OC Weekly: Dr. K KO’d

[question everything]

July 22 - 28, 2005

Dr. K KO’d

OC Weekly series leads to federal indictment of celebrated AIDS doctor

by WILL SWAIM

Following an OC Weekly investigation that spanned six stories and two years, the U.S. Attorney indicted a Laguna Beach physician on charges he injected AIDS patients with bogus drugs.

Dr. George Steven Kooshian and his nurse, Virgil Opinion, committed “conspiracy, 25 counts of health-care fraud and three counts of making false statements relating to health-care matters,” said Cindy Lozano, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office.

According to Lozano, an FBI investigation began shortly after OC Weekly published the July 2001 article “My Conscience is Killing Me,” R. Scott Moxley’s first story in the series. That article relied in part on Opinion’s 13-page wrongful-termination lawsuit. In the suit, Opinion alleged that Kooshian fired him for complaining about workplace illegalities.


(snip)

Except for metroG.com, a gay Orange County website, which republished Moxley’s articles, the local press was almost silent. The LA Times wrote nothing. Two weeks after Moxley’s first story, the Register wrote its first and only article on the subject, which included a statement from Kooshian: “I think there are other motives behind this. I don’t believe that we did anything I think is wrong.”

It was a curiously worded denial, and one might have expected local reporters to jump on it. Instead, The Orange County & Long Beach Blade, the Laguna Beach-based monthly gay magazine in which Kooshian regularly advertised his medical practice, ran a July 2002 ad with Kooshian attacking the Weekly as a paper “lacking in journalistic integrity and objectivity.” He described himself as “a concerned and caring physician” who had been victimized by “unethical and inappropriate” reporting.

“You guys have a lot more flexibility and freedom than we do,” said Blade publisher Bill LaPointe, explaining his magazine’s continuing support of Kooshian on the day the indictments came down. “I can’t just go out and publish rumor and innuendo.”

(snip)

The U.S. Attorney’s office said Kooshian and Opinion will be arraigned Aug. 1 in the Ronald Reagan Federal Courthouse in Santa Ana. At the hearing, the doctor—who could not be reached for comment—is expected to announce whether he’ll plead innocent. If convicted, they face up to 10 years in prison for each of the 25 health-care fraud counts, as well as five years of incarceration for conspiracy and false statements.

“The indictment is exactly what Dr. Kooshian deserves, but my heart goes out to Virgil ,” Lampel told Moxley after hearing of the indictment. Though he no longer represents Opinion, Lampel said he’s hopeful “federal prosecutors consider instrumental whistle-blower role in exposing the doctor’s unethical conduct that put so many unsuspecting patients at risk.”


Original reporting by R. Scott Moxley, who can be reached at [e-mail].

http://www.ocweekly.com/ink/05/46/news-moxley2.php