Dr. Carmen Puliafito, a former dean at the University of Southern California’s medical school, has been revealed to have a history of partying and young companionship.
According to a report by the Los Angeles Times Puliafito, 66, aquit his job last year after a 21-year-old woman overdosed in his Pasadena hotel room.
The woman, 21-year-old Sarah Warren, was rushed to hospital after the overdose in March 2016 and was able to recover. While police found meth in the hotel room, no arrests were made.
Puliafito resigned as the dean of Keck School of Medicine after a witness to the overdose informed police and the university of Puliafito’s behavior.
via Los Angeles Times:
During his tenure as dean, Puliafito kept company with a circle of criminals and drug users who said he used methamphetamine and other drugs with them, a Los Angeles Times investigation found.
Puliafito, 66, and these much younger acquaintances captured their exploits in photos and videos. The Times reviewed dozens of the images. Shot in 2015 and 2016, they show Puliafito and the others partying in hotel rooms, cars, apartments and the dean’s office at USC.
In one video, a tuxedo-clad Puliafito displays an orange pill on his tongue and says into the camera, “Thought I’d take an ecstasy before the ball.” Then he swallows the pill.
In another, Puliafito uses a butane torch to heat a large glass pipe outfitted for methamphetamine use. He inhales and then unleashes a thick plume of white smoke. Seated next to him on a sofa, a young woman smokes heroin from a piece of heated foil.
During his tenure as dean of Keck School of Medicine, Puliafito oversaw medical students, thousands of professors and clinicians, and research grants totaling more than $200 million. Furthermore, according to Puliaftio, he has brought in more over $1 billion in donations to the university.
After he stepped down as dean, a position that paid him $1.1 million, he was kept on the medical school faculty and continued to accept new patients at campus eye clinics.
