Gathers Trial Jury Selection Completed

A jury of 11 women and one man was chosen Thursday for the trial of two doctors accused of negligence in the death of Hank Gathers, the Loyola Marymount University basketball star who collapsed on March 4, 1990, while playing in a postseason game. He died less than two hours later of a heart disorder.

Selection of the jury came after 59 Los Angeles County residents were questioned in the Southwest District Superior Court in Torrance. Opening statements will begin Monday in the case, in which four members of the Gathers family who were at the game allege that negligence by the doctors who treated Gathers courtside led to his death and caused them undue emotional distress.

The trial is expected to last through Labor Day.

Although none of the jurors is black, the attorney for the Gathers family said he is satisfied with the selection. “I don’t think race is a factor here,” said Bruce Fagel, the attorney for Gathers’ mother, Lucille; his brothers, Derrick and Charles, and an aunt, Carole Livingston Gilmore.

“Of the 99 jurors called up, there were only three blacks, but that’s just the way it goes. We never perceived it as being a black-white issue to begin with. It’s an issue that deals with the doctors’ conduct taken in the context of what was known about Hank’s condition.”

Also saying they were satisfied with the jury selection were Richard Carroll, who, along with Marshall Silberberg, represents Dr. Benjamin Shaffer, the doctor-on-duty the night of the game, and Shaffer’s employer, Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Group.

“Marshall and I are pleased with the selection,” Carroll said. “It was a very laborious process because of the possibility of predisposed opinions as a result of the media exposure this suit has received.”

Dr. Dan Hyslop, an independent contractor who works in Loyola’s student health center, is the third defendant in the case.

Along with the 12 jurors, four alternates were named.

The trial will cover the remaining portion of a multimillion-dollar suit filed by Gathers’ family shortly after his death. The wrongful death portion of the suit was settled out of court four months ago. That part of the suit was filed by Gathers mother, Lucille, and his son, Aaron Crump, against Loyola Marymount and the doctors who treated Gathers before his death.