A third former Indiana University basketball player has alleged in a lawsuit that the team doctor sexually abused him and the school did nothing to protect him from a predator.
John Flowers joins players Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller in an amended class-action lawsuit against the Indiana University Trustees. Flowers said in the lawsuit that he was subjected to at least two unnecessary prostate examinations by Dr. Bradford Bomba Sr. when he played for the Hoosiers from 1981 to 1982, according to the federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in the Southern District of Indiana.
In addition to adding Flowers as a plaintiff, the lawsuit names longtime men’s basketball trainer Tim Garl as a defendant. It alleges that Garl was aware that Bomba was performing “invasive, harassing, and demeaning digital rectal examinations” when Garl referred players to Bomba.
“After his first physical, Flowers’s teammates told him he had ‘passed’ Dr. Bomba, Sr.’s ‘test,’ and that he would not have to undergo a digital rectal examination again,” the lawsuit says. “Garl laughed at Flowers and his freshman teammates and made jokes at their expense regarding the digital rectal examinations they endured.”
Flowers, who went on to play basketball at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and later played professional basketball in Europe before he retired, added his allegations to a lawsuit Mujezinovic and Miller first filed in Ocetober.
Mujezinovic and Miller played for the Hoosiers in the 1990s under legendary coach Bobby Knight, who died two years ago at age 83.
“I am proud to stand up on behalf of my former teammates and other IU basketball players to seek justice for the sexual abuse we endured as members of the Hoosiers,” Flowers, who lives in Arizona, said in a statement.
Kathleen Delaney, who represents Flowers, Mujezinovic and Miller, has said in court papers that Bomba may have violated at least 100 male athletes.
Delaney said in an email Tuesday, “Our clients each present compelling and disturbing allegations that Dr. Bomba, Sr.’s pattern of subjecting IU men’s basketball players to abusive and unnecessary digital rectal examinations went on for so long that university leadership must have known about it.”
IU spokesperson Mark Bode said the university “does not comment on litigation.” He also pointed to a statement in September announcing that IU had hired a private law firm to conduct an “independent review.”
“We ask for the IU Community to have patience as we search for the truth and to have confidence that the university’s actions will be consistent with our values,” it said.
Garl, who has worked for the university since 1981, did not return a call or respond to an email seeking comment.
Flowers, Mujezinovic and Miller are suing Garl and the IU trustees under Title IX, a federal law that requires all colleges and universities that receive federal funds to put safeguards in place to protect students from sexual predators.
Bomba, 88, is not listed as a defendant.
Last month, Bomba repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination dozens of times during a deposition when he was asked whether he performed rectal examinations on young athletes.
He agreed that he and Knight were “close friends,” but he invoked the Fifth again when he was asked whether Knight told him to perform “digital rectal exams on his players.”
Bomba provided medical care to all of the university’s sports teams from 1962 to 1970, and from 1979 until the late 1990s he was the basketball team’s doctor, according to the lawsuit.
Bomba, who had played football for Indiana University, was nicknamed “Frankenstein” by coaches and players “due to the large size of his hands and fingers,” it adds.
“Dr. Bomba, Sr.’s routine sexual assaults were openly discussed by the Hoosier men’s basketball players in the locker room in the presence of IU employees, including assistant coaches, athletic trainers, and other Hoosier men’s basketball staff,” according to the lawsuit.
Bomba’s lawyer did not immediately respond to an emailed request for comment on the amended lawsuit.
