Harrison Epstein, Daily Herald
The sign for David Broadbent’s office in the North University Medical & Dental facility in Provo is shown on Thursday, March 17, 2022.
Fourth District Court Judge Robert Lunnen made no ruling during Thursday morning’s evidentiary hearing in the lawsuit against Provo obstetrics and gynecology specialist Dr. David Broadbent regarding motions made by defendants to dismiss the case.
Judge Lunnen prefaced the hearing by saying he wasn’t going to make a ruling today. Each party was given an opportunity to address the motions made to dismiss. The hearing was held over a video conference with over 70 participants. Many of them were victims who only identified themselves with their first and last name initials.
Since February, over 83 women have come forward and given testimonies accusing Broadbent of sexual battery, sexual assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Intermountain Healthcare (Utah Valley Hospital) and MountainStar Healthcare (Timpanogos Regional Hospital) are also involved in the lawsuit. Terence Rooney of Gross & Rooney, representing the female plaintiffs, said the health care agencies should be tried as one with Broadbent because their actions were derivative from Broadbent’s actions, and the hospitals did nothing about him even though they were warned, he claimed.
All three defendants gave slightly varying arguments that the case should be dismissed because they consider the charges to be medical malpractice claims and pre-litigation procedures were not done correctly for the such a case.
David Jordan, representing Intermountain Healthcare, said the main issue for the dismissal was if the procedures performed by Broadbent constituted health care. He said they did and quoted the Utah Healthcare Malpractice Act’s definition of health care as “any act or treatment performed or furnished, or which should have been performed or furnished, by any health care provider for, to, or on behalf of a patient during the patient’s medical care, treatment, or confinement.”
Karra Porter, representing Broadbent, said she agreed with Jordan. Porter discussed the delicate nature of a gynecologist and that patients recognize there would be contact of sensitive parts of the body as part of medical treatment.
When Rooney was given a chance to respond to the defendants, he explained this wasn’t a matter of health care but sexual abuse and questioned why sexual abuse was being labeled as health care. He argued that in the definition of health care, it stated, “on behalf of the patient” and the actions of Broadbent were not on behalf of his patients, he said.
Lunnen reiterated that no ruling would be made right away, but he would try to be as swift as possible with his decision making. He estimated it would be up to a month before a ruling would be made.
While charges were first filed Feb. 15, one of the victims first told her story on a podcast in December 2021. According to previous reporting, awareness of the podcast and lawsuit have influenced numerous other women to come forward to share their alleged interactions with Broadbent .
All of the women have claimed their experiences happened at Broadbent’s office in Provo or at the two hospitals involved, where Broadbent no longer has privileges as a physician.
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