Asch Downplays Role in Operating Clinics

The fertility specialist at the heart of the UC Irvine egg-swapping scandal testified Friday that university employees, including a medical assistant and a biologist without a college degree, were responsible for any “errors” that occurred in the clinics where he practiced.

Behind closed doors blocked off by security officers at a Tijuana hotel, Dr. Ricardo H. Asch said he was not involved in running the clinics beyond performing surgeries, according to attorneys who attended his sworn deposition.

He said he did not match donors and recipients, he did not obtain patient consents, and he had no way of knowing how any mistakes occurred, the attorneys said. “I hope, when this deposition is over, the lawyers . . . and the media will [realize] that the finger of wrongdoing has been pointed at the wrong person,” said Lloyd Charton, Asch’s attorney, in a news conference after the day’s session.

The testimony met with open-mouthed incredulity by many attorneys for former patients and former employees, as well as several patients themselves.

“If you believe in the Easter bunny, then you can believe Dr. Asch,” said Larry Feldman, an attorney for two patients who have sued Asch, his partners and the university for allegedly stealing their eggs and embryos.

“It looks like the man who takes total credit for treating infertility didn’t know how his [UCI] pavilion was run, never talked to a woman [patient] and never consulted with his biologist. He was like a mechanic. He didn’t even order blood tests.”

Asch, with two of his partners, is accused by the University of California of taking the eggs and embryos of scores of women without their consent and implanting them in others. They also are accused of insurance fraud, financial wrongdoing and research misconduct. His deposition was intended to provide information in the majority of more than 25 lawsuits against him, his partners and the university.

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As his own attorney acknowledged Friday, he testified in Tijuana Friday because he fears arrest in the United States. Federal authorities are investigating him and his partners for possible tax evasion, mail fraud and fertility drug smuggling. Asch moved to Mexico shortly after his Newport Beach home was raided by criminal investigators in September.

The doctor arrived at the deposition Friday morning through a hotel service door, striding quickly without comment past a crowd of journalists waiting to question and photograph him. His attorney later said the doctor did not want to violate the “integrity” of the deposition process by trying his case in the media.

A “security clearance” was required for attendance at the deposition, and the media were not allowed inside.

Those who attended said Asch testified he did not run the donor programs at the clinics where he operated--not at UCI, and not at a formerly affiliated clinic in Garden Grove. The doctor testified that between 1986 and 1992, when most of the allegedly unapproved transfers occurred, the program was run by a medical assistant named Toula Batshoun. According to patients’ attorneys who attended the deposition, he said he did not know how donors were matched with recipients, and he left to others such medical matters as egg quality assessment and blood tests for HIV and hepatitis.

“His testimony is such that he operated in a vacuum,” said Larry Eisenberg, an attorney who recently filed several suits against Asch and the university. “He did nothing but take the eggs and insert them in women. This does not coincide with the facts. It’s just incredible.”

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Batshoun’s attorney also dismissed the doctor’s testimony as outlandish.

“My client didn’t have the power, she didn’t have the knowledge, and she never made decisions of this type,” said Crystal Sluyter. “My client is not even a nurse.”

Asch said Teri Ord, an embryologist who worked with Asch for about a dozen years, also made decisions about egg and embryo transfers, according to those who attended the deposition. Ord does not have a college degree.

One attorney said Asch testified he was not aware of any donor program at UC Irvine after 1992, although records suggest several patients may have been victimized by unapproved transfers after that time.

Charton, Asch’s attorney, acknowledged that, as the “captain of the ship,” Asch realizes he should have supervised those who worked under him more closely. But Charton insisted that any mistakes were made by university employees.

Byron Beam, an outside attorney for the University of California, said Friday that Asch was “not credible” and that would become clear in upcoming depositions by Ord and other former employees.

The first of what is set to be four days of testimony by Asch was otherwise marked by acrimony among attorneys, jostling by media camera crews and dramatic security measures. Some of the approximately 20 attorneys complained that most of the day proceeded at numbingly slow pace.

It took three hours just to cover Asch’s work history, where he went to medical school and where he had practiced, said Karen Taillon, attorney for one of Asch’s partners, Sergio C. Stone. Stone attended the deposition, but declined to comment on the proceedings or the allegations against him.

Melanie Blum, the attorney who questioned Asch for much of the day, complained that Charton threatened her with eviction by armed guards if she tried to approach Asch and serve him with legal papers. Blum and several other attorneys filed a flurry of lawsuits against Asch this week.