AIDS Potion Suit Takes New Turn : Courts: A man recants his charge that an unapproved drug harmed him. His lawyer denies urging the patient to lie.

A Los Angeles court case involving a discredited AIDS drug has taken an unusual turn, with a man who took the potion recanting an earlier story that he was injured by it and charging that his lawyer coached him to lie.

James Looney was among 10 people with acquired immune deficiency syndrome who sued two doctors, a North Hollywood hospital and others in 1991, charging that they were used in an “unethical medical experiment” to gather data on a homemade drug called Viroxan and that their health was damaged as a result.

Viroxan was invented by Stephen D. Herman, a retired Orange County radiologist, in his back-yard guest house. He was arrested in 1990 and later pressured by state medical officials into surrendering his physician’s license. Authorities said it was the first such action against AIDS quackery in California.

The defendants in the lawsuits include Herman; a North Hollywood osteopath, Valentine Birds, who helped administer Viroxan, and the Medical Center of North Hollywood, where some of the plaintiffs had catheters implanted surgically so they could take Viroxan intravenously.

Herman, Birds and the hospital have denied any wrongdoing.

State medical regulators revoked Birds’ doctor’s license in 1991 over his involvement with Viroxan. Herman continues to tout Viroxan as an effective treatment for AIDS and a cure for cancer, psoriasis, acne, athlete’s foot, arthritis, sunburn and warts.

In his lawsuit and in newspaper interviews, Looney said he suffered heart damage, severe swelling of his chest and neck and a blocked vein as a result of Viroxan.

In addition, he said he developed lumps of hardened flesh on his hips where he injected the potion. Looney, a onetime buyer for an aerospace firm, said he paid $300 a month for Viroxan but was forced to go off it when Herman raised the price to $600.

But in a written statement dated July 5 and recently entered into court records, Looney denied his earlier assertions, saying, “I can no longer be party to a fraud.”

He said that he was not “injured in any way” by Viroxan and that Herman gave him the concoction free. Looney did suffer a brief heart attack, he said, but it was caused by his use of another unapproved AIDS drug, Compound Q.

Looney further claimed that his former attorney, Raymond L. Henke, coached him to lie when he gave statements to defense lawyers and that Henke is engaged in “an international smear campaign” against Herman and Viroxan.

Henke denied that he urged Looney to lie about any aspect of the case. He also suggested that Looney’s declaration was “orchestrated” by Herman’s lawyer, James E. Hoffmann.

“My feeling is that James Looney must have had an extraordinary amount of influence placed upon him,” said Henke. “He has changed his position on a lot of facts that are verifiable.”

Henke said he believes that the declaration will backfire when he gets a chance to cross-examine Looney and others about its origins.

“What is going to happen is that the defendants are going to end up with egg on their faces,” he said, characterizing Looney as “a desperate and vulnerable man who has been exploited twice by the same people.”

Both Looney and Hoffmann declined to be interviewed about Looney’s declaration.

Henke said that although Looney now denies having paid for Viroxan, Herman’s business records show that Looney did pay.

Henke said Looney did not tell him that he had used Compound Q. But even if he had, that does not undercut the case against Herman, Henke said.

Henke said his clients allege that because Herman put them on an unproven and ineffective drug--Viroxan--they were robbed of valuable time in which they could have been using AZT, which at the time was the only AIDS drug approved by the federal government.

Henke also questioned whether Looney actually wrote his declaration, saying it “is clearly made up of statements which would only have occurred to” Herman and his attorney, Hoffmann.

Andrew Lloyd, another attorney defending Herman, said none of the defense attorneys knew about Looney’s statement recanting the charges until it was faxed to their offices.

Alan Rushfeldt, an attorney for the Medical Center of North Hollywood, said the document could have “a significant bearing on the case” if it is true and if Looney made it without any pressure or inducements.

“We all have got to know whether it’s legitimate and why he said what he said,” said Rushfeldt. “God knows what they did to get it, if it’s legitimate. We need Mr. Looney’s testimony to know what the heck is going on here.”