Jury Rejects Negligence Suit Against Doctor

A frustrated Ventura County judge and jury cleared Thousand Oaks obstetrician Edward Feldman of malpractice Monday, declaring a Moorpark woman’s lawsuit a waste of everybody’s time.

Deliberating just one hour, a Municipal Court jury rejected homemaker Amber Onstot’s negligence claim against Feldman, who refused a $1 settlement offer before trial because he wanted a jury to clear his name.

“I’m vindicated,” a tearful Feldman said after the unanimous verdict, hugging his wife, Pattie. “The people who know me knew this wasn’t true.”

Onstot, 37, maintained during a weeklong trial that Feldman hurt her during vaginal exams in 1997 to scare her into a Caesarean-section delivery so he could make more money and go on a Florida vacation as scheduled.

In a scathing commentary after the jury’s quick verdict, veteran Judge John J. Hunter indicated that the case should never have come to trial.

“Normally, I don’t comment on jury verdicts, but that one was well within the evidence, or lack of evidence,” Hunter said. “I think it’s a disappointing time when people come to court to satisfy their own personal vendetta in the case, which was obvious here.”

Then he apologized to the jury “on behalf of the legal community for taking your time to resolve this meritless matter.”

Several jurors said they agreed with the judge. “It was a waste of our time,” Ray Ortiz said as jurors gathered in a courthouse hallway.

“They needed a lot more evidence,” said Jim Silvio, who declared his amazement at the strength of Hunter’s comments. “I was like, ‘Wow,’ we didn’t even use words like that.”

Caught up in emotion, Feldman hugged jurors. Then, as Amber Onstot and her attorney husband, Stephen, left the courtroom, he rushed down the hall to confront them.

“Vengeance,” the doctor exclaimed. “Vengeance. . . . I’m going to get you. You’ve had it.”

The Onstots stopped, stunned, as Feldman retreated.

“He’s been threatening us for months. Even if we won, he said he would retaliate,” Amber Onstot said. “The verdict isn’t as important as what Dr. Feldman will do. I’m frightened of that.”

Feldman said later that he had thought Judge Hunter had used the word “vengeance,” not “vendetta,” in his post-verdict comments describing the Onstots’ motivation for bringing the lawsuit.

Feldman said he was only repeating that for emphasis to the Onstots.

He was not threatening them with anything other than a new lawsuit, Feldman said. But once Amber Onstot, who is five months’ pregnant with twins, delivers her babies, Feldman said he plans to file a malicious prosecution or slander suit against the couple, perhaps both.

“I’ll pull the best legal minds together for this,” he said.

He plans to ask Hunter to order the Onstots to pay his legal costs--which he has estimated to be at least $25,000.

Feldman insisted that the Onstots were out to shake him down for a quick malpractice settlement, initially demanding $25,000 last August, then escalating the amount to $60,000 in September after news stories ran about the case. By January, the Onstots were asking $75,000, with $60,000 going to a nonprofit patient advocacy group and $15,000 to recoup legal costs.

Before trial the couple lowered their demand to $1, if Feldman would accept a judgment against him--an admission of wrongdoing. Stephen Onstot said the lawsuit was never about money and was filed only to keep Feldman from ever again treating a patient as he did Amber Onstot.

“What we wanted all along is to just get an apology or some acknowledgment that what he did was wrong,” Stephen Onstot said.

Onstot said Feldman misdiagnosed the expectant mother as having a tailbone deformity and high blood pressure for his own convenience and for financial gain, since a doctor is paid $350 more for a Caesarean than for a natural delivery.

“A trust was breached by Dr. Feldman,” Onstot said Monday in his closing argument to the jury. “That’s betrayal. . . . A deep sense of betrayal. She was duped.”

Jurors said they agreed that Feldman should have warned the Onstots that he would not be available to deliver their baby--since she had chosen Feldman because he committed to do the delivery himself. Feldman maintained that he did notify the Onstots of his vacation conflict and told them one of his colleagues would do the delivery.

The Onstots said that never happened and that 10 days before their son, Skylar, was to expected to arrive, Amber Onstot heard about the doctor’s vacation from another patient in his waiting room.

“She was floored,” Onstot told jurors. “She went out in the hall. She broke down; she cried.”

Some jurors said afterward that they believed Onstot.

The sole legal issue before the jury, however, was negligence, and jurors said they saw no evidence that Feldman’s care was substandard.

During closing arguments Monday morning, Feldman’s lawyer, Don Fesler, told jurors that the physician, onetime chief of obstetrics and gynecology at Los Robles Regional Medical Center, was set up for a lawsuit by the Onstots.

The couple planned their suit for months while Feldman innocently carried on with his treatment of Amber Onstot, Fesler maintained.

Feldman saw Amber Onstot 19 times during her pregnancy and administered several special tests to protect her health and that of her baby, the doctor said. There was no infliction of pain, no misdiagnosis, and Amber Onstot was never injured, Feldman maintained. And the Onstot baby was born healthy.

Amber Onstot said the judge and the jurors--only three women and one mother among them--missed the point of her lawsuit.

“The question the jury was asked was about negligence,” she said. “They should have been asked about ethics. That’s what the case was all about.”

But Feldman--who won a silver star and bronze star as a combat surgeon in Vietnam--said the case was about honor. “This was all about character,” said Feldman, who was described to jurors by his lawyer as the most-decorated Vietnam combat physician still living.

After the verdict, juror Silvio shook Feldman’s hand and gave him a bear hug.

“Thank you for your veteran’s service,” Silvio said. “Thank you for Vietnam.”