This really irks me
Posted by WhiteCoat on September 19, 2007
Experts witnesses who lie just bug the hell out of me.
This guy admitted to buffing up his credentials to make himself look better so the jury would believe him over the other expert. The issue was apparently a problem with a CABG and this “expert” said he was the lead surgeon for numerous CABGs when he never performed a single one.
They’re letting him plea bargain to a lesser crime.
Instead, they should throw the book at him and show others that this crap should not be tolerated from anyone. I don’t care whether you’re a doctor, a cop, a scientist, or a street bum. You’re lying in order to persuade 12 people who are trying to make an honest decision that will affect someone’s career, life, finances, freedom, etc. — all to make a quick buck from some unsuspecting attorney.
Dishonesty of any sort under these circumstances is just wrong on so many levels.
Oh, and if the retaining attorneys knew about this “expert’s” real history and didn’t say anything, they should each be drawn and quartered. Disbarment isn’t good enough.
September 19, 2007 at 8:38 pm
I agree. Expert witnesses who lie are really annoying.
September 20, 2007 at 11:52 am
I wholeheartedly agree with you!
Back in the 90’s we had retained an attorney for a legal case we were involved in. Early on he “advised” my husband to LIE about something and we weren’t comfortable with it at all!
We were sitting right in front of him in his office when the phone rang and coincidentally it was someone else who was acting on our behalf.
We should have said “No!” but we sat there silently while he told the other person what my husband “supposedly” said. Then that information (disclosure packets) got put out to the “other side” and now the LIE was perpetuated through the ranks.
We never felt right about this.
Our lawyer came over one night (he was a neighbor and stopped over on the way home)to discuss the case. Still bothered by the LIE, I questioned it again and then I said,”_ _ _ _ - Is God not God?” (I know, a tad dramatic)and I went into my reasoning as to why it wasn’t right. (WHO had the LAW degree here?) Looking up to the top of our cathedral ceiling at the far end of the family room,he said, “I WISH-this-case-was-OVER.”
So, we let it all go for a couple of months. A few days before the case was coming up we told someone else involved in helping us and stated that we weren’t comfortable saying it. That person said, “Then tell the truth!.”
Suffice it to know that with all my heart and every fiber of my being, that I know, that I know…if he had lied- he would have lost the case! But my husband won!
It is a long but interesting story that transpired over a l-o-o-o-n-g 19 month period, the back and forth and ups and downs-YIKES! No salary because it involved work and the threat of losing everything, job, home, etc. Our youngest son was 2 and the older one was 10 when it all started. (I lost my innocence- where prior to this case, I believed that all professionals involved in the law were honest-I really believed that)
I believe it came down to this pivotal moment where the person on the other side set himself squarely in front of my husband and with direct, unflinching eye contact toward him,(not unlike a wild animal ready to pounce on on his prey)he then slowly and deliberately with purpose,asked my husband “the” question that he was supposed to LIE about as “advised” by his lawyer.
(you could have heard a pin drop like in the old E F Hutton commercials)
My husband, told the truth, saying, “No, I did not.”
The other person looked shocked, regrouped and again asked the same question, to which my husband again told the truth.
(The room was so quiet that I think we all stopped breathing at this point.)
The other man flung himself around, away from my husband and all of us and just stared out the window for a minute.
It was a BEAUTIFUL site to behold! Talk about Chesire cat moment!
It was anticlimactic from that point on.
It seems my husband lying was the big guns the other side was going to use to seal their case. They had already put out lies that had to be retracted in the papers (for which they were held accountable and had to answer to at this time), etc. and did not play fair and we were able to demonstrate that as well, prior to this moment. I have no doubt they had a way to prove he was lying!
Dr White Coat- sorry this is so long, but it ties in with your post in that if we had listened to our lawyer- well our lives would have gone even more upside down and lost everything.
Oh, and our lawyer? Disbarred today for embezzling from a client.
I later found out that if we had retained a criminal lawyer that this never even would have gone to court! He was a real estate lawyer. He was also the lawyer for the hospital I worked in and an ER doc and nurse that I worked with are in the mix here because they wanted to give me info (person who did the wrong evidently spilled the beans to them when he was brought in as a pt) that would have helped us but they were silenced-long story here too. I did try to get a (well known in our area) criminal lawyer but the person who ACTUALLY committed the crime had already retained him and so in ignorance of the law called our neighbor.
I actually always liked him and his wife and after HIS name was smeared all over the papers, I ran into him when he came in as a pt at the hospital and tried to both comfort and be supportive toward him. His wife later wrote me a beautiful letter thanking me.
Sometimes as humans, we make wrong choices that if given the chance to do over we would not repeat. It’s just sad when those choices totally ruin innocent people or harm them in any way.
Again-sorry about the length of this comment. Your post resurrected these long buried thoughts. I should post the whole story sometime but just have to be careful with confidentiality.
Also major lesson learned? If you are not someone who has watched a lot of legal shows on TV (so therefore don’t know any better)- don’t EVER wave your rights to an attorney because “you KNOW” you are innocent and you know if you tell the truth you will be helping and everything will be o.k.! OR-even if you are a witness to something - don’t be forthcoming without legal representation. (I am sorry to say that but believe it with all my heart) You are assuming everyone involved in the matter is honest and actually cares about the truth. I am an optimistic person but have learned- because I lived it-the hard way,that is fairytale thinking, totally naive at best.
We were later told that the guy who was trying to put all of this on my husband (and actually some one else too)went BALLISTIC in his office because he lost!
I confess that thought greatly amuses me to this day.
September 20, 2007 at 12:08 pm
P.S. I know you were talking about expert witnesses, but it just reminded me of how all professionals sworn to uphold the law should be truthful. That’s what it is supposed to be about - the truth.
September 22, 2007 at 4:49 pm
[...] lawbreaker was caught. He is making restitution, etc. Good enough? At least one doctor thinks it is not enough: Instead, they should throw the book at him and show others that this crap [...]