Ex-Fertility Clinic Staffer Copied Files

A former chief biologist testified Thursday that when she left UC Irvine’s fertility clinic in 1994, she made copies of hundreds of confidential patient files as “insurance” should the clinic director try to “blackball” her.

Teri Ord, 39, who worked under Dr. Ricardo H. Asch for more than a decade, told attorneys during the second day of a deposition that she decided to copy records showing egg and embryo transfers, simply to have leverage against Asch, whom she suspected of wrongdoing.

The leverage came in the form of “egg series sheets” and other documents that form the basis for accusations that Asch and one of his partners had stolen eggs and embryos from at least 60 women since the mid-1980s. One attorney characterized them Thursday as a “road map” of what has become an international scandal.

“She obviously had an E ticket out of there,” said Walter Koontz, an attorney who represents some of the plaintiffs in the 40 lawsuits now on file against UC Irvine and its once-prestigious Center for Reproductive Health. “She knew there were some major storm clouds brewing, and she better have protection.”

Ord left the Irvine clinic in September 1994 and now lives in San Antonio. The bulk of the reproductive records she copied cover the period from 1991 to 1994.

Ord’s disclosures about using egg sheets and other medical files as self-protection came during intense questioning from Orange attorney Melanie Blum, who represents 17 plaintiffs.

“She said she took them for ‘insurance’ purposes, in case he tried to blackball her in the IVF [in vitro fertilization] industry,” Blum said. “She didn’t want it to hurt her career.”

Ord and her attorney left Thursday’s session hurriedly without speaking to reporters.

Blum said she felt that UC Irvine, Ord’s employer, “is in much worse shape after [Thursday’s] testimony. She said she didn’t want to raise questions about the misappropriation of eggs. She knew it would cost her her job. She feared everything would ultimately tumble down. . . .

“But the university was right there with all the knowledge,” Blum said. “Auditors brought them reports. Employees gave them reports, and it’s clear Teri Ord knew what was going on. And yet they still did nothing.”

But Louise Douville, an attorney representing UC Irvine, which is paying Ord’s legal expenses, said Ord had been consistent about who was responsible for what went on at the clinic. Her disclosures actually underscore the degree of Asch’s culpability, she said.

“Dr. Asch was her ultimate boss,” Douville said. “She reported to him, she trusted him, she believed him. In that regard, she had unconfirmed suspicions when she left about problems she had only heard about.

“When you look at all the testimony, it’s very clear about who was directing her to do what she did,” Douville said. “And, of course, it was Asch.”

Months before testifying at the deposition, Ord supplied the egg sheets and other confidential medical information to criminal investigators and UC Irvine. The lists are considered some of the most damaging evidence against Asch and one of his partners, Dr. Jose P. Balmaceda.

Asch, Balmaceda and one other partner, Dr. Sergio Stone, are accused of taking the eggs and embryos of scores of women without their consent and implanting them in others. Ord’s evidence apparently does not implicate Stone.

UC Irvine also has accused the doctors of insurance fraud, financial wrongdoing and research misconduct. All three have denied any deliberate malfeasance.

Josefina Walker, Asch’s attorney at the deposition, downplayed Ord’s testimony, saying Ord confessed to “feeling kind of silly about taking those forms, feeling like she was in some kind of movie. She didn’t really believe he would do those things [steal eggs or embryos], and in fact, he never would do that.”