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ANN ARBOR, Michigan (AP) — A sixth person has accused a late University of Michigan physician of sexual abuse, and the university said Thursday it received more than 20 calls to a hotline within a day of announcing it was launching an investigation.
The university announced the investigation on Wednesday, after five former patients of Dr. Robert E. Anderson alleged that he sexually abused them during exams. Officials acknowledged that some university employees were aware of accusations against the doctor prior to a 2018 complaint that led to a police investigation.
University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said that as of Thursday morning, the line had received 22 calls regarding Anderson, the onetime director of the University Health Service and team physician for the football team, The Detroit News reported.
A sixth former patient, 72-year-old Gary Bailey of Dowagiac, Michigan, told the newspaper that he complained to the university in 1968 that Anderson assaulted him during a medical exam. He said Anderson dropped his pants and asked him to fondle his genitals.
He said he told some friends afterward, then went to the UM health service and filled out a form describing he incident.
"This happened to me 50-52 years ago, but I have never forgotten it," Bailey, 72, told the newspaper. “It was very traumatic.”
Another man, Robert Julian Stone, told The Associated Press that Anderson assaulted him during a medical appointment at the university's health center in 1971. Stone said he alerted university officials last summer, inspired by the national #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct.
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