Ex-Clinic Worker Says UCI Doctor Offered Her a Bribe

Soon after the UC Irvine fertility clinic scandal broke, a UCI doctor offered a former employee what she thought was a bribe to keep quiet about what had gone on within clinic walls, the employee testified Wednesday.

Toula Batshoun, a former office supervisor, testified that in late May or early June of last year--more than two years after she quit her job at the clinic--an attorney for Dr. Jose P. Balmaceda asked her in a meeting, “how deep are your wounds?”

According to attorneys who attended Batshoun’s private deposition Wednesday, Batshoun also said that during that same meeting--one of two with Balmaceda--the doctor commented to his attorney, “If anyone in this thing can bust our balls, it’s this lady.”

Batshoun testified that she was at first confused by the vague conversation during the meeting held in the office of Balmaceda’s attorney, Patrick Moore. But after Moore told Batshoun that he understood she had not been treated right at the clinic and Balmaceda said that he “had an amount in his head,” Batshoun testified, she came to the conclusion that they were trying to bribe her.

She said, however, that no amount of money was ever specified and that none changed hands.

After Batshoun was visited by prosecutors looking into the scandal, she said, she became afraid and declined to pursue the issue.

A short time later, she gave the University of California what it termed “credible evidence” of improper egg transfers at the clinic involving 30 to 35 patients. She said she had secretly collected the documents before resigning from the clinic in early 1993.

Balmaceda, clinic director Ricardo H. Asch and a third partner, Sergio C. Stone, face university accusations of egg and embryo misappropriation, financial wrongdoing and research misconduct. All three deny any intentional wrongdoing.

Balmaceda has sold his Corona del Mar home and moved to Chile. His attorney, Moore, could not be reached for comment late Wednesday.

Batshoun hurriedly left the deposition room Wednesday and would not elaborate on her testimony. However, her attorney, Crystal Sluyter, said Balmaceda did suggest to Batshoun that she enter into a confidential agreement for a figure he never stated. Sluyter said the word “bribe” was never used.

According to Batshoun’s testimony, as recapped by attorneys, Balmaceda lamented during the first meeting with Batshoun that he had to “clean up” what he considered “Ricardo’s mess.” Balmaceda asked Moore if he thought he could get his two partners to “pitch in,” said Melanie Blum, a patient’s attorney who kept detailed notes on Batshoun’s testimony.

Blum said Batshoun backed away from the negotiations after meeting with Balmaceda a second time at his Laguna Hills office.

In other testimony Wednesday, Batshoun said she offered evidence of improper egg transfers to at least four administrators and a university auditor as early as mid-1992, but no action was taken.

Batshoun said that after she discussed the alleged egg swapping and other alleged clinic improprieties with internal auditor Dave Swanberg, he informed her that the clinic doctors would get just a “slap on the wrist” and that it would be “business as usual” at the Center for Reproductive Health.

In fact, there was no mention of egg-stealing allegations in a January 1993 audit of the clinic performed by Swanberg’s office.

Batshoun said she offered Swanberg and administrators access to documents that she had secretly gathered supporting allegations of human egg misuse.

At the first meeting with administrators in August or September of 1992, she said, she was told the university would get its own copies. But she said she learned in subsequent meetings that fall that this never occurred.

Batshoun’s testimony is directly at odds with that of former senior administrators who Batshoun insists attended some of those meetings. Administrator Stephany Ander testified in a deposition last week that she was unaware during her tenure of any allegations of improper egg and embryo transfers.

A university attorney, Kermit Marsh, said Wednesday that Ander is a much more credible witness than Batshoun.

Batshoun, 34, has admitted during her testimony that she lied in the early 1990s during a deposition in a medical malpractice case at Asch’s request. She also admitted to preparing false insurance claims in order to cover her large medical deductible--a practice she said was common among employees at the UCI clinic. Batshoun was ultimately forced to resign but was never criminally charged.