Former Asch Aide Copied Documents as ‘Insurance’

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 in the future.

Teri Ord, 39, who worked under Dr. Ricardo H. Asch for more than a decade, told attorneys during a second day of 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 serve as the basis for accusations that Asch and one of his partner had stolen eggs and embryos from at least 60 women since the mid-1980s. One attorney characterized them Thursday as a “road map” to 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 UCI and its once-prestigious Center for Reproductive Health. “She knew there were some major storm clouds brewing and she better have protection.”

Ord, who left the UCI clinic in September 1994 and now lives in San Antonio, made copies of the reproductive records, the bulk of which cover the period 1991 to 1994.

Ord’s disclosures about using egg series sheets and other medical files as self-protection came during intense questioning by 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 [in-vitro fertilization] industry,” Blum said. “She didn’t want it to hurt her career.”

Ord and her attorney, Marshall Silberberg, left the session hurriedly without speaking to reporters.

Blum said she feels that UCI, Ord’s former 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. 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, the attorney representing UCI, which is paying Ord’s legal expenses, said that the high school-educated biologist has been consistent about who is responsible for what went on at the clinic. Her disclosures actually underscore the degree of Asch’s culpability, not the university’s, 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. So, based on that, she took her ‘insurance’ when she left.

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

Months before testifying at the deposition, Ord supplied the egg series sheets and other confidential medical information to criminal investigators and UCI. 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.

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

Josefina Walker, the attorney representing Asch at the deposition, downplayed the significance of Ord’s testimony. Ord, she said, 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 [steal eggs or embryos], and, in fact, he never would do that.”

Asked if the egg series sheets Ord copied will prove damaging to Asch, Walker said: “He’s already said that, in retrospect, he should have looked at those things more closely. Are they damaging in terms of showing intent? No. Are they damaging in showing that mistakes were made? Yes.”

Walker said that Asch was the victim of employees’ errors. “His doing a procedure only compounded mistakes that other people had made,” she said. “But do they show intentionality--him trying to go against a woman’s wishes? No.”

Attorneys said the documents Ord testified to copying include not only egg series sheets, summarizing transfers of human reproductive material from one party to another, but also lists of patients undergoing diagnostic procedures. Those procedures date back to the 1980s, when she and Asch worked together at a clinic in Garden Grove.

The diagnostic list is significant, attorneys said, because some patients whose eggs were stolen went in merely for a clinical procedure called a laparoscopy, in which the pelvic organs are examined. The eggs were then implanted in other women without the patients’ knowledge, the attorneys allege.

“I have one client who’s about to file suit who went in for such a procedure,” Blum said. “It was supposed to be totally diagnostic. She wasn’t supposed to have any eggs removed. Well, they removed 16 and gave them to another woman, who then gave birth to twins, while my client ultimately adopted.”

“So the laparoscopy list has many more names on it,” Blum said. “That was part of Teri Ord’s ‘insurance.’ ”

Ord’s testimony resumes today.