Judge Reinstates $750,000 Bail for Klvana

A judge on Thursday reinstated the $750,000 bail of a Valencia physician charged in the deaths of seven newborns, and sent him back to his jail cell.

Dr. Milos Klvana, 47, is awaiting trial on six counts of second-degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter. Prosecutors allege he knowingly provided negligent medical care that led to the deaths.

Klvana had been in custody from the time of his October, 1986, arrest until November, after a different judge lowered the $750,000 bail previously set in his case to $200,000. He was released after paying that bail and resumed practicing medicine, authorities said.

On Thursday, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Judith C. Chirlin reinstated Klvana’s previous bail. Last month, she had revoked the $200,000 bail and ordered Klvana jailed after Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian R. Kelberg argued that Klvana’s practice of medicine posed a danger to the community.

Chirlin said Thursday that she continues to believe that Klvana practiced medicine after his release on bail. When Municipal Judge James F. Nelson lowered the bail last year, Klvana was “put on notice that, if he tried to practice medicine, he was going to be where we are today,” Chirlin said.

Undercover Investigation

The allegations about Klvana’s allegedly dangerous medical activities stem mostly from a state investigator’s undercover visit to Klvana’s Valencia clinic in January.

Shane P. Wright, an investigator for the Board of Medical Quality Assurance, testified Thursday that she posed as a patient asking for a pregnancy test. Klvana determined she was not pregnant after a urinalysis, she said. He gave her a box containing nine green pills, without examining her or learning her medical history, she said.

Earlier in the hearing, Dr. Gary K. Oakes testified that the drugs Klvana gave to Wright were Loestrin birth-control pills. An examination and medical history are necessary because the hormone pills have “potentially life-threatening” side effects for some patients, said Oakes, director of obstetrics and perinatal outreach at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

In support of Klvana, defense lawyers presented testimony from three of his friends, including Dr. Joseph A. Emory. Emory was sentenced to prison in 1980 for manslaughter in the deaths of three newborns in his care.

Also accused in the case is Klvana’s assistant, midwife Delores Doyle, 35, of Montclair. She is awaiting trial on two counts of second-degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter. She remains in custody, unable to post $200,000 bail.