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Two former Indiana University men’s basketball players are suing the school, accusing it of doing nothing to stop the alleged repeated rectal exams they received from former team physician Dr. Bradford Bomba Sr. that they say constituted sexual abuse.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana by former players Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller.
“Despite its knowledge of these routine, pervasive, repeated sexual assaults, IU systemically mishandled and turned a blind eye to Hoosier men’s basketball players’ complaints of Dr. Bomba Sr.’s sexual misconduct, contrary to federal regulations,” the complaint states.
The lawsuit was expected because the university earlier received notice of the potential litigation through a letter from legal counsel representing a student-athlete.
IU announced in September that it had hired international law firm Jones Day to conduct an independent review of those allegations.
“This is a fully independent and comprehensive investigation that will follow the facts,” IU said in a statement at that time. “Indiana University will abide by its findings any take any warranted actions.”
IU spokesman Mark Bode declined to offer further comment after the lawsuit was filed on Tuesday.
Bomba served as the team’s physician for nearly 30 years, in addition to serving as the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team physician under coach Bob Knight. Bomba could not immediately be reached for comment.
The putative class action lawsuit is seeking unspecified money damages on behalf of all players who experienced abuse during their time at IU.
“I’m standing up for all student athletes who have suffered abuse. I hope that more of our former teammates will speak out and share their stories publicly,” Mujezinovic said in written remarks.
“I will never understand why IU leadership did nothing to protect us from what I now understand was sexual abuse,” Miller added.
Mujezinovic played at Joliet Junior College from 1993 to 1995 before transferring to IU to play for the Hoosiers from 1995 to 1997.
Miller was selected as a McDonald’s All-American and Florida’s Gatorade Player of the Year in 1994 before playing for IU from 1994 to 1998.
Both players went on to play professionally in Europe.
“I’m proud of my clients for taking a stand against what we now believe to have been widespread sexual abuse spanning decades,” said attorney Kathleen DeLaney of DeLaney & DeLaney LLC, who is representing the former players. “We hope that Indiana University will acknowledge this dark chapter in the athletic department’s history and follow the example set by the University of Michigan and other Big Ten schools by compensating the victims of abuse.”
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