[Summary of April 1, 2025 Newsday front-page article, “Former Merrick pediatrician Stuart Copperman's sexual abuse judgments total $1.6 billion for 104 women”]
Anapol Weiss shareholder Kristen Gibbons Feden has secured a staggering $1.6 billion in verdicts on behalf of 104 women who survived childhood sexual abuse at the hands of former New York pediatrician Stuart Copperman. These verdicts, issued by a New York County jury, mark one of the largest ever awarded in a sexual abuse case and send an unmistakable message of justice and accountability.
A Legacy of Harm Confronted in Court
Copperman, once a trusted pediatrician in Merrick, Long Island, was revealed through these lawsuits to have sexually abused girls under his care for decades. The cases—brought under New York’s Child Victims Act—exposed not only his systematic abuse, but also the institutional silence that enabled it.
For years, warning signs were ignored, complaints were buried, and survivors were silenced. That changed in a Nassau County courtroom, where Feden and her team gave voice to the women whose childhoods were forever altered by Copperman’s crimes.
The $1.6 billion is "one of the largest civil judgments in a class action sexual assault suit that we have seen in our country,” said Stefan Turkheimer, vice president for public policy for the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network. “RAINN’s hope is that the survivors found justice in this result.”
“The large amount is truly critical” said Feden, because it represents “the lifelong harm inflicted on these survivors.”
Feden, a nationally recognized trial attorney and former prosecutor, has spent her career fighting for survivors of sexual violence. Known for her fierce courtroom advocacy and trauma-informed approach, she rose to national prominence for her role in the prosecution of Bill Cosby—and continues to set new standards in survivor-centered litigation.
The commitment to the cases against Copperman “was about truth,” Feden said. “It was about accountability and finally giving these survivors the voice they were denied for decades. What Copperman did to these children was really unspeakable.”
Feden’s current cases at Anapol Weiss include the representation of:
- Sexual abuse survivors of the Alexander Brothers, who were federally indicted for sex trafficking and committing forcible rapes and sexual assaults;
- Sexual abuse survivors of state employees at the State of Maryland’s and the State of Illinois’s juvenile detention centers;
- Sexual assault survivors of Uber and Lyft rideshare drivers; and
- Children sexually exploited on Roblox’s and Discord’s platforms.
Read the full article on Newsday: https://www.newsday.com/news/health/copperman-pediatrician-settlements-hy8b5vnl
