PETER CHUDLEIGH/Standard-Examiner
Dr. Robert Allan Weitzel hugs his fiancee after being acquitted on all charges Friday on his manslaughter trial
in Utah 2nd District Court in Farmington. Weitzel also faced three counts of
misdemeanor negligent homicide.
Innocent on all counts
Jury clears Dr. Weitzel after two hours of deliberation
Sat, Nov 23, 2002
By LORETTA PARK FARMINGTON -- Three weeks of technical medical testimony boiled down to just
two hours of deliberation to find psychiatrist Robert Allen Weitzel innocent
Friday in the deaths of five patients.
"I'm very happy with the verdict. It was a long, long haul,"
Weitzel said in a telephone interview.
Friends of Weitzel cheered, and defense attorney Walter Bugden wiped away
tears as the last "not guilty" verdict was read on two counts of
manslaughter and three counts of negligent homicide. In a prepared statement he read outside the courtroom, Weitzel said; "I
am terribly saddened about the completely unnecessary suffering my
patients" families have been put through. Finally, I'm deeply
disturbed that the state ever tried to criminalize compassionate and appropriate
care."
Prosecutors say the verdict came about because the trial changed direction
from what they say were the morphine overdose deaths of five patients to
end-of-life care.
County Attorney Mel Wilson said in closing arguments, "I perceive parts
of this trial turned into a forum for end-of-life care and pain management. This
case is about five people and the deaths of five people."
Wilson said there was a pattern in the care Weitzel gave his patients that
included over-medicating them, not calling in a consultant when there were
medical problems and a failure to attend to his patients.
Defense attorney Bugden said in closing arguments Weitzel obeyed the wishes
of his patients, and that his client "is not the only one on trial, but
palliative care in Utah and in America is on trial here."
Also in his closing arguments, Bugden said the case came about because three
nurses did not understand the concept of people in the process of death. Those
nurses, especially Earlene Cooper, he said, had a dislike for Weitzel.
Cooper, who heard about the verdict at home, said she was not surprised
because the defense had turned the case into an end-of-life issue.
Cooper, who testified for the prosecution in both trials, said in a telephone
interview "the whole issue was Weitzel's lack of empathy and lack of
ability to care about these patients," not about end-of-life care.
Myrna Gronwald, daughter of Ennis Alldredge, arrived at the courtroom after
the verdict was read.
"I think it's a bad joke. I talked to Mel (Wilson) and the staff
afterward, and it wasn't Bugden who won the case. What it came down to was the
standard of care," Gronwald said.
Doctors who testified for the prosecutors said Weitzel's care of the patients
fell below the accepted standard of care, while doctors who testified for the
defense said the standard of care provided by the psychiatrist was appropriate.
"The ones I feel bad for are the victims" families. They took it
pretty rough," Wilson said.
Carolyn Buhman, daughter of Lydia Smith, said she appreciates the work the
jury did but is upset with the verdict.
"The jury was confused, so they had a reasonable doubt and had to find
him not guilty," Buhman said.
Buhman said she is concerned that in Utah doctors do not have to be
responsible to the public.
"Why are doctors not held accountable?" Buhman said.
Weitzel's self-described "long haul" began almost three years ago
when Layton police and the Davis County Attorney's Office began investigating
the case. Three elderly patients" bodies were exhumed from various Utah
cemeteries in an attempt to determine whether their deaths were caused by
morphine overdoses.
In September 1999, Weitzel, who was living in Texas, was charged with the
deaths of Ellen Anderson, 91; Ennis Alldredge, 83; Judith Larsen, 93; Mary
Crane, 72; and Lydia Smith, 90. The five deaths occurred over a 16-day span at
Davis Hospital and Medical Center starting in late December 1995.
The first trial took place the summer of 2000, and a jury found him guilty of
two second-degree felony counts of manslaughter and three misdemeanor counts
after a six-week trial. But that conviction was overturned in January 2001, when
Judge Thomas L. Kay, later removed from the case, ruled prosecutors had withheld
exculpatory evidence from the defense.
The second trial began Nov. 4. Friday, the five-man, three-woman jury began
deliberations around 2:50 p.m. and were back in the courtroom at 4:50 p.m. to
deliver their verdict.
Wilson said he accepts the verdict rendered by the jury and doesn't believe
the testimony given by Dr. Perry Fine, a defense expert witness, Thursday hurt
the state's case.
Fine, a University of Utah physician specializing in pain management and
end-of-life care, was the exculpatory witness, which Weitzel's defense team in
2000 said could have strengthened its case.
Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau