A new lawsuit alleges that a Skokie OB-GYN and leader at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston sexually assaulted a patient at his private practice.
The lawsuit, filed anonymously under the name Jane Doe, contends that Dr. Riley Perry Lloyd sexually assaulted the patient in late October 2023 while she was visiting Lloyd’s practice for medical issues.
Attempts to reach Lloyd for comment were unsuccessful Monday. The lawsuit also names as a defendant Lloyd’s practice, RPL MD. Lloyd also works in Carmel, Indiana, according to his website.
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Lloyd has been chairman of St. Francis Hospital’s Department of Gynecology for four years, said Noel True, a spokesperson for Prime Healthcare, which owns St. Francis, in a statement Monday. “We take any allegations very seriously and are currently looking into the matter,” True said in the statement. Neither Prime nor St. Francis is named as a defendant in the lawsuit.
Lloyd is not an employee of St. Francis, but is an independent physician who provides services at St. Francis through his private practice, which is under contract with the hospital, True said. When asked whether Lloyd is still practicing at the hospital, True said in a statement, “Because this is an active legal matter involving an independent physician, we are limited in what we can share, but we are reviewing the situation closely.”
The woman who filed the lawsuit in Cook County Circuit Court on Friday contends in the lawsuit that she underwent a hysterectomy performed by Lloyd in 2017. Lloyd then treated her with hormone replacement therapy between 2017 and 2020, according to the lawsuit.
By 2020, the woman began experiencing worsening health problems, including cognitive decline, according to the lawsuit. Around 2023, she noticed anatomical changes to her body and returned to Lloyd for hormone therapy, according to the lawsuit. She took a blood test that revealed elevated, abnormal levels of testosterone and visited Lloyd in September 2023 to discuss her concerns, including concerns related to sexual health.
In October 2023, the woman went to a hospital emergency department after experiencing a rapid heart rate, pulse spikes, severe weakness, and shaking, according to the lawsuit. She was stabilized and released without a diagnosis.
Within a few days of the episode, Lloyd called to check in with her and asked about her health, including the concerns related to her sexual health that they’d discussed during her previous appointment with him. The next day, he asked her to visit his clinic that evening.
The woman’s mother drove her to the clinic, and waited in the reception area while her daughter went into an exam room, according to the lawsuit.
Once in the exam room, Lloyd asked the woman personal questions, including about her sexual preferences, the lawsuit contends. The woman then gave Lloyd her phone so he could watch a video she’d taken illustrating the problem, according to the lawsuit. Lloyd left the room with her phone and returned about five minutes later. Lloyd then sexually assaulted her over the course of about five minutes, according to the lawsuit.
The woman told her mother what had occurred once they left the building, and spent the following days processing what had happened and contacted her neuropsychologist for guidance on how to report it, according to the lawsuit.
In November 2023, the woman reported the incident to the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, which oversees doctors’ licenses in Illinois, according to the lawsuit.
The Illinois State Medical Board made a recommendation to suspend Lloyd’s medical license, on Oct. 1, Chris Slaby, a spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, said in a statement. Per state law, Lloyd was notified of that recommendation and given 20 days to file a motion to challenge it. Last week, Lloyd’s attorney filed a motion to extend his time to file that motion. Slaby said he could not comment on whether the recommendation is related to an allegation of sexual assault of a patient, saying that information is confidential until after a public discipline is finalized.
The woman who filed the lawsuit also reported the incident to the Skokie Police Department, according to the lawsuit. A representative for the village of Skokie said the Tribune would need to file a Freedom of Information Act request to learn more about the allegation. The Tribune filed the Freedom of Information Act request Monday afternoon but did not immediately receive information.
“I wanted just to make sure that he couldn’t do it again,” the woman told the Tribune, in an interview. The Tribune generally does not identify victims of sexual assault without their permission. “I had known him for so long, and I did trust him (so much) that I would have sent my daughter to him.”
The lawsuit alleges that Perry violated the Illinois Gender Violence Act and committed battery, among other things. The lawsuit seeks more than $50,000 in damages. The woman is being represented by attorney Tamara Holder, who also represented plaintiffs involved in a number of separate lawsuits alleging former OB-GYN Dr. Fabio Ortega sexually abused patients during his time with NorthShore University HealthSystem, which is now called Endeavor Health.