UC Irvine Fertility Center Whistle-Blower to Speak Out : Scandal: Former office manager schedules news conference on day before state Senate hearing.

One of three whistle-blowers in the UCI fertility scandal will break her silence today, because she believes she has been unfairly portrayed as “taking a payoff to be quiet,” her attorney said Monday.

Marilyn Killane, 55, a former office manager at the Center for Reproductive Health, has scheduled a news conference today, after UCI officials agreed to void a controversial confidentiality clause in her $325,000 settlement agreement with the university.

“I want the university to recognize and honor her for what she damn did,” said Daniel J. Yakoubian, a San Diego attorney who represented the whistle-blowers. “It’s a healing process for Marilyn. You would think by this point she would be feeling better, but she’s not. She’s never gotten the recognition she deserved. She’s a hero.”

Killane’s public recounting of her experience as a whistle-blower comes just one day before a state Senate hearing in Sacramento that will bring together all the major figures in the fertility controversy. At that time, Killane’s former boss and fellow whistle-blower, Debra Krahel, is scheduled to make her first public statements.

The hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Higher Education, the broadest public inquiry thus far into the UCI fertility scandal, will delve into whether top administrators at the medical center retaliated against Killane, Krahel and a third whistle-blower, Carol Chatham, and paid them large sums in part to keep them quiet.

The all-day session also will include testimony from the three clinic doctors accused of misusing human eggs, financial improprieties and other wrongdoing; top UCI officials; and a Corona couple who claim their embryos were stolen and implanted in another woman who gave birth to twins.

While Sen. Tom Hayden (D-Santa Monica), who chairs the committee, expressed hope the inquiry would bring important new details to light, others were skeptical.

“I don’t know what anyone’s going to talk about,” said Larry Feldman, a Santa Monica attorney representing two other couples who allege their embryos were misappropriated by the doctors.

“The rules in the Legislature are far different than the rules in a court of law. . . . In the legislative process you tend to get more speeches from legislators about their views. I think we need to know what the true facts are under oath subject to thorough cross examination before we start fashioning new laws that might not make any sense.”

Clinic doctors Ricardo H. Asch, Jose P. Balmaceda and Sergio Stone have denied knowingly committing any wrongdoing.

Among the anticipated topics of discussion are the costly settlements the university made with the three whistle-blowers and the confidentiality clauses that kept them from talking. Krahel alleged in a July 18 letter that she and Killane were retaliated against for coming forward.

UCI officials said last week the settlements with the three whistle-blowers were “reached to settle any liability the university had for claims of retaliation and to avoid litigation.”

The university will pay Krahel $495,000 and Chatham, who is not scheduled to testify Wednesday, $98,000.

Yakoubian said Killane met with UCI Executive Vice Chancellor Sidney H. Golub last week to ask that the university waive the secrecy clause and allow his client to tell her side.

He said Killane, who was lured to UCI from Cornell University in New York, is being painted as “a sell-out” and that no one realizes what a courageous role she played in bringing the scandal to light.

“She knew there was no rationalization for what was being done,” he said. “She knew this stuff was absolutely 100% god-awful wrong.”

Yakoubian said his client did not settle until they were convinced that the university was investigating. He said that the settlement figures are not excessive given her position and the retaliation against her.

UCI repeatedly has refused to release a report by UC law professors that probed the whistle-blowers’ allegations of retaliation. Hayden’s office has sought, but not yet obtained, the report. Attorneys for the doctors said they received portions of the report Friday.

But Mary Piccione, executive director of UCI Medical Center, who repeatedly has declined to comment on the misconduct allegations, may be prodded at Wednesday’s hearing to answer questions about the alleged retaliation.

In a July 18 letter to university auditors obtained by The Times, Krahel accused Piccione of ordering Krahel to keep her “loose lips” closed about problems at the clinic. Piccione’s deputy, Herb Spiwak, accused by Krahel of ordering Killane’s termination, is also set to testify.

The hearing will permit officials, for the first time, to interrogate the three physicians at the center of the scandal, who thus far have refused to comment in detail on the accusations against them. But attorneys for the doctors have indicated that their clients will limit their testimony, due to pending civil suits from the university and five former patients.

The purpose, said Ronald G. Brower, Asch’s criminal attorney, should be to take a look at “how the University of California is conducting its business . . . how they monitored the people they form alliances with.”

Times staff writer Martin Miller contributed to this story.