Boston-area pediatrician accused of raping generations of patients

It’s a question posed on a private Facebook page that resulted in a retired Boston-area pediatrician being charged this week in Hingham District Court with raping two children — and sparking an investigation covering several generations of former patients.

Was it “normal” for a doctor to insert “his fingers into her vagina during an annual exam?” »A woman identified in a Norwell police report as Victim 2 asked the group on October 4.

“The response she received was overwhelming in that what happened to her was not the norm,” the report said.

But it turned out to be news to another woman, identified in the police report as Victim 1, who said the same thing happened to her and she felt like it was a “normal part of a routine pediatric medical examination. exam.”

It was at that point, police say, that the two women realized they were patients of Dr. Richard Kauff, who had been treating children in the town of Norwell for 40 years.

By the time Kauff was arraigned Monday, 20 other women and two girls had come forward to accuse him of sexual assault, Assistant Plymouth County Prosecutor Jeremy Beth Kusmin said in District Court Monday of Hingham.

The number of allegations “has increased exponentially” since Kauff was charged Nov. 2 with the rape of Victims 1 and 2, Kusmin told the judge.

“We anticipate dozens of other similar charges,” Kusmin said, adding that for now, Kauff is only accused of assaulting Victims 1 and 2.

Kauff “categorically denies the accusations,” his lawyer, Kelli Lea Porges, told the court. She described her client as “a lifelong member of the community.”

Kauff and his attorney did not immediately respond to telephone requests for comment.

Kauff, 68, who is charged with 12 counts of indecent assault and battery on a child under 14 and four counts of forcible rape of a child, was released on $50,000 bail.

Prosecutors say Kauff could spend the rest of his life in prison if convicted of the alleged crimes, which date from November 1991 to August 2004.

Victim 1 and Victim 2 had never spoken before connecting to the Facebook page identified during the arraignment as “South Shore Mamas.” But in separate interviews with police, both said the abuse began when they began seeing Kauff when they were 7 or 8 and continued until they left his office around 18 or 19 years old.

Both alleged that Kauff forced them to put on paper gowns, lie on an examination table, then count to three before inserting his fingers into their vaginas.

“It’s like a rocket,” Kauff would say, according to the police report.

Sometimes, Kauff would do it while their parents were in the exam room, the women told police. But they couldn’t see what he was doing, because his tall figure blocked their view.

Kauff became “extremely upset” when detectives arrived Oct. 11 at his Norwell home and informed him he was under investigation, according to the police report.

“Dr. Kauff stated that he had practiced medicine for over forty years without any problems,” it reads.

Police said that after Kauff was charged, he agreed to stop practicing medicine. His next court appearance will be on January 11.