Missing X-Ray Affects Shoemaker Evidence

The judge hearing the Bill Shoemaker case in Los Angeles County Superior Court said Friday that a missing X-ray is important and may restrict the introduction of some evidence.

“This is a terribly serious issue,” Judge Frederick J. Lower Jr. told lawyers in a pretrial hearing. “What this may mean is that you can’t bring in any evidence based on the original X-ray. In three of the depositions, [expert witnesses] suggest that the copies of the X-rays are not the same as the original.”

Defense attorneys have said that witnesses knew they were dealing with copies of X-rays when they gave their depositions.

On Feb. 4, a motorcycle courier, delivering Shoemaker’s diagnostic X-rays from the offices of one defense lawyer to another, lost one of them on the Hollywood Freeway and what he recovered was fragmented and useless.

Shoemaker, a Hall of Fame jockey who had become a trainer, was left a quadriplegic after his single-vehicle accident in San Dimas in 1991 and is suing Glendora Community Hospital and seven doctors for more than $50 million. Shoemaker’s attorneys are saying that his treatment after the accident, during the time when the X-rays were taken, made his injuries worse.

Lower said he would review the depositions before making a ruling. Jury selection is scheduled to resume Tuesday.