By: John Luciew | jluciew@pennlive.com

Fired Penn State football doctor Scott Lynch has already won $5.25 million in a lawsuit against his former employer, Penn State Health. Now, he’s back in court seeking punitive damages from Penn State, itself, over the university’s handling of his and other medical staffers’ complaints against Nittany Lions head Coach James Franklin.

In a civil suit filed July 31 in Philadelphia, Lynch and his attorney, Steve Marino, accuse Penn State and its former Athletics Integrity Officer Bob Boland of fraudulently and intentionally concealing and misrepresenting multiple complaints from the Penn State Athletics’ medical staff that Franklin interfered in their treatment of injured players.

The suit seeks unspecified punitive damages and other costs against both defendants.

“I have filed a fraud lawsuit in Philadelphia County,” Lynch told PennLive. “It has been well over a year since my jury verdict. Neither Penn State, The Big Ten, or the NCAA have done anything to protect the student-athletes. I will keep fighting to hold them accountable so they will make changes to help with this national problem.”

PennLive’s calls to Penn State seeking comment on the suit weren’t immediately returned.

In May 2024, a Dauphin County jury awarded Lynch $5.25 million following a seven-day trial that centered on Lynch’s 2019 firing as Penn State football’s orthopedic consultant and medical director for Penn State Athletics. He successfully sued his employer, Penn State Health, and the then-boss who removed him from his Penn State medical roles, Dr. Kevin Black. However, both Penn State and Franklin were dropped from the suit over a filing deadline technicality.

This time, Lynch is going right at Penn State, accusing the university of using its Athletics Integrity Office to conceal multiple complaints from medical staff members about Franklin’s alleged interference in player treatments and return-to-play decisions.

The Athletics Integrity Office was established in 2012 in wake of the Jerry Sandusky child sex scandal and the NCAA’s sweeping sanctions against Penn State.

The suit accuses Penn State and Boland, who was installed as its athletics integrity officer in 2017, of failing to investigate and manage the complaints about Franklin’s alleged “unethical conduct or improper behavior” in a manner “consistent with the University’s Athletic Integrity Program.”

Instead, the suit contends Penn State and Boland operated “under an undisclosed and unwritten protocol of invoking University’s Office of General Counsel to undertake and direct any inquiry or investigation of the disclosures” against Franklin. This had the effect of making the entire investigation secret, instead of transparent, locking it down under the protection of attorney-client privilege.

During Lynch’s 2024 civil trial in Dauphin County, the so-called “Boland report” became something of a mystery. It was mentioned repeatedly but couldn’t be discussed in any detail due to the attorney-client bonds.

The Boland report was declared a “privileged” work product that was undertaken at the direction of Penn State University’s attorneys. Not only were the report’s details off limits from being discussed during the trial, Boland was banned from testifying about it.

However, Lynch testified that he filed a complaint with Boland after he was dismissed from his dual medical roles with the team in March 2019. Lynch’s complaints stemmed from pressure he said was applied by Franklin to have the team’s doctors and trainers alter their player treatment plans and medical decisions to speed the injured athletes back to the practice and playing fields.

The new lawsuit states that not only were complaints against Franklin lodged by Lynch, fellow team orthopedist Dr. Peter Seidenberg and head athletic trainer Tim Bream took their player treatment clashes with the head coach to Boland, too. All have since left their posts – as has Boland, whose address is listed as Toledo, Ohio.

“During their tenures of serving as medical professionals on behalf of the Penn State Football Team, (Lynch), Dr. Seidenberg, MD, and Tim Bream on multiple and repeated occasions experienced Coach Franklin’s attempts to interfere with their autonomous authority to determine medical management and return-to-play decisions related to student-athletes,” the lawsuit states. “As early as 2018, on multiple occasions (Lynch) and Dr. Seidenberg disclosed to defendant Robert Boland, they, along with Tim Bream, each had repeatedly experienced Coach Franklin’s improper attempts to interfere with their autonomous authority to determine medical management and return-to-play decisions related to student-athletes.”

The suit argues this amounts to “fraudulent intentional concealment” and “fraudulent misrepresentation,” entitling Lynch, as plaintiff, to punitive damages from the defendants intended to punish their behavior.

Penn State and Boland have 20 days to file their legal answers to the suit. An actual court date could be years away. For example, Lynch’s lawsuit in Dauphin County took more than five years to reach a jury.

Lynch, who retired from Penn State Health earlier this summer, has been named vice president of health and safety for the College Football Players Association, a non-profit fraternal group actively seeking to establish chapters at various universities and claim collective bargaining rights for college football players. Lynch said his goal is to advocate for medical autonomy for the doctors and trainers who treat college athletes at universities across the country.

Penn State Health has paid Lynch the full amount of the jury verdict, settling all appeals in the case. Lynch said the final sum included interest that dated back to the May 2024 verdict in his civil trial in Dauphin County Court.

Lynch’s seven-day civil trial chronicled the doctor’s repeated clashes with Franklin about medical decisions regarding injured players. Franklin didn’t testify during the trial. But several of his former players and members of the Penn State Athletics’ medical and training staff did take the stand.

The new lawsuit says the Dauphin County civil jury “concluded Coach Franklin, attempted to influence or interfere with plaintiff’s medical autonomy and return-to-play decisions of student athletes.” And the suit states the same jury found a “causal connection” between Lynch’s refusal to comply with Franklin’s attempts to influence or interfere with player treatments and return-to-play decisions and the doctor’s 2019 firing as orthopedic surgeon for Penn State Football and Director of Athletic Medicine for Penn State.

All of this should have been reported by Penn State to the NCAA and the Big Ten Conference, but the university has failed to do so, the suit says.

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