Northeast
Hundreds accuse Massachusetts doctor of sexual abuse, inappropriate examinations
More than a decade ago, Kristin Fritz was struggling with pain in her spine and saw a rheumatologist recommended by her doctor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.
The visit with Dr. Derrick Todd started normally for the 37-year-old New Hampshire woman. But as Todd progressed, he aggressively groped her breasts, she said, to the point that he “seemed to enjoy that a little too much.”
Only last year, when contacted by the hospital about Todd, she realized a line had been crossed. And she was not alone.
ATTACKS ON 3 FEMALE PASSENGERS ON SEPARATE FLIGHTS PROMPT WARNING ON UPTICK IN SEXUAL VIOLENCE ON PLANES
“I feel so violated,” she told The Associated Press. “I feel so ashamed of myself for not knowing better in the moment to do anything and to be like, yeah, this did feel wrong and I should tell somebody.”
The Associated Press generally doesn’t identify possible victims of sexual abuse, but Fritz allowed her name to be used. She is one of more than 200 women and several men who have joined a consolidated lawsuit against Todd in Massachusetts’ Suffolk Superior Court.
The lawsuit, combining several filed last year, accuses Todd of performing unnecessary pelvic floor therapy, breast examinations, testicular examinations and rectal examinations on patients.
Kristin Fritz, a plaintiff in a lawsuit against Dr. Derrick Todd is seen on April 8, 2024, in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Fritz and more than 200 women have accused Todd of sexually abusing them by performing unnecessary pelvic and breast exams while under his care. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
It alleges that Todd — a former rheumatologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital whose specialty involves treating inflammatory conditions of the muscles, joints and bones — began abusing patients in 2010. It also accused several dozen other defendants, including Brigham and Women’s Faulkner Hospital and Charles River Medical Associates, of knowing about the abuse and failing to stop it.
“It’s an extraordinary number of people who put their trust in Dr. Todd and who had that trust violated simply for his own personal, selfish gratification,” said William Thompson of Lubin & Meyer, whose Boston-based firm represents most of the victims.
“The other thing that strikes me about this case is how could this have been going on at the hospital, at the practice group for so long without somebody recognizing … that something suspicious was going on,” he continued. “Yet, they allowed him to continue to do this week after week, month after month, year after year, to more and more victims.”
A lawyer for Todd, Anthony Abeln, said his client would “not litigate this matter in the media, but he will defend his care as the case progresses through the Massachusetts Superior Court system.”
In April 2023, Brigham and Women’s received two anonymous complaints about Todd and launched an internal investigation. Todd was told he couldn’t conduct sensitive exams without a chaperone. In June, he was placed on administrative leave, then terminated a month later. The hospital said it also notified the Department of Public Health, the state Board of Registration in Medicine, law enforcement and his current and former patients.
In September, Todd reached a voluntary agreement with the Board of Registration in Medicine to stop practicing medicine anywhere in the country. No criminal charges have been filed against Todd but several former patients have been interviewed by law enforcement.
The Boston Globe reported last year Todd was under investigation by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. A spokesperson for the office said it would not comment on the case.
“We are deeply troubled by the upsetting allegations of harmful conduct committed by Dr. Todd,” the hospital said in a statement. “We take our duty to care for our patients and keep them safe extremely seriously. We have, and always will, act decisively on any allegations of misconduct, as we did in this case.”
The Charles River Medical Associates said it was never made aware of any complaints of “inappropriate conduct” by Todd and said it reached out to patients to report their concerns.
“We are deeply troubled and saddened by these disturbing allegations and recognize the courage it took for these patients to come forward,” it said in a statement.
Thompson said victims ranged in age from teenagers to women in their 60s. The lawsuit alleged Todd would gain their confidence, go beyond treating their rheumatic diseases and become their only doctor while conducting invasive, unnecessary exams.
Among them was a 33-year-old Massachusetts woman who struggled to find a doctor during the COVID-19 pandemic. She was thrilled Todd called to help her with symptoms of tingling and numbness in her arms and hands.
Over two years, Todd became her primary doctor and gynecologist and, the lawsuit said, the abuse intensified during her visits — including repeated vaginal exams. She said Todd would routinely comment on her body, ask her to strip naked and make sure she was unaccompanied during exams.
“It honestly impacted every single component of my life because it just occupies every part of myself from my self-confidence,” said the woman, who reported Todd to the medical board after discussing his behavior with her gynecologist and realizing something was wrong.
Since learning there were many others and that Todd would no longer practice medicine, she said a weight “has been lifted off my chest” though she struggles to cope. “Even just thinking about work is super challenging,” she said. “I’m really, really, really still struggling today, big time.”
As for Fritz, she acknowledged the experience will stay her for the rest of her life. But she takes solace in the fact that Todd is already paying a price for his actions.
“You were a trusted medical professional in a world class facility. You abused and violated many, many, many patients. It’s just not right,” Fritz said of Todd. “For me, justice is him never being able to practice again. Him never being able to do this to women or any other patient that he had done this to.”
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Robert Bryan is a licensed forester from Harpswell and author or co-author of numerous publications on managing forests for wildlife. Paul Larrivee is a licensed forester from New Gloucester who manages both private and public lands, and a former Maine Forest Service forester.
In November 2025, the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) approved a conservation plan and forest management plan as mitigation for impacts from the NECEC transmission corridor that runs from the Quebec border 53 miles to central Maine.
As professional foresters, we were astonished by the lack of scientific credibility in the definition of “mature forest habitat” that was approved by DEP, and the business-as-usual commercial forestry proposed for over 80% of the conservation area.
The DEP’s approval requires NECEC to establish and protect 50,000 acres to be managed for mature-forest wildlife species and wildlife travel corridors along riparian areas and between mature forest habitats. The conservation plan will establish an area adjacent to the new transmission corridor to be protected under a conservation easement held by the state. Under this plan, 50% of the area will be managed as mature forest habitat.
Under the forest management plan, a typical even-aged stand will qualify as “mature forest habitat” once 50 feet tall, which is only about 50 years old. These stands will lack large trees that provide wildlife denning and nesting sites, multiple vegetation layers that mature-forest birds use for nesting and feeding habitats and large decaying trees and downed logs that provide habitat for insects, fungi and small mammals, which in turn benefit larger predators.
Another major concern is that contrary to the earlier DEP order, the final approval allows standard sustainable forestry operations on the 84% of the forest located outside the stream buffers and special habitats. These stands may be harvested as soon as they achieve the “mature forest habitat” definition, as long as 50% of the conserved land is maintained as “mature.”
After the mature forest goal is reached, clearcutting or other heavy harvesting could occur on thousands of acres every 10 years. Because the landowner — Weyerhaeuser — owns several hundred thousand acres in the vicinity, any reductions in harvesting within the conservation area can simply be offset by cutting more heavily nearby. As a result, the net
mature-forest benefit of the conservation area will be close to zero.
Third, because some mature stands will be cut before the 50% mature forest goal is reached, it will take 40 years — longer than necessary — to reach the goal.
In the near future the Board of Environmental Protection (BEP) will consider an appeal from environmental organizations of the plan approval. To ensure that ecologically mature forest develops in a manner that meets the intent of the DEP/BEP orders, several things need to change.
First and most important, to ensure that characteristics of mature forest habitat have time to develop it is critical that the definition include clear requirements for the minimum number of large-diameter (hence more mature) trees, adjusted by forest type. At least half the stocking of an area of mature forest habitat should be in trees at least 10 inches in diameter, and at least 20% of stands beyond the riparian buffers should have half the stocking in trees greater than or equal to 16 inches in diameter.
Current research as well as guidelines for defining ecologically mature forests, such as those in Maine Audubon’s Forestry for Maine Birds, should be followed.
Second, limits should be placed on the size and distribution of clearcut or “shelterwood” harvest patches so that even-aged harvests are similar in size to those created by typical natural forest disturbance patterns. These changes will help ensure that the mature-forest block and connectivity requirements of the orders are met.
Third, because the forest impacts have already occurred, no cutting should be allowed in the few stands that meet or exceed the DEP-approved definition — which needs to be revised as described above — until the 50% or greater mature-forest goal is reached.
If allowed to stand, the definitions and management described in the forest management plan would set a terrible precedent for conserving mature forests in Maine. The BEP should uphold the appeal and establish standards for truly mature forest habitat.
Human remains were discovered Wednesday in the water in Shirley, Massachusetts, and authorities suspect foul play.
Police in Shirley said in a social media post at 7:15 p.m. that they responded to “a suspicious object in the water near the Maritime Veterans Memorial Bridge on Shaker Road.” Massachusetts State Police later said the object was believed to be human remains.
The bridge crosses Catacoonamug Brook near Phoenix Pond.
The office of Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said a group of young people was walking in the area around 5:30 p.m. and “reported seeing what appeared to be something consistent with a body part in the water.”
Foul play is suspected, Ryan’s office said.
Authorities will continue investigating overnight into Thursday, and an increased police presence is expected in the area.
No further information was immediately available.
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