Judge orders year-long delay in hepatitis C trial

District Judge Donald Mosley on Monday ordered a yearlong delay in the trial of Dr. Dipak Desai and two nurse anesthetists charged in the 2007 hepatitis C outbreak.

The trial was set to take place on March 14 for nurses Keith Mathahs and Ronald Lakeman without Desai, who has been found incompetent to assist his lawyers.

But Mosley continued the trial until March 12, 2012, after hearing that prosecutors and defense lawyers still have to review hundreds of thousands of pages of documents provided by the Southern Nevada Health District stemming from its investigation into the outbreak.

"It sounds like a long time," said defense lawyer Michael Cristalli, who sought the delay on behalf of Mathahs. "But in the overall scheme of things, in light of the type of information we're dealing with, this is not your normal, routine criminal case. It is essentially a medical malpractice case that has been criminalized. Medical malpractice cases generally take three years to get to trial, and sometimes five years."

Cristalli said prosecutors have turned over more than 1 million documents to the defense since a grand jury indicted Desai and the two nurses last June in one of Southern Nevada's worst medical calamities.

Evidence is being generated not only from the criminal investigation, but from the massive civil litigation involving about 250 patients alleging they were infected with hepatitis C at Desai's clinics. Thousands more Desai patients have filed lawsuits over the stress of having to get tested for the potentially deadly virus.

Karen Morrow, a legal secretary who is one of the infected patients, expressed frustration with the trial delay after Monday's hearing.

"My mind tells me to be patient, but my heart is so angry," said Morrow, who has gone through unpleasant hepatitis C treatment. "I want it done right. But I'm just sick ... because this trial date of March 14 had been set a year ago, and now they're giving them another year."

Morrow, who has regularly attended hearings in the criminal case, said she now will have to spend many more months following the case in court.

"I have to see this through," she said. "I need closure for myself."

Prosecutors, however, are not unhappy with the lengthy delay because it gives medical experts plenty of time to re-evaluate Desai at Lakes Crossing, the state's mental hospital in Northern Nevada.

Prosecutors are hoping that Desai, 60, a gastroenterologist who gave up his medical license after the outbreak, will eventually be found competent to stand trial next year with Mathahs and Lakeman.

District Judge Jackie Glass, who handles all court competency matters, has ordered Desai to surrender to authorities on March 17 so that he can be taken to Lakes Crossing.

Court-appointed medical experts concluded that two strokes had left Desai incapable of assisting his lawyers.

Desai will have to remain in custody at the Lakes Crossing facility while he is undergoing the additional evaluation.

Desai, Mathahs and Lakeman are all facing several felony charges over the hepatitis outbreak, including racketeering, insurance fraud and neglect of patients.

The charges revolve around seven people who authorities say were infected with the hepatitis C virus at Desai's Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada because of unsafe injection practices.

Health officials said the outbreak was caused by nurse anesthetists reusing vials of the sedative propofol among patients after they had become contaminated by syringes used on patients with hepatitis C.

Review-Journal reporter Paul Harasim contributed to this report. Contact Jeff German at jgerman@reviewjournal. com or 702-380-8135.