A New York City surgeon was accused by his ex-girlfriend of numerous brutal attacks that left her with broken bones, a concussion, and a kick in the abdomen that caused her to miscarry.
Fifty-three-year-old Dr. Joseph Finley, an ear, nose and throat surgeon associated with Northwell Health in NYC, is accused of committing several violent attacks on Negar Dolatabadi, 40, during the last two years of their relationship.
Dolatabadi, a dentist, recently filed a lawsuit against the ENT surgeon and he faces several criminal charges, including assault and strangulation, for the alleged incidents that happened between 2020 and 2022.
According to court documents, Finley was an excessive drinker. At one point, according to the victim, he would drink several glasses of bourbon daily before starting his brutal attacks on her.
Finley allegedly hurled Dolatabadi, an Iranian immigrant, to the floor and hit her so hard that she suffered permanent serious injuries.
The surgeon has denied all the allegations.
According to the lawsuit, Finley often beat her so badly that he broke her ribs and toes, gave her a concussion, injured her ear, and tried to strangle her once. In March 2021, she says that Finley’s attack made her miscarry.
The couple started dating in March 2020 and moved in together a few months later. About two months after that, Finley allegedly attacked her for the first time and repeatedly called her derogatory names. He stopped drinking after the incident and did not hit her again until July 2020, after he started drinking again due to the pandemic.
During the second attack in July 2020, Finley beat her and threatened to kill her before leaving her on the bathroom floor with a concussion and bleeding. He hit her so badly that for two days, she kept vomiting and liquid was coming out of her ear.
When she told him that she needed to see a doctor, he told her that he was an ENT surgeon and that she did not need to see anyone else.
Finley threatened to turn her into immigration authorities during one of his attacks and told her he would send her “terrorist ass” back to Iran. He threatened to kill her if she ruined his career.
In October 2020, he slammed a door on Dolatabadi’s foot and broke her toe. In December 2021, he pushed her to the floor, causing another injury to the same toe.
In February 2022, Dolatabadi found out that she was pregnant. About a month later, she says Finley kicked her in her abdomen despite knowing that she was pregnant. She got the news that she had miscarried a few days later when she went to an obstetrician who told her that the fight had likely caused it.
The same day, Finley attacked her in the car, punching her in the face and telling her she deserved to miscarry.
The final straw for Dolatabadi was in May 2022 when he attacked her again.
According to her lawyer, Dolatabadi’s foot injury prevented her from working for two years. He said that she had been robbed of her career by Finley’s actions despite working hard to become a dentist.
Dr. Finley was arrested on September 25, 2022, and charged with one count of second-degree strangulation, six counts of third-degree assault, and two counts of third-degree criminal mischief, according to an NYC criminal court complaint.
The doctor is out on bail and will return to court on February 8, 2023.