Nurse pleads guilty in charges related to hepatitis C outbreak

Keith Mathahs, a nurse anesthetist charged in the hepatitis C outbreak, pleaded guilty Monday in District Court to five criminal counts, including criminal neglect of patients resulting in death, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit racketeering.

All but the conspiracy charge are felonies.

Mathahs, 76, faces a maximum of 28 to 72 months in prison, according to Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Staudaher, the lead prosecutor in the case.

No sentencing date was set because Mathahs has agreed to cooperate in the high-profile case against the other two defendants, nurse anesthetist Ronald Lakeman, 65, and Dr. Dipak Desai, 63, who ran the clinics where the 2007 hepatitis outbreak occurred.

His cooperation includes testifying against Desai and Lakeman at their April 22 trial, Staudaher said.

"It makes the case stronger," he said. "You've got one of the individuals who was involved in the conspiracy now agreeing to testify."

District Judge Valerie Adair set a May 30 hearing for Mathahs to check on the status of his plea deal.

Mathahs, Lakeman and Desai were charged in June 2010 with several felony counts, including racketeering, neglect of patients and insurance fraud. They were charged in August with an additional second-degree murder count in the death of Rodolfo Meana, a victim of the hepatitis outbreak.

Mathahs and Lakeman rejected plea deals before the murder indictment.

By pleading guilty Monday, Mathahs avoids punishment on the murder charge, which prosecutors agreed to dismiss.

Defense lawyer Michael Cristalli said he will argue for probation for Mathahs at sentencing.

"We feel good about the plea negotiation," Cristalli said. "We think it's a fair negotiation."

Cristalli said his client agreed to the deal to avoid the ongoing stress of defending himself in the complicated and closely watched criminal case.

The intense public interest, as well as having to be tried with Desai, the central figure in the hepatitis outbreak, would have "presented extreme difficulties in achieving an acquittal across the board," Cristalli said.

Lakeman's lawyer, Rick Santacroce, said he was "surprised" Mathahs accepted the deal.

"He's almost 77 years old. He's looking at the potential for a long time in prison," Santacroce said.

No agreement with prosecutors has been reached with Lakeman, the attorney said.

Richard Wright, who is defending Desai, declined comment.

The murder indictment accuses Desai, a gastroenterologist who has surrendered his medical license, and the nurse anesthetists of unlawfully "introducing the hepatitis C virus" into Meana's body while he underwent a colonoscopy in 2007.

Meana, 77, died in April of complications from hepatitis C in his native Philippines. His infection was among seven that health officials genetically linked to Desai's main clinic, the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada. Health officials have said dozens more cases were "possibly linked" to the clinic.

Officials concluded Meana and five other patients contracted hepatitis C through unsafe injection practices on Sept. 21, 2007. Another patient was infected on July 25, 2007.

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

The criminal investigation into Desai's medical practice, which began in 2008, was one of the largest undertaken by Las Vegas police.

Officials notified 40,000 former clinic patients at Desai's lead clinic, the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, about possible exposure to blood-borne diseases. More notifications followed for patients of a sister clinic, Desert Shadow Endoscopy Center.

Desai and his former clinic manager, Tonya Rushing, face a May 7 trial in federal court on conspiracy and health care fraud charges stemming from the outbreak.

Mathahs and Lakeman were not charged in the federal case.

Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.