LAS VEGAS (AP) — A Nevada state court jury found former prominent Las Vegas doctor and endoscopy clinic owner Dipak Desai guilty on Monday of all 27 criminal charges against him— including second-degree murder — in a 2007 hepatitis C outbreak that officials called one of the largest ever in the U.S.
A former employee at Desai's Endoscopy Clinic of Southern Nevada, nurse-anesthetist Ronald Lakeman, was found guilty of 16 of 27 charges against him, but was spared a murder conviction stemming from the death of 77-year-old former Desai patient Rodolfo Meana in April 2012.
Defense attorneys for both men said they'll appeal.
Desai, a former Nevada state medical board member, stared straight ahead as the verdicts were read. His lawyers maintain he was unfit for trial because of the effects of several strokes in recent years.
Desai's wife, Kusam, sobbed quietly in the first row, and one of their adult daughters cried out as Desai and Lakeman were handcuffed and led from the courtroom to jail to await sentencing Sept. 5.
"We love you, Daddy," she said to Desai. "God is with you. Always with you."
Desai didn't appear to respond.
Desai, 63, and Lakeman, 66, face the possibility of life in prison for their multiple felony convictions.
More than 70 witnesses testified during seven weeks of testimony about a case that shocked the community when the outbreak became public in February 2008. Health officials issued advisories that led 63,000 clinic patients to get tested for potentially fatal blood-borne diseases, including hepatitis and HIV.
The infections of nine people were traced to Desai clinics, although local and federal health investigators said they thought the hepatitis C infections of another 105 patients might have been related to similar practices. In those cases, however, they said they couldn't rule out other sources of infection.
The charges in Clark County District Court resulted from the infection of seven patients and bills paid by their insurers.
Prosecutors alleged that Desai and Lakeman recklessly and negligently put patients at risk with the reuse of syringes and vials of the general anesthetic propofol during procedures at a Desai clinic where speed was emphasized over patient safety.
Witnesses testified that vials became contaminated with hepatitis C virus from two different "source" patients on two dates in 2007, and tainted anesthetic was injected into subsequent patients on those dates.
In addition to the murder charge, Desai was found guilty of seven counts of criminal neglect of patients resulting in substantial bodily harm, seven counts of reckless disregard of persons resulting in substantial bodily harm, nine counts of insurance fraud, two counts of obtaining money under false pretenses and one felony theft charge.
Lakeman was found guilty of 16 charges including insurance fraud, criminal neglect, reckless disregard, obtaining money under false pretenses and theft. He was acquitted of 11 counts.
"I'm elated that he didn't get convicted on the murder charge," Lakeman's lawyer, Frederick Santacroce, said outside court. "I'm disappointed that he was convicted of the other charges.
Desai attorneys Richard Wright and Margaret Stanish, and prosecutors Michael Staudaher and Pamela Weckerly declined immediate comment.
The jury of seven women and five men deliberated Friday and most of the day Monday before reaching their verdict.
