Prosecutors say the new Suffolk County case centers on 22 patients and alleged assaults during medical visits from 2017 to 2023.
BOSTON, MA — Former Brigham and Women’s physician Derrick Todd pleaded not guilty Thursday to 81 new sexual assault charges, expanding a sweeping criminal case in which prosecutors say he abused patients during appointments at Boston hospitals and medical offices over several years.
The new indictment sharply widened a case that had already drawn national attention in Massachusetts. Prosecutors said the Suffolk County charges involve 22 alleged victims between the ages of 17 and 56 and include 21 counts of rape, 59 counts of indecent assault and battery, and one count of assault with intent to rape. The allegations add to separate charges already pending in Middlesex County and to civil claims filed by hundreds of former patients, deepening scrutiny of how a longtime doctor at prominent Boston institutions was able to continue treating people before the accusations surfaced publicly.
At Thursday’s arraignment in Suffolk Superior Court, Todd, 52, stood before the court and entered not guilty pleas to all 81 charges. The former rheumatologist, who also practiced as a general physician, was released without bail. The court ordered him to stay away from the patients tied to the new case, wear a GPS monitor, remain in Massachusetts and follow an overnight curfew from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. A pretrial hearing was set for June 8, and court officials said a trial in the Suffolk case could begin in May 2027. Prosecutor Ashlee Mastrangelo said the new charges center on conduct alleged to have happened from 2017 through 2023 at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital and related Boston medical settings. She told the court that the women came to Todd “in a vulnerable place” and said he “manipulated” and “coaxed” them into what she described as false medical exams.
Prosecutors said the alleged victims sought treatment for chronic illness, pain and other medical problems, then were subjected to examinations that were not medically necessary and did not match accepted standards of care. Mastrangelo said some patients were told the conduct was pelvic floor therapy or another legitimate part of treatment. In court, she said the women were touched during breast and pelvic exams in ways the state plans to argue were outside normal medical practice. She also said Todd sometimes made crude sexual remarks during the encounters. According to the prosecution, some alleged examinations were not fully documented in medical records, and some patients reported that Todd contacted them by text at night or on weekends. Prosecutors said the case against him will rely in part on medical testimony explaining how standard women’s wellness exams are typically done and why the acts alleged here, they argue, did not resemble those exams. Many of the factual details are expected to be tested later in court, and the criminal complaints remain allegations at this stage.
The Suffolk County indictment did not arrive in isolation. Todd was already facing criminal charges in Middlesex County tied to other former patients. He was first arraigned there in January 2025 on two rape counts involving two women. Then, in March 2026, a Middlesex County grand jury indicted him on three more counts of rape and 17 counts of indecent assault and battery involving 11 additional women, according to prosecutors in that county. Those earlier allegations also focused on medical appointments in which women said breast or pelvic exams went beyond what they understood to be normal or necessary. The broader controversy began surfacing in 2023, when complaints about Todd’s conduct became public and a wave of civil lawsuits followed. In one major lawsuit, former patients accused him of carrying out unnecessary pelvic floor therapy, breast exams, rectal exams and other intimate procedures for his own sexual gratification. Reports tied to the civil litigation say more than 200 women and several men have joined claims against him.
The allegations stretch across years and involve some of Boston’s most visible medical institutions. Todd, a Yale- and UMass-trained physician, worked at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital before his employment ended in 2023. Prosecutors said the newly charged conduct in Suffolk County covers the period from 2017 to 2023, while public civil claims have described alleged abuse dating back even earlier. Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden called the case extraordinary in its scale, saying at a news conference this week that the number of alleged victims and the trauma described by investigators were unlike anything his office had seen in Boston. He said the women trusted Todd with their care and instead were met, in the state’s telling, with deception. That theme has become central to the prosecution’s theory: that patients sought help for serious medical problems and were exploited because they were in pain, frightened or dependent on a specialist they believed they could trust.
Todd’s defense team pushed back in court and signaled that the case will turn on competing interpretations of medical practice. Defense attorney Ingrid Martin said her client is presumed innocent and intends to challenge the accusations directly. She argued that some of the complaining witnesses had seen Todd for years and did not raise concerns at the time with him or hospital staff, a point she suggested would matter at trial. Martin said the case would be about what a rheumatologist or primary care doctor can or should do during a patient encounter. That argument previews what is likely to be a long fight over expert testimony, medical documentation, informed consent and the line between accepted treatment and criminal conduct. For now, no jury has weighed the evidence in either county. Todd has denied wrongdoing through not guilty pleas, and the court process in both Suffolk and Middlesex counties is still unfolding.
The case has also raised wider questions about oversight inside hospital systems and about how complaints against physicians are received and investigated. Public reporting on the civil suits said Todd’s conduct came under sharper scrutiny after anonymous complaints were made in 2023. Brigham and Women’s fired him that year amid the allegations. The claims from former patients describe a pattern rather than a single episode, and that pattern is one reason the criminal file has continued to expand. In Suffolk County alone, prosecutors now say 22 victims are named in the new indictment. Combined with the earlier Middlesex charges, Todd is facing more than 100 criminal counts. Those numbers have made the case one of the most closely watched abuse prosecutions in Massachusetts health care in recent years. For former patients and their lawyers, the criminal counts are only one track. The civil litigation remains active and could continue to grow even as the criminal cases move slowly through pretrial hearings and possible future trials.
Outside court, the case has been marked by starkly different descriptions of the same medical encounters. Prosecutors have portrayed the appointments as moments when sick patients were isolated and manipulated. Defense lawyers have said the accusations must be tested carefully and not assumed true because of the number of people involved or the seriousness of the claims. Those competing views are likely to shape every next step, from motions about medical records to arguments over whether alleged prior acts can be introduced at trial. The alleged victims span a wide age range, from a teenager to middle-aged adults, and prosecutors have emphasized that many were coping with chronic pain or complex health needs when they sought Todd’s help. The state says that vulnerability is central to the story. The defense says medicine itself will be central. That clash is now headed into a long court schedule, with one county case already pending and another newly underway in Boston.
The case now stands at a new and more serious stage: Todd has pleaded not guilty in Suffolk County, remains under court-ordered restrictions, and is due back on June 8. The next major milestone is that pretrial hearing, while a Suffolk trial is expected in May 2027 unless the schedule changes.
Author note: Last updated April 23, 2026.