Ex-Rutgers Cancer Doc Who Admitted To Theft Begins Jail Term

NEW BRUNSWICK, NJ — The doctor who once led the world-renowned skin cancer treatment program at Rutgers Cancer Institute — but who in 2020 pleaded guilty to official misconduct, burglary and computer theft — will begin serving his 300-day jail sentence Monday.

The doctor is Dr. James Goydos, 61, who lives in East Brunswick. Although he pleaded guilty, he tried to fight his sentencing. He also sued Rutgers University; his lawsuit is still proceeding through the courts.

However, this week a state appeals judge ordered him to report to the Middlesex County Jail on Jan. 31. You can read the Appeals Court decision. (His jail term was supposed to start last year, but its start date was delayed because of COVID.)

The bizarre story of Dr. Goydos began in March of 2018: On March 30, 2018, detectives with the Middlesex County prosecutor's office executed a search warrant at his East Brunswick home and said they found an unlicensed hunting rifle, a Colt Sporter Match HBAR, in his basement.

Police say they also found wiretapping materials, including a Sony digital voice recorder and a USB drive recorder that could be used to surreptitiously record someone talking.

At the time his home was searched by police, Goydos was the chief of melanoma and soft tissue oncology at the Rutgers Cancer Institute, which is renowned as one of the top cancer treatment centers in the world. Goydos was a skin cancer surgeon who led the highly-ranked Rutgers melanoma department.

He was also a professor to Rutgers medical students. He made $437,500 a year, making him one of the highest paid public employees in the state.

The county prosecutor executed the search warrant on his home because they had been investigating Goydos for more than a year before this, after they were first contacted by Rutgers University.

Spokespeople for Rutgers never explicitly said why they contacted the county prosecutor to investigate Goydos.

Goydos said the rifle was a gift from his brother given to him decades ago. He also said he kept it in a bag in a locked work area in his basement and rarely took it out.

However, the charges against Goydos only mounted from there: Prosecutors then alleged that Goydos secretly installed cameras inside a second-floor women's bathroom at the Rutgers Cancer Institute.

They say he recorded as many as 30 women over two years, from April 2016 through March 2018, in various states of undress using the bathroom, say police. Those charges were part of a 160-count indictment released in 2019. The women are identified in the indictment as "Jane Doe 1-26," but the county prosecutor says a total of 30 women were captured on camera.

However, those charges were later dropped.

Goydos was also charged with computer theft and burglary. Prosecutors say he broke into the offices of four of his colleagues at the Cancer Institute, including the Cancer Institute director and assistant director, and hacked into their computers. He stole their computer and email login information and tried to log into their computers as them, prosecutors say.

It was all part of an elaborate scheme to defraud the Cancer Institute, prosecutors said in the indictment, but did not elaborate.

Those wiretapping devices found in Goydos' home matched the recording equipment found in the office of the Rutgers Cancer Institute director, said prosecutors.

Very quickly after the county brought the charges, Goydos pleaded guilty in 2020 to second-degree official misconduct, second-degree computer theft, third-degree burglary, third-degree computer theft and fourth-degree identity theft. He also pleaded guilty to the gun charge, second-degree wrongful possession of an assault rifle.

There was never a trial.

As part of the plea deal he arranged with the county prosecutor, all charges related to him allegedly filming women in the bathroom were dropped.

Goydos was first placed on paid leave after he was arrested on the initial gun charge, a Rutgers spokeswoman said.

But when he pleaded guilty to the slew of other charges, he resigned from his job and was ordered to have no contact with the victims or Rutgers (he was actually banned from ever setting foot on the Rutgers campus). He also has to forfeit any future public employment.

"When the university discovered Dr. Goydos' activities, we immediately referred the matter to the Middlesex County Prosecutor's Office and cooperated fully with their investigation," said Dory Devlin, the Rutgers spokeswoman, two years ago. "Dr. Goydos was initially banned from the university and subsequently resigned."

After he was indicted, Goydos filed a federal lawsuit against Rutgers and the Cancer Institute, saying he was framed.

The lawsuit, which you can find here, was filed by Goydos and his wife, who is also a physician. In it, Goydos describes an elaborate conspiracy against him. He says it was orchestrated to punish him after he initiated a dispute in 2014 over cancer grant funding from the National Cancer Institute.

He also did not deny that cameras had been set up in the women's bathroom, but said that someone else put them there, not him.

Nobody else has ever been charged with installing the bathroom cameras.

Before this scandal, Goydos was one of the most highly regarded physicians on staff at Rutgers University.

Not only did Goydos run the skin cancer treatment program, he was actually its founder. He one of the Cancer Institute's founding faculty members and in 1995, he led the first clinical melanoma trial in the state of New Jersey.

People with melanoma came from all over the United States, seeking treatment from Goydos and his team. Some of his work in the field is currently being developed into tumor-fighting cancer drugs to treat skin cancer, breast and prostate cancer.

Prior Patch reporting on Dr. James Goydos:

• Rutgers Professor Charged With Illegally Owning Assault Weapon (May 2018)
• Top Rutgers Cancer Surgeon Charged With Filming Women In Bathroom (February 2019)
• Rutgers Doc Accused Of Filming Women Says He Was Set Up (April 2019)
• Ex-Rutgers Cancer Doc Admits To Theft, Sentenced To Jail (July 2020)

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Contact this Patch reporter: Carly.baldwin@patch.com