Trial begins in fertility lawsuit

Kim Smith

Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2001 | 10:39 a.m.

A retired Las Vegas doctor accused of using his own sperm to artificially inseminate a woman twice in the 1970s is on trial in District Court.

According to a lawsuit filed in April 1997, Mary Craddock gave birth to a daughter and a son one year apart after she and her husband, Charles, sought artificial insemination treatment from Dr. Quincy Fortier. Opening arguments were scheduled this morning in the courtroom of District Judge Lee Gates.

The Craddock family moved from the Las Vegas area in 1977 and had no contact with Fortier until Mary Craddock called him with a medical question in 1985. According to the lawsuit, they kept in touch after that.

Craddock's daughter, Heather Nicole Craddock, eventually accepted help from Fortier for college and went to work for him in the summer of 1994, when she was 19.

Craddock had no reason to believe the sperm used belonged to anyone other than her husband until Fortier told her daughter that summer that he was her father, the lawsuit states. The Craddocks divorced in 1983.

The lawsuit alleges Craddock's son, Cameron, bears a striking resemblance to Fortier.

Craddock is suing Fortier for intentional infliction of emotional distress, fraud and breach of fiduciary duties.

Defense attorney Tom Pitaro said that he intends to prove Craddock "was advised of the procedures being used and the risks and ramifications of those procedures."