Judge Delays Release of Data in ‘Angel of Death’ Case

A judge on Friday refused to force Glendale police to reveal investigative reports in the alleged “Angel of Death” case, but said they must be ready to disclose more information by October.

Former respiratory therapist Efren Saldivar has sought to subpoena the files for his defense in a civil suit. Saldivar was fired from Glendale Adventist Medical Center after the alleged mercy killings of patients from 1989 to 1997, but he has not been charged with any crime.

Glendale police can keep the files under wraps for now, but “I’m not going to go on indefinitely” said Superior Court Judge Carl J. West.

“I understand this is an active criminal investigation, but at some point that becomes outweighed by the court and the interests of the parties,” West said.

The judge in Burbank Superior Court set a hearing for Oct. 20 and said the police, who have revealed little about the case, should be prepared to provide “a definitive timetable” for completing the investigation.

“Let’s face it, either you have something or you don’t,” said Terry M. Goldberg, Saldivar’s lawyer. “If police had anything, they would have charged him by now, and not letting us see the evidence is just an effort to drag this out.”

The ruling Friday was the latest twist in a mysterious case that began in March 1998 when Saldivar allegedly confessed to killing as many as 50 patients under his care at Glendale Adventist. Although he has not been charged, he is being sued by several families who say he poisoned their loved ones.

In trying to defend himself in the civil wrongful death suits, Saldivar, 30, has asked that police allow him to see evidence they have gathered. His lawyer has pressed for copies of the alleged confession, which he says was coerced and false, and for medical reports from the 20 corpses that have been exhumed. Saldivar later recanted his confession, saying that he had been depressed and made everything up.

Friday’s hearing was triggered by a wrongful death suit filed by the family of John N. Schwartz, a 91-year-old Glendale man who died at Adventist in 1993. The family contends that Saldivar may have poisoned Schwartz with heavy doses of muscle relaxers.

Saldivar’s lawyer, however, has argued Schwartz died of natural causes after a hip replacement. The lawyer subpoenaed Schwartz’s toxicology report and demanded to depose a top Glendale detective.

Glendale assistant City Atty. Carmen Merino blocked those requests and said in court that the criminal investigation would be compromised if police were forced to reveal evidence in Schwartz’s case.

“As the court knows, this is a high-profile murder investigation, and we are not prepared to share discovery at this time,” Merino said.

Lawyers for the Schwartz family sided with police, saying that they did not want to rush the investigation and did not mind if the evidence continued to remain secret.

After the 15-minute hearing, Saldivar’s lawyer told reporters that his client “is a very emotionally distraught individual over this. He didn’t kill anybody.”

An anonymous tip had led police to Saldivar. Police have said that in a March 11, 1998, interrogation, Saldivar confessed to causing 40 to 50 deaths. He was arrested that day but released two days later because police said they could not corroborate his story.

Since then, a special Glendale police task force has been searching for evidence and analyzing the 20 exhumed corpses for traces of muscle relaxers. The costs of the investigation are expected to exceed $500,000, not including salaries, and the complexity of the forensics is one reason why the case is taking so long, authorities said.