Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Doctor at center of hepatitis C scare taken into custody

Desai

Steve Marcus

Dr. Dipak Desai is taken into custody by court marshals Jason Dean, left, and Ric Moon at the Regional Justice Center Thursday, March 17, 2011. Desai surrendered to authorities for treatment at the state’s Lake’s Crossing Center for the Mentally Disabled.

Updated Thursday, March 17, 2011 | 11:36 a.m.

Desai in Custody

Dr. Dipak Desai is taken into custody by court marshals Jason Dean, left, and Ric Moon at the Regional Justice Center Thursday, March 17, 2011. Desai surrendered to authorities for treatment at the state's Lake's Crossing Center for the Mentally Disabled. His trial on 28 criminal counts related to the 2007-2008 hepatitis outbreak has been delayed for a year. Launch slideshow »

Dipak Desai, the man who was at the center of the hepatitis C scare that swirled through Southern Nevada in 2007 and 2008, was taken into state custody Thursday morning.

Desai made a brief appearance in Clark County District Judge Jackie Glass's courtroom with his attorneys, was placed into handcuffs and led off to eventually be taken to a state mental evaluation facility in Northern Nevada.

Glass ruled Feb. 8 that he was incompetent and ordered that he be treated in hopes he can be returned to competency to stand trial.

Psychiatrists and physicians will examine and treat him at the state's Lake's Crossing Center for the Mentally Disabled in Sparks for an indeterminate amount of time.

Meanwhile, his trial, which was to have begun Monday, has been delayed by Judge Donald Mosley until March 12, 2012.

Desai, 60, who ran the Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada, and two of his nurse anaesthetists, Keith H. Mathahs and Ronald E. Lakeman, were indicted by a grand jury last year on 28 criminal counts related to the 2007-2008 hepatitis outbreak.

The felony charges include racketeering, performance of an act in reckless disregard of persons or property, criminal neglect of patients, insurance fraud, theft and obtaining money under false pretenses.

Desai's attorneys have said he has suffered two strokes, the most recent after the hepatitis outbreak, and suffers from other medical ailments that do not allow him to participate in his own defense.

Thursday morning's court appearance took less than two minutes. Desai walked in with his attorneys, Margaret Stanish and Richard Wright, wearing a blue shirt and black pants.

Glass asked Stanish to bring her a list of Desai's current medications, then Desai was placed into handcuffs by two court marshals and led out of the courtroom.

Glass said the state and the defense will receive communications from Lake's Crossing regarding Desai's status, which is usually through a letter or a report.

"Then once that happens, if they are going to return him, it will be placed on calendar. If not, we will get the report that tells us what's going to happen, and we'll go from there," Glass said.

Outside the courtroom, Wright said he had no comment.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Staudaher spoke briefly to reporters, saying "we're happy that he's in custody at this point."

Staudaher said he didn't know how long Desai would be in Lake's Crossing.

"It could be six weeks. It could be a year," he said.

From the courtroom, Desai was to be booked into the Clark County Detention Center, Staudaher said.

"He has to go over to CCDC to be evaluated medically, and then he would be flown up there," Staudaher said.

The length of time Desai will be in custody in Las Vegas would be determined by how long the medical examination takes, he said.

"The state and our office is happy that he is where he belongs, which is in custody. That's where we want him to be," Staudaher said. "We're going to keep him there for as long as we can. But he is coming back, essentially, from Lake's Crossing at some point. But at this stage, he is where he belongs."

After the evaluation process at Lake's Crossing, prosecutors will get reports about the progress with Desai.

"After that, we will find out what the verdict is, essentially, from the doctors at Lake's Crossing. He will have medical doctors, as well as psychological doctors, people who are psychiatrists and the like, evaluate him for his competency," Staudaher said.

Staudaher said he was "very surprised" that two doctors had told Glass they had found Desai to be incompetent to stand trial.

Prosecutors hope to eventually have a joint trial for Desai and his two co-defendants, Staudaher said.

"We would prefer not to have multiple trials of each individual," he said. "However it comes out is the way we'll do it. If we need to do multiple trials, we'll do them."

Join the Discussion:

Check this out for a full explanation of our conversion to the LiveFyre commenting system and instructions on how to sign up for an account.

Full comments policy