Asch Refuses to Appear at Deposition Planned in Orange

Former UC Irvine fertility doctor Ricardo H. Asch is refusing to show up at a deposition scheduled for Friday in an Orange law office, raising questions about whether the doctor will continue testimony begun in Tijuana last month.

Meanwhile, a former employee of Asch--whom the doctor has specifically blamed for “errors” in clinics where he worked--is set to be questioned under oath at the end of the month in San Antonio.

The employee, Teri Ord, a former UCI clinic embryologist, has supplied some of the most damaging evidence against Asch, who along with his partners is accused of stealing eggs and embryos from scores of women and implanting them in others. She is set to testify during four days of deposition hearings beginning Feb. 28.

Asch and his colleagues have denied any deliberate wrongdoing.

Asch will not continue his deposition Friday because it is too far from his home in Mexico City and the deposition notice is technically flawed, one of his attorneys, Josefina Walker, said Tuesday.

The lawyer also complained that Asch has received requests--from different attorneys--to continue his deposition on different dates, making scheduling inconvenient and confusing. “Ultimately, we want to continue this deposition, but we want to do it in an orderly fashion,” Walker said.

The request to appear Friday came from plaintiffs’ attorney Melanie Blum, who is organizing the proceeding for several other attorneys for patients who have sued. Asch also has been asked by University of California attorneys to appear for a deposition March 4.

Asch and the university have been sued by about 40 former patients who allege that the doctor and his partners stole their eggs and embryos.

Two more couples, treated by Asch at a UCI affiliate in Garden Grove in the late 1980s, filed suit Tuesday. One couple claimed that Asch and his partners “sold” their eggs to two women, causing one to become pregnant with twins. The couple, Stephen and Ashley Fellowes MacCarthy, said that seven years ago, Asch induced them to pay for a fertility drug that, unknown to them, was not approved by the federal government. The drug, according to the couple, caused the woman “great pain.” The pair also said that Asch tacked undisclosed costs onto their bill.

The first four days of Asch’s deposition in most of the lawsuits against him took place in Tijuana at the doctor’s insistence, because he fears arrest in the United States.

Asch and his partners are under investigation by federal authorities for possible mail fraud, tax evasion and fertility drug smuggling. No charges have been announced.

Lloyd Charton, another of Asch’s attorneys, has said that the doctor will not agree to be deposed in the United States unless federal authorities agree not to arrest him and the university agrees to pay his legal expenses. Neither condition has been met. The university has explicitly refused to cover Asch’s expenses thus far.

Attorneys for former patients said Tuesday that Charton’s conditions have no basis in law. Blum, however, said she will wait to see if Asch attends the university-scheduled deposition March 4 before seeking a court order to compel the doctor’s deposition in the United States.

Attorneys for both the university and the former patients said they will not agree to depose Asch outside the country again because, they said, the experience in Tijuana was chaotic and not governed by California rules.

Some expressed doubt that Asch would continue his deposition at all, leaving them with the option of seeking a default judgment in which Asch would be forced to forfeit the cases.