LA mayor's race: Bass and Caruso continue to exchange barbs over USC scandals
LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- USC is taking center stage once again in the Los Angeles mayoral race.
Rick Caruso has asked Rep. Karen Bass to release her application and scholarship application to the School of Social Work, something she promised to do at the second debate but has not.
On Thursday, Bass asked Caruso to release the report of an investigation by the law firm O'Melveny and Myers into the actions of Dr. George Tyndall, a former USC campus gynecologist accused of sexually abusing hundreds of patients. In 2018, Caruso allegedly told reporters he would release it, but that hasn't happened.
"There is no one single report. When you're in a litigation, you defer to your lawyers who were saying attorney-client privilege. It wasn't my call. It was the lawyers calling it," said Caruso. "My deposition is completely consistent with what I've said, is I wanted to give out as much information as possible. The decision was made not to, based on the experts we had, not to re-victimize these students."
"He invoked attorney-client privilege over and over again. Rick Caruso has a lot of questions to answer and he should not be allowed to hide behind his lawyers and secret depositions any longer," Bass said. "He's running for mayor. He's asking for the people's trust and vote. He needs to come clean. He needs to be held accountable."
At Bass' Thursday press conference, she was joined by lawyer Gloria Allred, who represented 72 of Tyndall's victims and has endorsed Bass. Bass said Caruso's explanation of not wanting to further hurt the victims by making the report public is patronizing to those who accused Tyndall of abuse.
Meeting with supporters in South L.A., Caruso said Bass is "desperate."
"What angers me about it is the fact that Karen and Gloria Allred continue to try to create a story that's not a story," Caruso said.
Allred claims making the report public would help her clients heal, but Caruso maintains it would have the opposite effect.
