nn Page Six Mt MICHIU/AN UAILY Page Six nE MIU-IIL~AN DAILY . r t VA nurses: Murderers or t ... _ .r THE GUILT or innocence of Filipina Narciso and Leonora Perez will soon be decided, but through the three months of testimony and 100 witnesses, other factors have emerged that will not be contained in the jury's verdict. Assistant U.S. attorney Richard Yanko' referred to those "other factors" as a defense "smoke- screen" and an attempt "to throw sand in your eyes." Still, the issues will linger on long after the jurors have all gone home. One question that will never be laid to rest is, "What really happened at the eVterans Administration hospital during the summer of 1975?" Fifty- eight patients stopped breathing-11 of them fatally-and the indictment against the two nurses covered only seven, a fraction of the actual num- ber that occurred. Another issue that has emerged from the trial has been the conduct of the FBI during their ten month in- vestigation. Several witnesses, includ- ing the defendants, tetsified that the FBI doggedly pursuing their case, in- timidated suspects and made outright threats. The ; e f e n s e lawyers have asserted since the outset of the trial that the Bureau focused its investiga- tion on the two nurses from the start, and ignored the other suspects along the way. ONE NURSE, Julie Porter, said that during an FBI "interrogation" an agent held up his hand with his fing- ers representing the intensive care unit (ICU) nurses. Porter recalled the agents saying that there were five nurses in the ICU and three of them couldn't have possibly done it. "That leaves Narciso and Perez," he said. A nursing assistant, Bonnie Bates Weston, said that the agents told her that if she didn't tell them who did it, "you must have done it yourself." Weston, who was granted immunity from prosecution, also said that un- invited FBI agents showed up at her wedding and told her fiancee "you know you're marrying a liar." Then the defendants took the stand in their own defense. Narciso told of a grueling six hour interrogation dur- ing which she was told to light a candle because her life would soon be over with. Perez said that one agent told her she'd never see her son again. THE ALLEGATIONS were denied, albeit in roundabout fashion (what defense attorney Edward Stein called "some kind of a game"), but the threat of the FBI trampling on civil rights in pursuit of a suspect will con- tinue long after the case is closed. Another Issue in the case is the mysterious man in the green scrub suit, whose identity may now never be revealed. One VA v i c t i m, William Loesch, testified that before-his own breathing f a i 1 u r e the unidentified stranger was standing over him tug- ging his IV lines. The "man in green" has surfaced and resurfaced several times during the long trial. He has been seen dis- appearing through the doors of the ICU and lurking the halls of the VA Story and drawings by Keith B. Richburg at the time of nearly every one o unexplained respitory arrests, AND THE VA hospital itsel swarming with controversyT money indicated that the hospital so grossly understaffed that at point that prosecutors suggeste poisonings may have been part protest by overworked employes the ICU for example, there is norn ly a one to one nurse'patient r as the critical condition of most patients warrants. Yet, at the VA ing the summer of 1975, there often only two nurses to care for ten critically ill patients. Also to emerge was a picture mass confusion and disarray when the alarm sounded for a bre ing failure (called "codes" .oc nurses, nurses' assistants, and the ists would rush from every floor, vital equipment wa soften left bet in the chaos. Security was another problem plagued the hospital. Since eventful summer two years ago, curity has been tightened. At the of the breathing failures how employes were not required to any special identification tags in various units, visitors had free ru the hospital, and mention was to a practice of locking mental tients out of their rooms during -- FILIPINA NARCISO innocence. answers her attorney Thomas O'Brien by proclaiming her \#f WILLIAM LOESCH, "the only VA victim with a memory," exonerated Narciso and Perez and told of waking up to see a man in green standing over him.