Surgeon explains scuffles

It’s not the first time the well-known physician has been involved in such an incident.

In 2003, he punched a woman in the back of the head as her back was turned in a Radio Shack following an argument that began when Tate was trying to return a cell phone battery.

Municipal Court Judge Cedric Kerns fined Tate $1,300 on a conviction of misdemeanor battery, rejecting Tate’s claim of self-defense.

Tate unsuccessfully appealed the case to District Court.

Tate believes UMC officials are using the incident in the Radio Shack at Lake Mead and Jones boulevards in the hospital’s current disciplinary action against him.

The hospital was notified about the confrontation by then Undersheriff Doug Gillespie, who also told hospital officials about a “disturbing” comment Tate made to Las Vegas police who responded to the scene.

Hospital CEO Kathleen Silver, in asking that Tate be taken off the trauma schedule, said in an Aug. 8 letter that he could pose an “unreasonable danger to UMC patients, visitors, employees and medical staff.”

Rick Plummer, a UMC spokesman, said Friday that the recent action taken against Tate is solely for the Aug. 5 altercation with the family of the injured teen.

Tate contests the hospital’s version of that event, saying he “didn’t hit anybody. I just pushed people who got in my face.”

He acknowledged striking the woman in the Radio Shack on Sept. 20, 2003, but noted she struck him first.

The security tape does show the woman, Kathleen Griffin, striking Tate with her purse before he responds.

Before that, both are off camera.

“I only hit people who hit me first. I think they’re (UMC administrators) just trying to use anything now, even if they have to go back five years, to get rid of me.”

Tate said he paid the fine imposed by Kerns, but only because he was dealing with prostate cancer at the time.

Tate said he wouldn’t have had to pay the fine if he had agreed to undergo anger management counseling.

He also was found guilty on a charge of disturbing the peace and acquitted on a charge of battery in relation to a confrontation with the Radio Shack manager.

Tate is appealing a civil court judgment in the Radio Shack incident to the Nevada Supreme Court.

On Jan. 28, District Judge Jackie Glass awarded $2,275.28 to Griffin, who went to a UMC Quick Care for treatment of head injuries after Tate struck her.

Griffin was unavailable for comment.

Her attorney, Kevin Hanratty, said his client never wanted to file a lawsuit.

“All she wanted from Doctor Tate is a public apology,” Hanratty said. “But he refused.”

The lawsuit had asked for $165,000 in general and punitive damages.

Griffin was shopping at the store when the encounter with Tate began.

Tate can be seen on the security tape, which was part of the evidence in the civil case, arguing with employees who told him he needed to give his address in order to get a refund for the cell phone battery.

Tate refused and began cursing.

He swore at a female employee and the manager. When Griffin walked near Tate, the physician swore at her as well.

In her statement to police, Griffin said Tate then shoved her aside. That cannot be seen on the video, however.

“I never pushed her,” Tate said.

After Tate cursed at Griffin, she can be seen hitting Tate with her purse.

Tate follows her, first pushing her and then punching her in the back of the head.

When the store manager tried to break things up, Tate swung at him, knocking off his glasses.

“I did what I had to do,” Tate said. “I was under attack.”

Tate said race played a role in how the case was prosecuted.

“Why didn’t the woman get charged with assault and battery?” Tate said. “Because she was white.”

That he was acquitted of hitting the manager, who was black, further shows racism, Tate said.

“It’s OK if I hit a black guy but not a white woman?” said Tate, who referred to Griffin as a “female life form” in a deposition.

A month after the incident, Gillespie, who now is Clark County sheriff, wrote a letter to UMC interim CEO Michael Walsh, describing what happened.

Tate “was escorted outside where he was given a sobriety test because he had a strong smell of alcohol,” Gillespie wrote.

“His test results were significantly less than .08 so he was deemed safe to drive.

“The most disturbing part of this whole episode occurred when our officer issued Mr. Tate a citation outside of the store,” the letter said.

It went on to say that Tate “turned to the officer and stated, “There’s something I need to explain to you, but it won’t happen here. It’ll happen when you come to trauma.”

Tate said his statement to police was not a veiled threat about the kind of medical treatment he would give a police officer at the trauma center should a police officer get hurt in the line of duty.

“I was just going to let the officers know why I continually answered, ‘No,’ when they asked me if I had been drinking,” Tate said. “I’ve learned you don’t want to confess anything to the cops. Make them do their job. I’ve worked on plenty of cops.”

An independent contractor, Tate concedes that UMC can terminate him from the trauma department with 30 days notice.

“But they would catch hell from certain segments of the community and (the) Legislature,” he said.

Tate concedes that there are those who might think the Radio Shack episode was inappropriate behavior for a trauma surgeon who represented UMC.

“I only hit someone if they hit me, even if it’s a woman,” he said. “I don’t think that’s unreasonable, but some people might.”

Tate said a bogus fear of violence is being used by UMC to cover the hospital’s real reason for “going after” him, which is his outspoken criticism of Dr. Dipak Desai, whose clinics have been linked to a cluster of hepatitis C cases in Southern Nevada.

Tate said UMC administrators have “long loved” Desai, whose gastroenteroloy group received a $1 million contract in 2007 to direct UMC’s gastroenterology department, more than quadruple the $210,000 it had received for the same work at UMC in 2006.

UMC in March canceled its contract with Desai.

Regarding the Aug. 5 incident, a report released Friday by the UMC Department of Public Safety stated that Tate got into an argument with a man who didn’t agree with the treatment the surgeon was giving his son.

They had a heated exchange that included profanities.

The two were “chest to chest” when the boy’s grandmother got between them, the report said.

“Doctor Tate told her to step away and raised his hands to gain distance between himself and the two visitors,” the report said, adding that the grandmother said that when Tate “pushed her away, he caused a scratch on her sternum.”

She declined to press charges against Tate.

“I just pushed her away like I pushed her son,” Tate said. “I didn’t get in their face. They got in mine.”

Tate, who has worked at UMC for more than 20 years, admits he has long had a rocky relationship with the hospital’s administrators.

“I’m not going to let anybody push me around,” he said last week in his office, sitting near a box full of legal documents.

In the 1990s, he filed a federal lawsuit against the hospital, alleging that UMC rejected him for the position of trauma department director because he is black. He lost.

Tate said the fact that the hospital still allows him to do general surgery shows that administrators don’t think he’s really a danger.

“The only reason they’re stopping me from seeing trauma patients is that I get 70 percent of my income from seeing trauma patients,” he said. “They’re trying to get me to go somewhere else.”

Contact reporter Paul Harasim at pharasim@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2908.