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A fifth former Indiana University men’s basketball player has come forward to accuse former team physician Dr. Bradford Bomba Sr. of unnecessarily performing a rectal examination on him during a routine physical.
Former player Clarence Eugene “Butch” Carter, Jr. joined the class-action lawsuit filed against the university, alleging the school did nothing to stop the exams he and other plaintiffs say constituted sexual abuse.
“I am proud to come forward and I hope that other IU basketball players will come forward to share their experiences publicly,” Carter, who is being represented by DeLaney & DeLaney LLC in Indianapolis, said in a news release.
Carter said he complained to IU men’s basketball head coach Bob Knight, who was the coach at the time, multiple times about Bomba’s behavior, but Knight took no action to address the complaints from what Carter was aware of.
“Mr. Carter reported sexual abuse by Dr. Bomba, Sr. to Coach Knight and two other IU leaders in 1979. We cannot understand why the University allowed Dr. Bomba, Sr. to continue abusing players for two decades after Mr. Carter reported abuse,” said Kathleen DeLaney, an attorney for the plaintiffs.
Mark Bode, IU’s executive director for media relations, did not comment on the additional player coming forward, but referred The Indiana Lawyer to a statement the university released in September when an independent review into Bomba’s actions was launched by Jones Day.
The original lawsuit was filed back in October in the U.S. District Court of Southern Indiana by former players Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller. Two other former players, John Flowers and Larry Richardson, Jr., also have since joined the case.
In response to Carter joining the lawsuit, Mujezinovic said, “Indiana University had the opportunity to put a stop to the systematic and intentional abuse by Dr. Bomba, Sr. back in 1979 when Butch Carter brought it to the University’s attention. His courage to speak now and more importantly, the courage it took to speak up as a young adult, says everything about his character. Carter’s warnings went unheeded and the University failed him and every other player since.”
Carter played for the IU men’s basketball team from 1976 to 1980. He later went on to play professionally in the NBA for six years for the Los Angeles Lakers, Indiana Pacers, New York Knicks, and Philadelphia 76ers.
His declaration, filed on Thursday, stated that while he played for the NBA, he received annual physical examinations from team doctors but only one rectal exam.
Otherwise, no doctor performed a rectal exam during his routine physical exam.
In January, the plaintiffs added Tim Garl, a basketball trainer who was Bomba’s supervisor, to the lawsuit as a defendant. They say the university and Garl violated their legal rights under state and federal law.
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 Knight.
The case is Mujezinovic et al v. Trustees of Indiana University, 1:24-cv-01827.
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