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Former UM student reported alleged sexual assault by university doctor who died in 2008

Posted at 11:33 PM, Feb 19, 2020
and last updated 2020-03-05 21:01:14-05

ANN ARBOR (WXYZ) — "I knew exactly what was going on and I was disgusted," said Robert Julian Stone about the day he alleges Dr. Robert E. Anderson sexually assaulted him during an exam at University Health Services in Ann Arbor on June 30, 1971.

In a lengthy letter to university officials in August of last year, Stone detailed the alleged assault right down to details of Dr. Anderson's private anatomy.

"When I left the office, I was horrified and dazed," Stone wrote. "How could such a thing happen to me, or anyone, at the school I loved? I was not traumatized, just disgusted."

Rick Fitzgerald, a spokesperson for the University of Michigan, said the first time they were made aware of any allegation of sexual assault or misconduct by Dr. Anderson was in July 2018 when a former student athlete sent a letter to Athletic Director Warde Manuel to "detail abuse during medical exams by Anderson in the early 1970s."

On Wednesday, Fitzgerald issued a public statement that included a phone number for other former patients of Dr. Anderson.

"The University of Michigan is asking any former patients of the late U-M physician Robert E. Anderson, who believe they were subjected to sexual misconduct during a medical exam, to contact the U-M Compliance Hotline at 866-990-0111," Fitzgerald wrote.

Fitzgerald told 7 Action News that detectives with University of Michigan Police have identified five possible victims, most former students from the 1970s and one patient in the 1990s.

Dr. Anderson was employed by the University of Michigan from 1968 until he retired in 2003. He served as the Director of Student Health Service and then he became an athletic team physician.

Anderson died in 2008.

Stone said he did not report the alleged assault on him until last year, but he believes university officials were aware decades ago.

"I am told that they were aware that there problems with Dr. Anderson along these lines when he was head of the University of Michigan Health Service, and that, because of those problems, he was transferred over to be the physician for the University of Michigan football team, which is a bit like making the fox in charge of the chicken coop," Stone said.