Doc accused of abusing Indiana University basketball players faces competency hearing

An 88-year-old doctor accused of sexually assaulting Indiana University basketball players back in the 1990s has been ordered to appear before a judge Tuesday to determine whether he is competent to be questioned about the alleged abuse.

Dr. Bradford Bomba Sr.’s appearance before Magistrate Judge Mario Garcia at the federal courthouse in Indianapolis will be to assess the doctor’s “ability to testify at a deposition,” according to an order issued Monday.

Garcia issued the ruling after Bomba’s guardian, Joseph Bomba, asked for the deposition to be delayed arguing that the former IU team doctor “does not know the difference between a truth and a lie, making him incompetent to testify,” according to court papers dated Nov. 27.

Dr. George Parker, a psychiatrist at IU Health, has examined Bomba, the doctor’s guardian said.

The development came two months after Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller, who played for the Hoosiers in the 1990s under legendary coach Bob Knight, filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for Southern Indiana, alleging that their coaches and trainers were aware that Bomba was subjecting basketball players to unnecessary prostate examinations and did nothing to stop him.

Kathleen Delaney, who represents Mujezinovic and Miller, said in the lawsuit that there could be “at least one hundred” alleged victims.

Delaney named the Trustees of Indiana University as defendants in the lawsuit, alleging Title IX violations by the school for failing to protect the students. Under that federal law, universities that receive federal funding are required to have safety measures to protect students from predators.

In response, Indiana University retained the Jones Day law firm to launch an independent investigation into the Bomba allegations.

Bomba is not listed as a defendant. Knight died last year at age 83.

Delaney declined to comment on the latest development in a case that has put an unwelcome spotlight on Bomba, who was the men’s basketball team physician for two decades, and on the university's vaunted hoops program.

William J. Beggs, the Bloomington, Indiana, lawyer who, according to the court papers, has been representing Bomba, did not immediately respond to an NBC News request for comment.

Indiana University hired Bomba to provide medical care to all its sports teams from 1962 to 1970, and from 1979 until the late 1990s he was the basketball team’s doctor, according to the lawsuit.

Mujezinovic and Miller said in their lawsuit that they “were routinely and repeatedly subjected to medically unnecessary, invasive, and abusive digital rectal examinations” by Bomba. The doctor had played football for Indiana University and was nicknamed “Frankenstein” by coaches and players “due to the large size of his hands and fingers,” the lawsuit added.

“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.

Mujezinovic, who spent two seasons at Indiana from 1995 to 1997, and Miller, who played for the Hoosiers from 1994 through 1998, are seeking unspecified damages. They have also urged their former teammates to come forward and join the lawsuit.

Prostate exams are generally performed on men over age 40, according to American Cancer Society guidelines.

But Bomba performed them on the 20-something-year-old athletes who were sent to either him or his son, Dr. Bradford Bomba Jr., for physical exams, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit does not accuse Bomba’s son of any wrongdoing.

The accusations that IU turned a blind eye to allegations of a team doctor sexually abusing student-athletes echo another major scandal involving a team doctor. In 2018, former Ohio State University wrestlers said their coaches knew that Dr. Richard Strauss was preying on them but also failed to act. Strauss died in 2005.