Suspended Columbia University doctor sentenced for abusing former patient

A now-suspended Columbia University doctor and professor of pediatrics was sentenced Friday to a year of conditional discharge, and counseling, for sexually abusing a former patient.

A jury found Joel Lavine guilty in December of two counts of misdemeanor sexual abuse in the third degree. Lavine, a former vice chair of the university's department of pediatrics, was accused of abusing a young woman in 2019 who for years as a teenager had been his patient. The Columbia Spectator first reported Lavine's conviction.

The former patient addressed Lavine in court Friday, saying, "In hindsight I see how you groomed me for years since I was a minor in your care."