3 Murder Charges Against Obstetrician in Valencia Reinstated by Judge

A Los Angeles Superior Court judge Thursday reinstated three second-degree murder charges against Valencia obstetrician Milos Klvana, who now faces such charges in the deaths of eight infants and a full-term fetus under his care.

Judge Judith C. Chirlin ruled that a lower-court judge erred in 1987 in dismissing two of the second-degree murder charges and reducing a third to involuntary manslaughter.

Prosecutors are arguing that Klvana, 47, knowingly provided inferior medical care that led to the nine deaths between 1982 and 1986 at clinics he operated in Valencia and Temple City.

Klvana, who attended at out-of-hospital births, failed to recommend hospital treatment in cases where common complications emerged during pregnancy or delivery, Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian R. Kelberg said.

The three deaths at issue Thursday were those of Amy Johnson, 1 day old, in 1982, and Tyrone Ennis, 7 days old, in 1984, and a full-term fetus known as Baby Ginsberg in 1984.

Second-degree murder charges were filed against Klvana in all three cases after his arrest in October, 1986.

At a preliminary hearing last year, Los Angeles Municipal Judge James F. Nelson said he wanted to reduce those charges to involuntary manslaughter but did not elaborate.

He did reduce the charge in the Ennis case.

But Nelson had to dismiss the Johnson charge, which was beyond the statute of limitations for involuntary manslaughter, along with the Ginsberg charge because involuntary manslaughter cannot be applied to the death of a fetus.

Acting on the prosecutors’ requests to reinstate the three second-degree murder charges, Chirlin said it was inappropriate for Nelson to reduce the counts.

Chirlin ruled that the evidence against Klvana in the three cases was strong enough that he should stand trial on the second-degree murder charges, each of which carries a sentence of 15 years to life. Klvana also faces numerous other charges, including perjury, grand theft, insurance fraud and conspiracy.

Chirlin also denied Klvana’s request for a reduction of his $750,000 bail. He is in custody in County Jail.

Chirlin did reduce the bail of Klvana’s co-defendant and sometime assistant, Delores Doyle, who also is in custody, from $200,000 to $100,000.

Doyle, 36, of Montclair, faces two counts of second-degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter in three deaths, as well as other charges including insurance fraud, grand theft and practicing medicine without a license.

Chirlin denied a motion by Doyle’s lawyer, Maxwell S. Keith, to try his client separately from Klvana.

Keith unsuccessfully argued that evidence against Klvana would prejudice the case against Doyle, and that Doyle’s defense is expected to blame Klvana for the deaths for which Doyle is charged.

In his motion, Keith wrote that Doyle was not “recklessly indifferent” to the medical complications unless she “knew or should have known taking a patient with complications to Dr. Klvana was signing a death warrant for the baby.”