Former Northwell urologist Darius Paduch, convicted of sexual abusing patients, makes another bid for new trial, court papers show

Former Long Island urologist and convicted sex offender Darius Paduch made his second bid for a retrial on Thursday, this time claiming the troubled Brooklyn federal jail where he is incarcerated "robbed" him of his right to assist in his own defense.

Paduch, 57, who worked for Northwell Health in Great Neck and Lake Success from 2019 until his arrest in April 2023, was convicted in May of six counts of inducement to travel to engage in unlawful sexual activity and five counts of inducing a minor to engage in sex during a jury trial in federal court in Manhattan.

During the trial, multiple victims testified the doctor, who specialized in fertility treatment for men, encouraged them to masturbate in the examination room and sometimes assisted them as well under the guise of medical treatment. Some of his exclusively male clientele who were teenagers at the time of the abuse said he would groom them with direct text messages.

Hundreds of civil lawsuits have also been filed against Paduch, Northwell and Weill Cornell Medicine, where he worked before coming to Long Island.

Paduch’s lawyer Michael Baldassare attempted to overturn the conviction, claiming his constitutional rights had been violated because his client should have been charged with a state crime, not federal.

Manhattan federal Judge Ronnie Abrams rejected the motion for a retrial, ruling the prosecution's charges were legitimate and their case had been proven at trial. Paduch faces a minimum of 10 years in prison.

On Thursday, Baldassare filed another effort to have the case tried again, this time charging Paduch’s right to a fair trial had been compromised by officials at the federal lockup where he is being held until his sentencing on Nov. 20.

According to the timeline laid out by the defense attorney, his client was supposed to receive a hard drive behind bars from federal prosecutors with evidence — medical records, letters, text messages and emails — from witnesses who had testified at the trial.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office sent the device on April 10, two weeks before trial, according to Baldassare and FedEx records provided in the filing.

Jail officials told the court, according to the lawyer, Paduch had received the hard drive on April 16, but he said he never got it.

Baldassare said his client did not have access to the information throughout the trial and it wasn’t until Aug. 21 — three months after his conviction — that the hard drive was handed over. A package receipt from the Metropolitan Detention Center’s legal department attached to the motion for a retrial confirms the date he received it.

Paduch, of North Bergen, New Jersey, did not testify at the trial, as is his right against self-incrimination, but his lawyer said his decision might have been different if he had the information on the drive.

"Dr. Paduch was robbed of the opportunity to participate in his own defense in this matter," Baldassare wrote in his motion. "Dr. Paduch’s testimony — had he been able to make a fulsome evaluation of the information on the Concealed Hard Drive — would likely have resulted in an acquittal. He was in the best position to explain the medical records, the medical treatment, and the communications. Absent this information, his decision not to testify was not fully informed of all the evidence in the government’s possession."

U.S. Attorney Damian Williams declined to comment on the motion.

Paduch has been held in the jail, known as the MDC, since his arrest in April 2023. The jail also houses convicted cryptocurrency scammer Sam Bankman-Fried and music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs, currently on trial for racketeering and sex trafficking. Combs’ lawyers protested his incarceration there due to the dangerous and squalid conditions in the jail.

 Two prisoners died during fights this year and four others took their lives over the last three years, according to court records.

A fire in the jail in 2019 knocked out power for a week, exposing inmates to subzero temperatures, according to a Department of Justice report. Some judges have refused to house defendants there or have released nonviolent inmates because of the jail’s conditions, according to The Associated Press.

Bureau of Prisons officials declined to comment on Paduch’s motion but have previously acknowledged problems in the jail.