Thu, October 17, 2024
Two previous basketball players for Indiana University bring sex abuse allegations against their former team doctor
Both ex-players, Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller, are accusing their past team doctor, Dr. Bradford Bomba Sr., of preying on them in the 1990s whilst conducting prostate exams. The doctor, who died last year aged 83, allegedly abused his power several times and sexually assaulted the players and their other teammates on numerous occasions. The players were part of team Hoosiers under renowned coach Bob Knight, and both players claim that the university did not intervene to stop the abuse.
In a lawsuit filed on 15/10/2024 in the U.S. District Court for Southern Indiana, Mujezinovic and Miller claimed that the coaches and other Hoosier men’s basketball staff knew that Dr. Bradford Bomba Sr. conducted unnecessary prostate examinations. Mujezinovic and Miller, who both went on to play professional basketball in Europe, are encouraging their ex-teammates to speak up as the sexual assaults were allegedly openly discussed in the locker rooms by multiple players.
Mujezinovic said in a statement: “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.” He was part of the Hoosiers between 1995-1997.
Miller, who played on the team between 1994-1998, said: “I will never understand why IU leadership did nothing to protect us from what I now understand was sexual abuse.” The players were allegedly “routinely and repeatedly subjected to medically unnecessary, invasive, and abusive digital rectal examinations” according to the lawsuit. This type of rectal examination is usually conducted on men over age 40.
Bomba allegedly performed a rectal exam during Mujezinovic’s first ever physical. He also allegedly “proceeded to digitally extract a stool sample from Mujezinovic, denying Mujezinovic any opportunity to provide a stool sample by other means.” Mujezinovic was allegedly only allowed to skip a rectal examination once after hiding Bomba’s lubricant beforehand.
Their representative, Kathleen Delaney, believes there are possibly “at least one hundred” victims. Bomba was the doctor for the university’s men’s basketball team for two decades. Between 1962-1970, Bomba also provided medical care to all of Indiana University’s sports teams, not just men’s basketball.
Mark Bode, the university’s spokesperson, said that the university has employed the Jones Day law firm to launch an independent investigation: “the former student-athlete alleges that he was subjected to inappropriate prostate and rectal exams during annual physicals with Dr. Bomba, Sr., something that he also alleges was a practice for all basketball student-athletes assigned to Dr. Bomba, Sr. for physical examinations.”
Bomba’s son, Dr. Bradford Bomba Jr., worked alongside his father, but he has not been accused of misconduct by the former players. The ex-players' plan to fight hard for justice due to an alleged “deliberate indifference to Bomba” by Indiana University.
