Dr. William Moore Thompson IV was the only doctor of his kind in South Orange County.
According to many of those he treated, Thompson was an infectious disease expert who had made his name in medicine caring for men living with and experiencing complications from HIV and AIDS.
Indeed, U.S. News & World Report ranked the 56-year-old Thompson as one of the top doctors in the country for treating HIV and AIDS patients.
Using Medicare data, they found Thompson was in 98th percentile for the sheer number of HIV and AIDS patients he treated from 2020 through 2023.
But now, dozens of those patients say Thompson systematically abused them during medical appointments, subjecting them to invasive examinations: In a lawsuit filed Dec. 29, 2023 against Thompson, two of his businesses, and Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach, the 73 alleged victims, all men, accused Thompson of using his authority as a doctor to sexually assault them under the guise of medical check-ups.
Thompson, numerous alleged victims said, would perform aggressive prostate exams using his fingers, without wearing gloves. He allegedly would fondle them while commenting on the appearance of their genitalia. Often, they said in the complaint, he would subject them to sexual innuendo and advances, including showing them his erect penis during the exams.
All of this behavior, they claimed, would occur regardless of the location. While most of the alleged wrongful conduct occurred in Thompson’s private offices in Newport Beach, in several instances outlined in the complaint, Thompson’s accusers said they were assaulted either while they were being treated in the emergency room of Hoag Hospital, or while they were recovering from or prepping for surgery.
At least two emergency room patients accused Thompson of assaulting them while they were being treated for serious medical issues.
One plaintiff, a 56-year-old man identified only as John Doe 12 in the complaint, said he was admitted to Hoag’s emergency room in 2022, “seeking medical treatment for neck and back pain.” Doctors at Hoag determined the pain was due to “an infectious disease causing inflammation in his spinal cord.”
According to the complaint, Thompson fondled “John Doe 12’s genitals for sexual gratification and without legitimate medical purpose” during that emergency room visit.
John Doe 12 was one of several plaintiffs who appeared on Thursday, Jan. 25 at the offices of Manly, Stewart & Finaldi, an Irvine-based law firm specializing in sexual abuse cases, to announce the lawsuit.
“I was admitted to the emergency room at 3:30 in the morning” for viral meningitis, he said. He was lying in his hospital bed when Thompson pushed back the curtain and introduced himself as an infectious disease doctor.
John Doe 12 said Thompson assaulted him with only the curtain preventing anyone else from seeing was going on.
“The confidence that he had to do that,” he said. “The guy is a problem.”
In a second alleged case, a 47-year-old man identified as John Doe 15 said he first encountered Thompson while he was in the Hoag ER “seeking medical treatment for an infection, and was admitted overnight for surgery and a multiple-day stay.”
John Doe 15 said in the complaint that Hoag assigned Thompson to treat him for his infection at the hospital and during follow-up sessions. But during those appointments, John Doe 15 said Thompson would intricately examine his penis “for sexual gratification without legitimate medical purpose.”
The abuse went on for about a year, the plaintiff said.
“John Doe 15 was unconscious of the nature of the acts because (Thompson) fraudulently represented that the acts served a professional purpose,” attorneys wrote in the complaint.
At least two plaintiffs claimed Thompson abused them after encountering him while they were waiting to have operations performed on them.
One, John Doe 73, reported he was at Hoag for treatment “for diabetes and leg amputation” in 2011 when Thompson was assigned to him. John Doe 73 said in the complaint that Thompson would go on to abuse him for the next 12 years.
In September 2023, the Orange County District Attorney’s office charged Thompson with more than a dozen felony counts, including sexual penetration by means of fraudulent representation of professional purposes, sexual battery by fraud and forcible oral copulation. He was released after posting $100,000 bond. The California Medical Board suspended Thompson’s license last year after his arrest and the announcement of the charges.
A spokeswoman for Hoag Hospital said Thompson was a private doctor and was not an employee of the hospital, but that he had clinical privileges that gave him access to patients there. Hoag officials said they had not received any complaints about Thompson from patients while he had clinical privileges at their hospital.
Hoag declined to comment on specific cases in the complaint as officials were still reviewing the document.
Thompson could not be reached for comment for this story. Court records did not show an attorney representing Thompson in the civil case. An attorney representing Thompson in his criminal case did not return requests seeking comment.
