No decision yet on Desai competency to stand trial

By Kyle B. Hansen

Thursday, July 29, 2010 | 11:14 a.m.

Dr. Dipak Desai appeared briefly in court today, but no decisions were made as to his competency to stand trial.

Desai has been charged in connection with the 2007-2008 hepatitis C outbreak in Las Vegas.

A five-week trial is scheduled to begin March 14, 2011, but the attorneys involved in the case agreed to have Desai evaluated to determine his competency to stand trial.

The doctor has suffered two strokes, the most recent after the hepatitis outbreak, and suffers from other medical ailments.

District Court Judge Jackie Glass asked the attorneys to prepare records and questions to be submitted to the two doctors who will evaluate Desai.

Glass scheduled a status check in two weeks to see if the documents were prepared.

Desai and his wife were at today’s hearing, but did not speak. Desai stared straight forward, expressionless through the hearing.

District Court Judge Donald Mosley is overseeing the Desai case, but sent it to Glass for the competency evaluation.

Desai and two others have been indicted on 28 charges, including 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.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Michael Staudaher asked Glass to require Desai to be present at all hearings. Glass said Desai should be in court when his competency is determined, but he does not need to come to the status check on Aug. 12.

Once the initial competency evaluation is complete, Glass said she would determine if further medical evaluations would be necessary.

Staudaher had previously requested that al of Desai’s medical records be turned over to the state, but agreed with Wright to allow Glass to oversee the medical and psychological evaluations instead.