Page Eleven

Wednesday, May 4,1977

THE MICHIGAN DAILY

Wednesday, May 4, 1977 THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Eleven

VA de fense raps witnesses


(Continued from Page 1)
patient's unexpected breathing
failure. "He hadn't'appeared to
be in any distress."
KURTZ ALSO testified that at
the time Hogan arrested, an
unidentified medical student had
been standing over him drawing
blood with a syringe.
In other testimony, Dr. Rich-
ard Dickerman, who was chief
resident of surgery during the
arrests of 1975, said that one
patient, Charles Gasmire, had
received a total of seven milli-
grams of Pavulon prior to sur-
gery. Gasmire s u f f e r e d a
breathing failure on July 29, but
survived.
"Are you familiar with
the manufacturer's recommend-
ed dosage of Pavulon?" asked
Attorney Stein on cross-examin-
ation. Stein then handed the
witness a copy of the physician's
desk reference, opened to the
section on Pavulon. "The manu-
facturer would recommend 5.5
miligrams of Pavulon " Dicker-
man said, using quick arith-
metic.
THE PATIENT had received
seven miligrams.
Testimony later that week
also brought out that at the
time of yet aonther arrest, a
mental patient who had broken
free of his bed restraints had
been fouind at the foot of the bed
of the stricken patient.
VA Staff Nurse Elenore Fea-
ther testified that when she dis-
covered patient John Herman,
"he was not breathing and he
was pulseless." She also said
that a mental patient from the
room two doors down was inside
the room: "He was just stand-
ing there mute. He had ntra-
vaneous (IV) tubing dangling
down."
NURSE FEATHER said that
when the mental patient had
been put in bed, his restrictive
jacket hadn't been secured to
the siderail.

Defense A I t o r n e y Thomas
O'Brien then questioned Feaher
about the VA hospital's standard
practice of allowing mental pa-
tients to roam the hospital dur-
ing the day.
Oe continuing source of con-
troversy in the case has been
harrassment of witnesses by the
FBI during its investigation of
the VA deaths. Prosecuting at-
torneys have more than once
been forced on the defensive,
having to supply testimony to
attest to the credibility of evi-
dence and to the conduct of the
NURSE JULIE PORTER tes-
tified under oath last week that
Federal agents had subjected
her to "a four hour interroga-
tion" session. Porter alleged
that one agent held up his hand
with his five fingers represent-
ing the five VA nurses who
worked the intensive care sunit.
She recalled the agent as saying
that three of the nurses didn't
do it, and that left Narciso and
Perez.
Porter also testified that VA
Hospital C'ief of Staff Dr. Robert
Lindenauer instructed the FBI
not to harass any of his doctors
or medical students about the
deaths.
Prosecutors felt compelled to
respond to Porter's testimony
by bringing Agent Otis Archie to
the stand. Archie had been one
of the two agents who inter-
viewed Miss Porter.

"WE WANTED Miss Porter to
tell us what she had seen and
what she had heard," said
Archie, and the agent went on
to describe the difefrence be-
tween an interview and an inter-
rogation. "We interviewed her,"
"It's our approach that you
can catch more bees with
hone ythan you can with vine-
gar," Archie testified. He said
that he had been deliberately
called in for the interview be-
cause he was "a low-key indi-
vidual."
"Who do they call in when
they need someone who is high-
powered?" Defense Attorney
O'Brien asked sarcastically.
STILL, THE only source of
constant legal controversy in
the VA case continues to be the
prosecution's repeated addition
of new witnesses.
Since the start of the trial the
government h a s successfully
sought to add up to 51 witnesses
to its original witness list.
"We based our opening state-
ment on the premise that we
knew who the witnesses would
be," Attorney Stein said on one
occasion,
Stein claimed that the de-
fense attorneys "just don't have
time" to interview all new wit-
nesses.
Judge Pratt has not yet ruled
on a motion to dismiss the case.

VA wit and wisdom
As the Veterans Administration (VA) Hospital murder
Iitial enters its second month of testimony, the proceedings
have been marked by sarcastic remarks, most notably on
the part of defense attorneys.
During the testimony of Elizabeth Campbell, a register-
ed nurse at the VA hlospital, defense attorney Thomas
O Brien handed the witness a copy of an FBI 302 report to
read. "The printing isn't that good," the witness said. "I
know, we didn't make the copies," O'Brien replied, indicat-
ing the prosecution table.
A similar barb was launched at the FBI last week when
a witness had trouble fiiding a section referred to by the
defense in her copy of a medical reference. Defense attorney
Edward Stein, who had no index to facilitate the search for
the particular section in the records, remarked "that's the
trouble with =the FBt They only make copies of what they
want."
The sarcasm of the defense attornevs is often aimed at
the actions of the two defendants, nurses Leonora Perez and
Filipina Narciso. Questioning one witness who had seen
Narciso immediately after one of the respiratory arrests,
O'Brien asked "You didn't see Miss Narciso with any syr-
inges in her hand, did you? . . . Doing anything sinister ...?
Last month, defense attorney Stein had asked another
witness if Miss Perez had been "hiding behind a curtain or
in some closet."
And on one occasion, Judge Pratt hiiiself felt obliged to
get into the act. The jury hid just heard testimony from a
pulminary disease specialist when court brike for recess.
After the recess, Judge Pratt asked "Did you have a ciga-
rette during the recess?"
"Yes, I did!" the witnesses admitted, under sith.

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