Editor's Note: This story includes mention of sexual violence or assault.
IU athletic director Scott Dolson gave clearance for a letter — signed by 14 physicians — in support of former Indiana men’s basketball team physician Brad Bomba Sr. to be sent to the Jones Day investigative law firm, according to emails obtained by the Indiana Daily Student.
“We Bloomington based physicians feel compelled to submit this letter of support for our former colleague, Doctor Brad Bomba, Sr., because of the earned trust of his professionalism throughout decades of service to the public,” the letter read. “Since the 1960s, we have practiced medicine in this community and co-managed thousands of medical cases in collaboration with Dr. Bomba.”
The letter — which was sent to Dolson in an email Dec. 18, 2024 — included signatures from 14 current or former practicing physicians. Dr. Brandt Ludlow, who wrote and signed the letter, said every signee worked with and “shared medical management” with Bomba, and have all worked in Bloomington.
The letter was written in light of allegations of inappropriate behavior against Bomba during routine and repeated rectal exams to athletes on the men’s basketball team. Bomba was hired in 1979 as the team’s physician and held the role through the late 1990s. IU announced it would be investigating the allegations in a September 2024 press release.
More than a month after the release, a class action lawsuit was filed in October against IU alleging the university “systemically mishandled” complaints of sexual misconduct by Bomba. At the time, the lawsuit said likely over 100 student athletes were subjected to inappropriate invasive examinations.
Former men’s basketball players Haris Mujezinovic and Charlie Miller filed the lawsuit. Mujezinovic was later confirmed to be the student athlete mentioned in the university’s September press release. Mujezinovic played for IU from 1995-97, while Miller played from 1994-98.
On the same day Miller and Mujezinovic filed their suit, a third former player, under the pseudonym John Doe, indicated intent to file a separate suit against IU. At the time, Doe alleged the abuse was part of a larger structural issue and said team trainers and other staff were aware of Bomba’s inappropriate behavior.
On Dec. 3, a judge ruled Bomba would be competent to provide a deposition in the suit with Miller and Mujezinovic. Bomba, who isn’t a defendant in the case, was 88 at the time of the ruling.
In the letter, the physicians said they understood the allegations against Bomba and that the former players said he was performing “some or all” digital rectal exams during annual physical examinations during his career.
“It is important to understand that our era of medical training, shared by Dr. Bomba, required skill development in the palpation and auscultation aspects of the physical examination and those skills represented the cornerstone of the physical evaluation,” the letter read.
The letter said that "the standard of care" for physical examinations can include optional tests that are performed based on the "physician's judgment and experience." The letter said, “without a doubt the digital rectal exam falls within the standard of care,” even though it is “not performed by every physician doing every routine examination.”
“Based on decades of medical collaboration with Dr. Bomba, we collectively agree that Dr. Bomba’s patient management has been well within the standard of care and allegations to the contrary are not based on personal or medical evidence,” the letter concluded.
Ludlow is a retired physician with 41 years of experience in obstetrics and gynecology. In an interview Wednesday with the IDS, Ludlow said after he graduated medical school, Ludlow “shared many cases” with Bomba.
Ludlow said he saw the initial allegations and felt they “did not resonate as truth.” He said these digital rectal examinations were part of thorough physical examinations done on an annual basis.
“This is an annual evaluation of these athletes,” he said. “The digital rectal exam, it is agreed, was absolutely the standard of care at that time.”
In December 2024, Ludlow sought out other physicians with ties to Bomba and Bloomington.
“So, I thought I need to reach out to the medical community like myself here in Bloomington,” he said. “Physicians who actually worked with Brad Bomba Sr., who shared patients and understood.”
Thirteen other physicians ended up signing the letter before Ludlow shared the letter with IU.
At 5:30 p.m. Dec. 18, 2024, Ludlow sent the document labeled “Bomba letter final draft.docx” to Dolson’s athletic director email.
In the message, Ludlow wrote, “Scott, I want to share the document I prepared and sent to Louis Gabel at Jones/Day. Hope this helps define Brad and the accusations.”
Ludlow confirmed he sent the letter to Louis Gabel, a partner at Jones Day. The university retained the independent law firm to investigate the initial notice of allegations.
The IDS reached out to both Gabel and Jones Day but neither responded to multiple requests for comment.
At 9:17 p.m., that message was forwarded to Dolson’s and Deputy Director of Athletics Stephen Harper’s email addresses. Ludlow’s initial message was deleted from Dolson’s athletic director inbox.
“Thanks Doc…..appreciate the information,” Dolson, under his personal IU email, wrote in a response to Ludlow at 9:38 a.m. Dec. 19, 2024.
Later that morning, the message was forwarded to Harper where Harper asked Dolson in an 11:45 a.m. email if he wanted “this” to be sent to Jones Day.
Three minutes later, Dolson responded saying “Yes thx!!”
IU did not respond to multiple requests for comment. However, after the IDS reached out, the university released the final report from Jones Day’s independent review Thursday.
“We also uncovered no evidence to suggest that Dr. Bomba obtained sexual gratification in completing DREs or that there was any sexual connotation to his examinations of student athletes,” the report said. “Rather, the evidence did not lead us to conclude that Dr. Bomba acted in bad faith or with an improper purpose when performing DREs while conducting thorough and complete PPEs of a college-age student athletes.”
In an email at 11:34 a.m. Dec. 19, 2024, the physicians’ letter was sent from former IU men’s basketball team physician Lawrence Rink to men’s basketball team trainer Tim Garl and former Director of Athletic Performance Clif Marshall. The copy of the letter obtained by the IDS was not signed by Marshall or Garl but was signed by Rink.
Rink retired at the end of the 2024-25 basketball season after serving as the men’s team physician in a career that lasted 45 total years with the program.
At 11:34 p.m., Garl forwarded Rink’s message to his wife, Denny Garl.
Rink did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
On Jan 14, former player John Flowers joined Miller and Mujezinovic as the three players amended their lawsuit to allege Garl assigned players to Bomba knowing the physician would sexually assault them.
Since the case was amended to include Garl, two more former players were added to the suit in late March. Larry Richardson Jr. and Butch Carter joined Flowers, Mujezinovic and Miller as the five former players in the suit, all represented by Kathleen Delaney of Delaney & Delaney LLC.
When the IDS reached out to Garl through his lawyer, Christopher Lee, Lee referred the IDS to Garl’s motion to dismiss that was filed April 21.
“Defendant Tim Garl respectfully moves to dismiss the Second Amended Complaint filed against him by Haris Mujezinovic, Charlie Miller, John Flowers, and Larry Richardson Jr. with prejudice,” the motion said.
At the time the case was amended, Garl was still employed at IU as the men’s basketball athletic trainer. On March 31, Garl and IU announced the parties would be parting ways after 44 years. Lee sent the statement in an email to the IDS. Marshall is also no longer with the program.
According to Ludlow, after being in conversations with Gable within the last two weeks, he needed confirmation from every person who was listed as a signee on the letter. Ludlow said was able to get every signature confirmed with the signee as well as Gable.
Now nearly four months after the letter was originally written, Ludlow said he “absolutely” stands by the letter in support of Bomba Sr.
