‘Angel of Death’ Suspect Demands to See Evidence

More than two years after he was accused of being a mass murderer with a “magic syringe”--and a confessed mass murderer at that--Efren Saldivar is trying to find out where he stands with the law.

In motions to be heard today in Superior Court in Burbank, the 30-year-old former respiratory therapist--who was arrested as an “Angel of Death” suspect in March 1998 but then quickly released--is seeking disclosure of the key evidence against him.

The hearing, in a civil suit brought by the family of a former patient, could offer the first public statement in more than a year about the investigation into patient deaths at Glendale Adventist Medical Center. The suit is one of five either filed or in the works by family of former patients at the medical center.

Authorities have exhumed 20 bodies of former patients to get tissue for testing, bypassing regular police labs and having the samples analyzed by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

But detectives, who have been operating from a converted home across from the 95-year-old Glendale hospital, have refused to discuss the results. The county prosecutor supervising the case, Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Kelberg--a medical expert and veteran of the O.J. Simpson prosecution team--will say only that “the investigation is ongoing.”

Steps such as the use of the Livermore lab help explain why the costs of the criminal investigation early on were anticipated to be $500,000 or more, not counting salaries. Officials say that the investigation has been lengthy because the case is scientifically complex. Moreover, Glendale city officials have said they want to avoid “another Simpson”--a case in which police handling of scientific evidence comes under attack.

As part of their efforts to forestall such attacks on their evidence, the prosecutor and the police task force have consulted, among others, two of the experts who aided Simpson--New York pathologist Dr. Michael Baden and Connecticut forensic scientist Henry Lee.

The scientific challenge, experts say, begins with the difficulty of detecting in the decaying tissue of buried bodies conclusive traces of the muscle relaxers that Saldivar was suspected of using, Pavulon and succinylcholine chloride.

There is little research on how long such drugs remain in the system. And even if traces are found in some bodies, detectives face the difficulty of proving that the drugs got there through unauthorized injections--not during regular medical care, perhaps years earlier.

Account Sought of Interrogation

Police said in a declaration to the state’s Respiratory Care Board that Saldivar confessed that “he had caused between 40 and 50 deaths” after he walked into Glendale police headquarters the evening of March 11, 1998, to answer questions about allegations--begun with an anonymous tip to the hospital--that he “helped a patient die fast” and stored paralyzing drugs in his locker.

He was released two days later, the deadline for filing formal charges. Authorities said they could not charge him without other evidence to corroborate his statements. Saldivar later went on television to recant--claiming that he had been depressed and made everything up.

Now, contending that Saldivar remains trapped “in a living hell” as long as the “cloud of suspicion” remains over him--unable to get a decent job or join the military--Woodland Hills attorney Terry M. Goldberg is asking a judge to compel authorities to disclose what evidence they have against him.

In particular, Goldberg would like a detailed account of what, exactly, Saldivar said during his interrogations.

He needs the full record, including a possible tape-recording, “to establish that any supposed false confession . . . was obtained by coercion and duress,” the lawyer said.

Goldberg also is demanding details of the lab tests on the exhumed tissue samples.

Saldivar was fired from Glendale Adventist the day police released him and quickly had his license revoked by the respiratory board, based on an affidavit filed by Det. William Currie summarizing his statements to police.

Saldivar reportedly has worked occasional odd jobs in the last two years, including stints as a security guard and on a phone bank, while living with friends in a Woodland Hills apartment complex or at his family’s small white house below the Tujunga foothills.

“He’d be out on the streets without his family,” said Goldberg. “He can’t earn a living. As soon as they know who you are, they don’t want you. It’s forced him to try to get fringe job[s] . . . with no hope for advancement.

“He can’t go in the military--that was something that he wanted to do. They won’t take him until this cloud of suspicion is off him. Even if he could get his [respiratory] license reinstated, the cloud of suspicion would preclude any hospital wanting to take him . . . even if he’s cleared.”

Though the conclusion of the criminal investigation could conceivably put Saldivar in a much more unpleasant position--in custody, facing the death penalty--Goldberg said he is eager to have the task force put up or shut up.

“To say in May of 2000, ‘Gee, we don’t have the results’ or ‘We’re not ready’ is ludicrous,” he said. “How long does it take to do toxicology tests, to have those tests analyzed? You have a supposed confession back in March of 1998.”

To flush out the evidence, Goldberg is using proceedings in the civil suit brought by the family of John N. Schwartz, who died at Glendale Adventist on May 31, 1993, after a hip replacement. Schwartz’s death, ironically, does not appear to be one of those targeted by authorities--he died well before the period under scrutiny. But his family has alleged that Saldivar may have been on duty and included him as a defendant in their suit against the hospital.

Goldberg, arguing that he needs the evidence to defend his client, has filed a subpoena seeking virtually all the prosecution’s evidence. Government attorneys, not surprisingly, have filed a motion to quash the subpoena on grounds that details of an ongoing investigation are confidential.

Probe Focuses on Most Recent Deaths

Detectives and prosecutors have been publicly silent since April of last year when they announced that they were beginning to exhume bodies. At the time, the leader of the Glendale task force, Sgt. John McKillop, said investigators decided to focus on the most recent deaths during Saldivar’s nine-year tenure at the hospital, those in 1997 and early 1998.

Of the 171 deaths that occurred while Saldivar was on duty, he said, 54 were excluded because the remains were not available, primarily due to cremation. The seven-member task force then weeded through the remaining 117, with the help of medical experts, to find the 20 most likely to produce hits.

“Our experts tell us that if [drugs are] there, they will find [them],” McKillop said.

One party to the case not surprised by the delay is Glendale Adventist.

“Upfront we discussed this . . . we anticipated that it might take some time,” hospital spokesman Mark Newmyer said Thursday. “It’s very complicated, what they’re trying to prove.”

But to the suspect’s attorney, the timing remains suspicious. “I think the real probability is they have no documentation of a confession [and] their embarrassment when that comes to light will show [it],” Goldberg said. “They’re stonewalling. Ducking it.”