Desai expected to skip hearing

By Joe Schoenmann

Monday, April 7, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Las Vegas city marshals will be on hand in the event emotions become too heated. Members of the City Council will make a special appearance. And a large crowd is expected to pass through a metal detector to get into council chambers this afternoon.

Many will want just to catch a glimpse of Dr. Dipak Desai, who is at the center of the scare prompted by health officials’ finding that unsafe medical practices at his Endoscopy Center of Southern Nevada caused the infection of six people with hepatitis C.

In all likelihood, however, they will have to continue waiting for that glimpse.

Although City Attorney Brad Jerbic has issued 15 administrative subpoenas to Desai and other clinic officials, few if any of the major figures are expected to attend the 1 p.m. hearing.

And although there’s nothing the city can do about that — ignoring a city subpoena, unlike one in a court proceeding, does not carry the threat of a contempt citation — their nonattendance would not prevent the city from taking action.

“If they don’t show, we will proceed with the witnesses who do show, then make a decision about whether to take it to District Court,” Jerbic said. “We might not need all those witnesses to make our case.”

The discovery of the six hepatitis cases at the Endoscopy Center led health officials to notify 40,000 clinic patients to be tested for hepatitis B, hepatitis C and HIV.

It also prompted Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman last month to call for a hearing seeking disciplinary action against the endoscopy clinic, of which Desai is majority owner, and another medical business Desai founded, the Gastroenterology Center of Nevada.

“We are locked and loaded, and ready to go,” Jerbic said.

But if none of the targets shows, there’s no immediate penalty.

City code states that failing to appear before such a hearing “shall constitute an admission of all matters and facts contained in the complaint. In such cases the City Council may take action based upon such admission or upon any other evidence ... without further notices whatever to the respondent.”

In the case of the two clinics, the city could permanently revoke their business licenses after today’s hearing. That, though, could be largely superfluous.

The now-closed Endoscopy Center has been so tainted by the hepatitis scare, one attorney close to the case said, that its owners are unlikely to attempt to reopen it. Desai has been dubbed “Dr. Greed” by The Times of India, a moniker stemming from the re-use of syringes and single-dose medication vials in an effort to boost profits.

Principals in the case would appear to have little to gain from showing up at today’s hearing because their answers to questions could provide ammunition to numerous lawyers lined up to file class action lawsuits against the doctors and their clinics.

But the city has options. If no one shows up to testify, the city could take the matter before a District Court judge to ask that the court put its weight behind the subpoenas.

Jerbic admits he has heard the speculation that there may be more people wanting to ask questions than those providing answers at the hearing.

Goodman, meanwhile, refused to discuss the matter Friday, saying he wanted to wait for the hearing to make his comments.

The question is, who will hear them?