February. Ryan did not respond to a request for comment.
Sipkins confirmed that, as the Times initially reported, an anonymous call was placed to the president’s office in March 2016. That information was never relayed to senior administrators, he said.
Puliafito resigned as dean that month.
He was honored by the university in June 2016 for his contributions.
This January, the Times reported, a reporter went to Nikias’ home and left a letter asking the president to talk about the circumstances surrounding Puliafito’s resignation — a letter that was returned the next day, unopened, via courier. In March of this year, the Times reported, the newspaper asked to interview Nikias, with a list of questions and information the reporters had learned, including that methamphetamine had been found in the hotel room where the woman overdosed the year before, and that the room was registered to Puliafito. The newspaper attached the recording of the 911 call made to report the apparent overdose which included audio of Puliafito identifying himself as a doctor and saying the woman was sleeping after having a bunch of drinks.
Nikias did not respond to that March 2 email, according to the Times, and reporters who went to his office were turned away.
“This is a disaster right now,” Soll said. “It needs to be cleared up – and people have to understand what the university’s constraints are.”
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The Dean of USC's Medical School Used Addictive Drugs
Jul 26, 2017 | Psychology Today
By Stanton Peele
Developments concerning the use of a "very addictive drug" (this is how MedlinePlus refers to meth) by a prominent medical school administrator and physician seemingly call into question the verities with which medicine regards and deals with drug use.
News item: The former Dean and current faculty at U.S.C.s medical school, Carmen A. Puliafito, a world-famous
ophthalmologist and highly successful fund raiser for the school, was summarily fired after news of his drug use was publicized.
What lessons can we glean from his story?
1. The Dean was highly successful while he was using meth, an amphetamine similar pharmaceutically to Adderall, a drug used by college students to improve concentration and performance.
Meth is the drug associated with those pictures of people whose appearance deteriorates horribly due to their drug use.
But there are no reports that Puliafito was impaired in his job performance; almost the contrary: A renowned eye surgeon responsible for several breakthroughs in ophthalmology, Dr. Puliafito led aggressive fund-raising efforts that garnered more than $1 billion for the medical school. . . .
Dr. Carmen A. Puliafito boosted the medical school’s ranking as its dean and raised hundreds of millions of dollars, becoming one of the highest-profile figures at a university packed with star faculty and supported by big donors.
Around Los Angeles, Dr. Puliafito garnered attention as a kind of bon vivant at glittery parties, grinning for the camera alongside celebrities like Pierce Brosnan, Martin Short and Jay Leno while bringing in as much as $9 million in a single night.
2. Was Dean Puliafito addicted? In the first place, as I noted in Psychology Today in 2010, the psychiatric diagnostic manual doesnt use the term "addiction" with regards to drugs, but reserves that term for gambling. DSM-5 requires for consideration of a diagnosis that the person experience impairment and distress.
While we cant know the Deans inner state, no such impairment and distress were reported during his successful tenure as dean, and he was fired only after an article about his drug use appeared in the L.A. Times a year and more after it occurred: Puliafito, 66, and these much younger acquaintances captured their exploits in photos and videos. The Times reviewed dozens of the images.
Shot in 2015 and 2016, they show Puliafito and the others partying in hotel rooms, cars, apartments and the dean’s office at USC.
In one video, a tuxedo-clad Puliafito displays an orange pill on his tongue and says into the camera, “Thought I’d take an ecstasy before the ball.” Then he swallows the pill.
In another, Puliafito uses a butane torch to heat a large glass pipe outfitted for methamphetamine use. He inhales and then unleashes a thick plume of white smoke. Seated next to him on a sofa, a young woman smokes heroin from a piece of heated foil.
As dean, Puliafito oversaw hundreds of medical students, thousands of professors and clinicians, and research grants totaling more than $200 million. He was a key fundraiser for USC, bringing in more than $1 billion in donations, by his estimation.
It was only after the pictures were revealed in the L.A. Times that university administrators realized that anything was amiss: “This was the first time we saw such information firsthand. It is extremely troubling and we need to take serious action.” Taking this statement at face value, apparently there were no significant problems with Dr. Puliafitos performance and role at the medical school.
3. Does U.S.C. and its medical school really treat drug use as a disease?
U.S.C.s chief administrators and prominent spokespeople repeatedly refer to Puliafitos drug use as an addictive disease: “It’s unfortunate that, in every profession, we find individuals who suffer from addiction." “We certainly understand that substance abuse is a tragic and devastating disease.” “We are concerned about Dr. Puliafito and his family and hope that, if the article’s assertions are true, he receives the help and treatment he may need for a full recovery." But why then did U.S.C. instantly fire Puliafito, rather than referring him for treatment for his disease to what university administrators would undoubtedly declare are the world-class addiction treatment staff and facilities available at the medical school?
4. Was Puliafito as addicted, or more so, to a lifestyle and to sex as he was to drugs? I have pointed out in Reason Magazine that DSM-5s authors specifically rejected the idea of sex addiction.
But Puliafitos drug use seems to have been very much associated with his social activities, and particularly with a woman who worked as a prostitute: article continues after advertisement One woman told The Times that he was with her when she overdosed in a hotel room and that he had taken her to his campus office to use drugs. The woman, Sarah Warren, who worked as a prostitute, said they were “constant companions” after meeting in early 2015.
This all recalls the case of former D.C. Mayor Marion Barry, who turned to crack only as a distant second choice after a former girlfriend refused to give him sex, while he interrupted his drug use to find another woman: They reminisce about their past drug use—Ms. Moore testified that there were more than 100 such incidents.
”So what do you want to do?” Ms. Moore asks several times, without using direct questions about drugs.
The mayor, unaware that she is secretly working with the police and is prepared to supply him with drugs, says he wants to have sex.
Ms. Moore fends him off after he makes several advances. Mr. Barry then asks about a woman, identified as Wanda, who was briefly in the hotel room at the time he arrived.
”Your friend mess around?” he asks.
Only after his efforts to have sex are repeatedly rejected does Barry resign himself to smoking crack: ‘The Mayor picks up the pipe, raises it to his mouth and lights it. He takes a long drag and holds the smoke. Then he repeats the process. Ms. Moore moves back into the camera’s view. ”You don’t want to take another one?” she asks.
”No, you’re crazy,” the Mayor replies. ”Let’s go downstairs and meet your friend.” There is a loud noise. ”Police!” a voice cries out.
And, so, I am sure, as good scientists and public health advocates, U.S.C., its medical school, and the entire medical profession will want to reconsider their views of and approach to drug use and addiction based on this latest case involving one of their own.
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Jul 26, 2017 | DailyMail
By Hannah Parry
The investigator into the case of a prostitute who overdosed in the hotel room of a disgraced USC med school dean has revealed he was skeptical of his story.
Dr Carmen Puliafito, 66, was interviewed by police after Sarah Warren, 21, overdosed in his hotel room in March 2016, and was rushed to hospital. She survived.
Puliafito, the former dean of the University of Southern California's medicine school, claimed at the time he was a family friend of the prostitute and was at the Pasadena hotel room to help Warren.
But a recording of the conversation between the investigating officer and a social worker, at the hospital, reveals the cop was skeptical of the dean's account.
'You buy it?' asked the social worker in the recording, recently released by Pasadena police released in response to a California Public Records Act request by The LA Times.
'No,' the officer, who has not been named, replied.
The social worker then laughs and says mockingly: 'A friend of the father. Excuse me?
'That's funny.'
The pair then discussed the meth found at the scene, Warren's provocative clothing' and speculated about their relationship.
Warren, now 22, told The Times police never interviewed her.
She says that six hours after she overdosed, Puliafito picked her up and they returned to the hotel where they carried on taking drugs.
Despite the officer's suspicions, no arrests were made. It was several months before a police report was even filed.
Pasadena Police Chief Phillip L. Sanchez said on Tuesday that his officers lacked evidence to arrest Puliafito - despite finding meth in his hotel room.
Puliafito, nor USC, would not comment on the allegations.
Warren said she met Puliafito while working as a prostitute in 2015. They saw each other regularly and she claims they would often spend the night together in hotel rooms he paid for.
When she overdosed, Puliafito told the 911 operator he was a doctor.
'My girlfriend here had a bunch of drinks and she's sleeping,' he told the dispatcher. When asked if the woman had taken anything else, he replied: 'I think just the alcohol.'
Paramedics rushed Warren to hospital, where the cop met Puliafito to interview him about the overdose.
The disgraced dean is heard on the recording, claiming that he was a friend of Warren's father.
He denied they had a 'romantic relationship'.
When asked about the overdose, Puliafito said he thought Warren was sleeping.
'You as a doctor, did you notice anything that would have alarmed you?' the officer asked.
The ex-dean replied he was an ophthalmologist and eye surgeon.
'So not an emergency medicine physician. I mean, I basically looked at her respirations, you know,' he said. 'When I saw her at the beginning, she was responding to me.' Later, he said, Warren 'didn't seem to be waking up.'
He resigned as dean of Keck School of Medicine three weeks later after a witness to the overdose informed police and USC of Puliafito's behavior.
The university has since started the process of terminating Puliafito from the faculty and stripping him of tenure on Friday.
'This was the first time we saw such information first-hand,' Quick wrote. 'It is extremely troubling and we need to take serious action.'
'We certainly understand that substance abuse is a tragic and devastating disease. But we are also bound to our responsibilities as a university to take the necessary actions concerning Dr Puliafito's status.'
The announcement came the same day that USC said it had hired a former judge and federal prosecutor to head an investigation into allegations, first reported in the Los Angeles Times, that Puliafito was seen on video apparently smoking meth and consorting with addicts and criminals.
Debra Wong Yang, a former member of the Los Angeles Police Commission, Superior Court judge and federal prosecutor in Los Angeles, will present her findings to a committee of the USC board of trustees.
'We are outraged and disgusted by this individual's behavior,' USC President C.L. Max Nikias said in a letter announcing the investigation and urging colleagues to cooperate fully.
Puliafito, 66, is a renowned eye surgeon.
He led the Keck School of Medicine for nearly a decade before resigning his $1.1 million-a-year post in 2016. However, he remained on the Keck faculty and continued to represent the university at public events as recently as last weekend.
His successor Dr. Rohit Varma initially claimed there was no record of the call, but yesterday a crisis management specialist revealed the school received the anonymous call but it never reached USC's top execs.
Puliafito's secret life was chronicled in photos and video shot between 2015 and 2016 by his drug-related friends.
The footage, reviewed by the Times, allegedly shows him taking pills and smoking from glass meth pipes.
It showed Puliafito - a renowned eye surgeon - partying with others in hotel rooms, cars and even the dean's office at USC.
He was filmed once showing an orange pill on his tongue before he swallowed it and said: 'Thought I'd take an ecstasy before the ball.'
The surgeon was also filmed heating a glass meth pipe, inhaling and blowing out white smoke.
Several men, most with criminal convictions, said Warren had introduced them to Puliafito. They claimed he had given them drugs like meth while they partied.
Puliafito, 66, is a renowned eye surgeon.
He led the Keck School of Medicine for nearly a decade before resigning his $1.1 million-a-year post in 2016. However, he remained on the Keck faculty and continued to represent the university at public events as recently as last weekend.
His successor Dr. Rohit Varma initially claimed there was no record of the call, but yesterday a crisis management specialist revealed the school received the anonymous call but it never reached USC's top execs.
Puliafito's secret life was chronicled in photos and video shot between 2015 and 2016 by his drug-related friends.
The footage, reviewed by the Times, allegedly shows him taking pills and smoking from glass meth pipes.
It showed Puliafito - a renowned eye surgeon - partying with others in hotel rooms, cars and even the dean's office at USC.
He was filmed once showing an orange pill on his tongue before he swallowed it and said: 'Thought I'd take an ecstasy before the ball.'
The surgeon was also filmed heating a glass meth pipe, inhaling and blowing out white smoke.
Several men, most with criminal convictions, said Warren had introduced them to Puliafito. They claimed he had given them drugs like meth while they partied.
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Physicians and drug misuse: 5 takeaways from allegations against former USC Keck medical school dean
Jul 26, 2017 | Becker's Hospital Review
By Alyssa Rege
Allegations Carmen Puliafito, MD, former dean of Los Angeles-based USC's Keck School of Medicine, used drugs such as methamphetamine and ecstasy have drawn attention to drug use and addiction among physicians — and how the healthcare industry may hinder a physician from receiving treatment.
Here are five takeaways about substance abuse among physicians in the U.S.
1. Though physicians are likely to engage in drug misuse at about the same rate as the general population, they are more reluctant to seek addiction treatment and counseling because it may result in a potential loss of their medical license, according to The Los Angeles Times.
2. Some experts suggest physicians are also much more familiar with the common symptoms and signs of drug misuse, and are therefore able to hide their addiction for longer.
"There's an invulnerability: 'Well, I'll just do this the right way and it'll never be a problem. I'll just do this the right way and I'll never overdose,'" said Marvin Seppala, MD, CMO of Center City, Minn.-based Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation. "Somehow they believe their knowledge is going to be more powerful than addiction."
3. Physicians in California — like Dr. Puliafito — may be more reluctant to address their addictions since the state ended its rehabilitation program for physicians in 2008. The program allowed physicians in the state to seek treatment without the threat of losing their medical license. However, state officials ended the program because several state audits found it was failing. The "vast majority" of states still maintain some variation of a rehabilitation program for physicians, the report states.
4. Lisa Merlo, PhD, a psychiatry professor at the University of Florida School of Medicine in Gainesville, said physicians are most commonly addicted to alcohol, followed by opiates. Physicians with the most addiction problems tend to be anesthesiologists, emergency room physicians and psychiatrists, according to the report.
5. Nurses and hospital staff may be less inclined to report a physician with a substance misuse issue out of fear of losing their jobs. Similarly, hospital officials may point to declining revenues as a reason to not send physicians to rehabilitation.
"[Hospital executives] may be really resistant to putting … a neurosurgeon or [someone who's] a big income producer for the hospital [into treatment]," Dr. Seppala told The Los Angeles Times. "You've got some perverse incentives."
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Jul 26, 2017 | Becker's Hospital Review
By Alyssa Rege
The Pasadena (Calif.) Police Department released an audio recording of a police officer questioning Carmen Puliafito, MD, former dean of Los Angeles-based Keck School of Medicine of USC, about an overdose incident at a hotel in March 2016, according to The Los Angeles Times.
Here are 10 things to know about the incident and the recording.
1. A Pasadena-based Hotel Constance employee allegedly called 911 to report an overdose incident March 4, 2016. Dr. Puliafito, now 66, spoke to the 911 dispatcher and identified himself as a physician. He also claimed the woman who overdosed was his girlfriend and she "had a bunch of drinks and she's sleeping," according to the report. Paramedics arrived and transported the woman — Sarah Warren, now 22, — to Huntington Memorial Hospital in Pasadena for treatment.
2. The police officers who responded to the call recorded a witness statement from Dr. Puliafito at the hospital. The Los Angeles Times filed a California Public Records Act and obtained a copy of the recording from police July 25.
3. On an unidentified police officer's audio recording, Dr. Puliafito identified himself as a friend of Ms. Warren's father and denied any involvement in a romantic relationship with Ms. Warren, the report states.
4. Dr. Puliafito told the police officer he "thought [Ms. Warren] was sleeping, and she was breathing and you know, and hadn't thrown up or anything." When asked if he noticed anything about Ms. Warren's behavior that may have alarmed him, Dr. Puliafito responded saying he was an ophthalmologist, not an emergency medicine physician, and hadn't medically evaluated her.
"I mean, I basically looked at her respirations," Dr. Puliafito allegedly said on the recording. "When I saw her at the beginning, she was responding to me."
5. Later on, a social worker from the hospital is heard asking the unidentified police officer what he thought of Dr. Puliafito's account of the incident. The two individuals speculated about Dr. Puliafito's relationship with the woman and discussed the drugs and "provocative clothing" also found at the scene, according to the report.
6. A required report on the incident was not filed until three months after the overdose incident occurred, according to the report. Police did not arrest anyone in connection with the incident, The Los Angeles Times reports.
7. Pasadena Police Chief Phillip L. Sanchez defended the department's handling of the case in a statement July 25, stating it lacked evidence to arrest Dr. Puliafito in connection with the drugs obtained at the hotel room registered in his name, according to the report.
8. It is unclear if police continued to investigate the hotel incident after questioning Dr. Puliafito at the hospital. Ms. Warren told The Los Angeles Times police never interviewed her about the incident.
9. Pasadena City Manager Steve Mermell sent a memo to city council members last week stating the publication's investigation into the incident and its findings "reflect poorly on the city and the Pasadena police department. … There should have been [a police report issued] and that was a failure on the part of our responding officer. Once this came to light, [police] undertook an appropriate investigation and ultimately the involved officer was the subject of disciplinary action." It is unclear whether the police officer was disciplined for the incident.
10. The university allegedly received "extremely troubling" information about Dr. Puliafito's drug misuse that required officials to take "serious action" July 21. USC officials initiated the process to terminate Dr. Puliafito from his faculty position at the medical school Friday.
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'LA Times' Investigates The Double Life Of A Med School Dean
Jul 26, 2017 | WKMS 91.3 fm (NPR)
AUDIO LINK: https://ondemand.npr.org/npr-mp4/npr/me/2017/07/20170726_me_la_times_investigates_the_double_life_of_a_med_school_dean.mp4?orgId=1&topicId=1091&d=325&p=3&story=539438885&t=progseg&e=539438794&seg=5&ft=nprml&f=539438885
STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
Dr. Carmen Puliafito was dean of the medical school at the University of Southern California. A photo in the LA Times shows a man in a dark suit and tie, a white shirt and a serious expression.
MARC DUVOISIN: His reputation was as a brilliant scientist and medical innovator and also as a great fundraiser. And he was someone who could raise the profile and sort of the research ranking and heft of an institution.
INSKEEP: Marc Duvoisin of the Los Angeles Times edited a team of reporters who found another side to the medical school dean. There seemed to be no reason to suspect him of anything until he stepped back from the dean's job in March of 2016 - said he was pursuing another job. That's when an LA Times reporter, Paul Pringle, got a tip about an event at a hotel earlier that month.
DUVOISIN: And the tip was that a prominent person in the medical establishment at USC, that he'd been present or somehow involved in a drug overdose involving a 21-year-old woman. So Paul, with that tip, began to try to develop that and ran into a wall. He couldn't get any information out of the Pasadena Police Department. He persisted, went to the fire department and other institutions and was able to establish by looking at a call for service law that a 911 call had been placed from the hotel on the date that he'd been tipped about.
He was able to get a recording of the 911 call. And on it, he heard the voice of a man who he later determined was Dr. Puliafito conversing with an emergency operator about the condition of a young woman in his presence.
INSKEEP: Now, I think you're telling me that all this was learned by the reporter but not actually Dr. Puliafito's name. How did that come to you?
DUVOISIN: Paul established in his early reporting that the Pasadena Police Department had not prepared an incident report on this incident, which was unusual. And after a couple of months, the Pasadena Police Department acknowledged to him that a report should have been prepared and a report was being prepared. And he was able to obtain a copy of that report. Almost all of the report was redacted.
One of the few items of information that remained un-redacted was a name - in a field on the report for witness was listed Dr. Carmen Puliafito. With that report, Paul was able to place Dr. Puliafito at the scene of that overdose, in that room.
INSKEEP: So what was it that was going on in that room, as best you can determine?
DUVOISIN: Later, with the help of some other reporters who were added to the story to assist him, Paul was able to make contact with the young woman, whose name is Sarah Warren, now 22 years old. And he was able to interview her. And what he learned from talking to her was that she'd been in a relationship with Dr. Puliafito for some time, for about 15 months, which began when he reached her, I believe, through an escort site when she was involved in prostitution.
They smoked methamphetamine together, and they became steady companions. He paid all kinds of expenses for her. Then they used drugs together.
INSKEEP: Did you learn that that was symptomatic of his entire life?
DUVOISIN: It's a picture of fragments, Steve, because we don't have Dr. Puliafito's cooperation and very, very little cooperation from USC - or none, actually, until after publication. But what we do know is that we were able to get ahold of a number of videos and photographs that Dr. Puliafito, Sarah Warren and members of their circle took of each other when they were partying in various places.
There's a video of Dr. Puliafito putting what looks like an ecstasy pill on his tongue and announcing that he's going to have an ecstasy before the ball. And then he swallows it. He's wearing a tuxedo in this video. Members of the circle who are in these photographs include several people with records of drug use, drug possession and possession for purpose of sale.
INSKEEP: Was he ever involved with students, so far as you know?
DUVOISIN: None of the people that we've connected him to were USC students.
INSKEEP: What have people connected to USC said as more has become known about his life?
DUVOISIN: Every indication we have, Steve, is that the campus is in turmoil over this. I think people associated with USC are concerned for the reputation of the university. There's a lot of ferment and distress that this information came out the way it did.
INSKEEP: Was the university slow to investigate this?
DUVOISIN: All we know is what we've published, which is that when we - when Paul Pringle began seeking information over a year ago, he could not even engage at all. He couldn't even get phone calls returned. One image that stays with me was when Paul, in exasperation, hand delivered a letter to the home of the president of USC, Max Nikias, asking for an interview to discuss the circumstances surrounding Dr. Puliafito's resignation as dean in the spring of 2016.
And I remember when that envelope was returned to our offices, the LA Times newsroom by courier, the USC had sent a courier to return the envelope to us unopened with a complaint that the reporter had stepped over the line. Having that image is powerful, of not even opening the envelope to find out what this matter is about and whether it needed to be addressed.
INSKEEP: Marc Duvoisin of the Los Angeles Times, thanks very much.
DUVOISIN: Thank you, Steve.
INSKEEP: Now, after resigning as dean, Carmen Puliafito remained on the faculty at USC. But last week, the university banned him from campus and says it's begun the process of firing him.
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