Doc settles rape rap for $110K

Daily News
Salvatore Arena
Sep. 29, 1999

A once-celebrated Park Ave. gynecologist has agreed to pay $110,000 to settle an embarrassing lawsuit brought by an ex-patient who charged he raped her.

Dr. Niels Lauersen agreed to the settlement late Monday on the eve of trial in Manhattan Supreme Court. Terms of the deal between the 62-year-old fertility specialist and Kimberley Alvarez, 41, of Gaithersburg, Md., are confidential, according to lawyers from both sides.

But sources familiar with the case told the Daily News that Alvarez withdrew her claims against the doctor after he upped his settlement offer from $50,000 to $110,000.

"I thought the settlement was in my client's best interest," said Alvarez' attorney Bert Blitz. "So, too, did the doctor."

Lauersen, the author of seven best-selling books on women's health, could not be reached for comment. His lawyer, Robert Deutsche, declined to discuss the settlement.

Alvarez, who was under psychiatric care for a multiple personality disorder, charged the attack took place Nov. 29, 1993, in a Park Ave. apartment that Lauersen maintained for use by out-of-town patients.