Hepatitis victim breaks down on witness stand in Desai murder trial

Stacy Hutchison, a victim of the 2007 hepatitis C outbreak, broke into tears on the witness stand Wednesday, saying she was “devastated” when she learned about her infection.

“It was a horrible day. You don’t understand,” she told Chief Deputy District Attorney Pam Weckerly on the third day of the criminal trial of Dr. Dipak Desai and nurse anesthetist Ronald Lakeman.

Hutchison was one of six patients health officials concluded contracted hepatitis C through unsafe injection practices at Desai’s main endoscopy center on Sept. 21, 2007. A seventh patient was infected on July 25, 2007.

Hutchison said Southern Nevada Health District officials broke the news to her while she was undergoing tests in the hospital for a series of medical issues that turned out to be linked to hepatitis C.

A few weeks after her colonoscopy at the now-closed Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, she was hospitalized for treatment of severe stomach problems, yellowing in her eyes and dark urine, she testified.

“You don’t understand. It made me feel like I was a dirty person,” Hutchison said of the news, as she wiped away tears with a tissue.

Desai sat motionless at the defense table, looking away from Hutchison as she wept on the witness stand.

Hutchison said her primary physician recommended she return to the endoscopy center for hepatitis C treatment. When she later saw Desai and other physicians there, she “freaked out” and openly cried, wondering how she could have been infected.

Desai and one of his partners, Dr. Clifford Carrol, now a witness against Desai, assured her the potentially deadly virus would “go away,” Hutchison told Weckerly.

Earlier in her testimony, Hutchison said there were no nurses or physicians around her when she woke up in a makeshift recovery room at the endoscopy center after her 2007 colonoscopy.

She testified that she got dressed and started walking out the door until a nurse grabbed her and told her to go through the clinic’s checkout process.

Hutchison, who no longer lives in Las Vegas, was to be cross-examined today by defense lawyers.

Before hearing witnesses Wednesday, District Judge Valerie Adair dismissed a juror for misconduct.

Adair told lawyers on both sides that she learned the female juror might have violated two court orders: one not to discuss her financial hardship over serving on the panel and the other not to discuss courtroom testimony with other jurors before deliberating.

Adair hauled the juror, Rachel Robinson, into court for questioning after both prosecutors and defense lawyers expressed concern about her actions.

Lakeman’s lawyer, Rick Santacroce, said he was concerned that Robinson might have tainted her fellow panel members with her comments.

The juror told Adair that she was “stressed out” at having to serve on the panel for the next two months and that other jurors had been complaining about being under heavy stress.

Robinson acknowledged that she might have had a cellphone conversation about her financial hardship with her husband in front of some jurors. But she denied discussing the case before other panel members.

Adair said she learned the juror had criticized defense lawyer Richard Wright’s line of cross-examination of a prosecution witness on Tuesday. Wright is defending Desai.

Robinson apologized to Adair after receiving a stern lecture for not following the judge’s admonishments. Adair said that there were “no excuses” for what she did and she could be fined as much as $500.

After dismissing Robinson, Adair brought the rest of the jurors back into the courtroom and once more warned them not to discuss the case with each other until they deliberate.

Robinson was replaced by one of the six alternates.

On Tuesday, the wife of Michael Washington, another hepatitis outbreak victim, wept on the witness stand and told the jury Desai “destroyed” her husband’s life.

Michael Washington, 72, testified in a weakened voice how he developed yellowing in his eyes, abdominal pain and dark urine a few weeks after Desai performed a July 25, 2007, colonoscopy on him at the endoscopy center.

Washington said he now has trouble eating and walking and has to have fluid drained from his bloated abdomen every week because of a malfunctioning liver.

Desai, 63, who gave up his Nevada medical license after health officials disclosed the outbreak in 2008, and Lakeman, 65, face a total of 29 criminal charges, including second-degree murder, criminal neglect of patients, theft, and insurance fraud.

Another nurse charged in the case, Keith Mathahs, 76, pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Desai and Lakeman. Other physicians and staffers at the endoscopy center were granted immunity to testify for the prosecution.

The murder charge stems from last year’s death of Rodolfo Meana, 77, another hepatitis C victim.

The outbreak was blamed on nurse anesthetists reusing vials of the sedative propofol between patients after the vials had become contaminated by patients with hepatitis C.

Prosecutors contended earlier in the trial that Desai violated the sacred doctor-patient relationship and ran the endoscopy center like an “assembly line,” pinching pennies and risking the health and safety of his patients on a daily basis.

Defense lawyers have argued that the evidence will show no criminal wrongdoing by Desai and his staffers at the endoscopy center and that prosecutors will have a hard time proving patients were infected because of unsafe injection practices.

Contact reporter Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135. Follow @JGermanRJ on Twitter.