Here are four things to know about the case.
1. Katia Kaplan-List, MD, filed a lawsuit last month against Johan Blickman, MD, PhD, a pediatric radiologist at URMC. According to the lawsuit, cited in a March 1 report by the Democrat & Chronicle, Dr. Blickman repeatedly raped Dr. Kaplan-List and attempted to involve her boyfriend in a plot to murder his ex-wife, among several other allegations.
2. A URMC spokesperson previously told the publication via email the university received word of an “inappropriate relationship” between Dr. Kaplan-List and Dr. Blickman through her lawyer in 2016, two years after Dr. Kaplan-List completed her rotations at URMC. The spokesperson said the university “took action” after they received news of the relationship in 2016.
“Last week, the university received a complaint in which new and different allegations have been made against Dr. Blickman by Dr. Kaplan-List, some of which would be serious criminal offenses if proven true,” the spokesperson told the Democrat & Chronicle March 1. “Dr. Blickman is on (paid) leave and we will review these new allegations as we prepare our response to the complaint, but we have not received a law-enforcement inquiry related to them.”
3. In his countersuit filed March 6, Dr. Blickman claimed he and Dr. Kaplan-List engaged in a “consensual romantic and sexual relationship” from September 2014, when she finished her last URMC rotation, to January 2016. Dr. Blickman’s lawsuit claimed the university investigated their relationship in June 2016 and issued a finding Sept. 16, 2016, which found the relationship to be consensual and did not violate any policies, according to the report.
4. Dr. Blickman’s lawsuit alleges Dr. Kaplan-List’s complaint was meant to “maliciously defame Blickman and his reputation within the community and medical profession and … monetarily capitalize by the false and salacious accusations contained therein,” according to the report. The lawsuit also notes Dr. Kaplan-List’s lawyer previously failed to file the lawsuit correctly, and that all civil claims are outside of the statute of limitations for the case.
To access the full Democrat & Chronicle report, click here.
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