Ogden Standard Examiner       Front Page        News              

       Mar 01, 2002 

            '60 Minutes' looks at Weitzel case
            He agrees to rare interview
                  Fri, Mar 1, 2002 

            By NESREEN KHASHAN
            Standard-Examiner Davis Bureau

 
            LAYTON - Psychiatrist Robert Weitzel is scheduled to be featured on 
            the CBS news magazine show "60 Minutes" on Sunday. 
            The segment will run for about 13 minutes in the middle of the 
            hour long program that airs on CBS affiliate KUTV Channel 2 at 6 p.m. 
            Two "60 Minutes" producers and journalist Ed Bradley, who 
            interviewed Weitzel, spent several days in Davis County late last 
            November to report the piece.
            The Weitzel case is one that has gained him local prominence since 
            the doctor was first charged with five counts of first-degree felony 
            murder nearly four years ago. 
            In his first trial, which lasted six weeks, a jury found Weitzel 
            guilty of lesser offenses of two counts of second-degree 
            manslaughter and three misdemeanor counts of negligent homicide in 
            the deaths of five elderly patients. But that conviction was 
            overturned in January 2001 when a Farmington judge ruled that the 
            prosecutors had withheld exculpatory evidence from the defense. 
            Weitzel now faces a retrial on those same charges he was found 
            guilty of in the summer of 2000.

            Nurses interviewed
            Kevin Tedesco, a spokesman for the show, said the piece includes 
            interviews with two nurses who worked at Davis Hospital and Medical 
            Center in Layton where the patients under Weitzel's care died within 
            a three-week period starting in late December 1995. The two nurses, 
            Laurie Stevenson, a nurse practitioner now practicing in 
            Pennsylvania, and Earlene Cozzens Cooper, both testified at 
            Weitzel's first trial. Stevenson's testimony was generally favorable 
            to the defense during the first trial, while Cooper's statements 
            were supportive of the prosecutors' claims. 
            The show also hired two doctors from outside of Utah to review the 
            medical charts of the five patients who died, Tedesco said. While 
            the show presented the polar views in the case -- that of 
            prosecutors who have claimed that Weitzel drugged his patients to 
            death and that of the defense that the doctor was providing "comfort 
            care" to his patients -- Tedesco said the two medical consultants 
            agreed that the care provided was not unusual.
            "These two doctors looked at the charts of the elderly people who 
            passed away and did not think what Dr. Weitzel had done was out of 
            the ordinary," Tedesco said. "They thought it was proper procedure."

            Former Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Bowman, who is now in 
            private practice, was interviewed for the story. In the piece, 
            Bowman dismissed Weitzel's explanation that he was providing pain 
            management for his patients. Instead Bowman, who is also a nurse, 
            asserted that geriatric patients don't feel pain in the same way 
            other patients do.

            Differing opinions
            "There were no indicators found that any of those patients had 
            something that we would know to be painful," Bowman said during the 
            "60 Minutes" interview. "If you or I had a broken bone, we're very 
            likely to be in a great deal of pain, while an elderly person can 
            have a fracture and not be aware of it."
            Dr. Perry Fine, the University of Utah physician whose testimony 
            helped lead to the reversal of the first Weitzel conviction, was 
            also featured in the story.
            Tedesco did not mention the names of two key players in the case, 
            Davis County Attorney Mel Wilson or Weitzel's first attorney, Peter 
            Stirba, as being among those interviewed.

            Weitzel's concerns
            Speaking from his Salt Lake City home Thursday, Weitzel said that 
            although he was initially reluctant, he took a chance with the "60 
            Minutes" producers when they approached him about being interviewed 
            for the piece. His misgivings, he said, came from an experience he 
            had in 2000 when producers of the ABC news magazine show "20/20" 
            assembled a story about his first trial that he considered shallow 
            and unbalanced.
            "At this time I have no idea how '60 Minutes' will spin this story, 
            but I took a chance because I believe that casting light on this 
            case should help me," Weitzel said. "I am sincerely saddened by what 
            this case has done to the community: the families of my patients, 
            Davis County, and the medical community and patient care. The 
            objective of good professional care is to relieve the pain of the 
            patient and the suffering of the family and the community. This kind 
            of care should never be misunderstood by the community or attacked by 
            a prosecutor, and I feel terrible that this misunderstanding has 
            occurred."
            

      Copyright ©2001, Ogden Publishing Corporation 

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