Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 28, 1992 TAG: 9202280308
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: ALEXANDRIA LENGTH: Medium
LAWYERS WRAP IT UP IN DOCTOR'S TRIAL
Attorneys in the trial of Cecil Jacobson waged a tug of war for the jury's faith Thursday - with the prosecutor saying that Jacobson cruelly destroyed the emotional well-being of vulnerable patients and the defense arguing that the doctor rescued women from a barren life of childlessness.Assistant U.S. Attorney Randy Bellows told the jury during his closing argument that the former Fairfax County fertility specialist heartlessly conned women into believing they were pregnant when he knew they were not.
"There's nothing you can do that's going to give these women back what they lost to Dr. Jacobson . . . nothing you can do to cure the hurt or the sense of betrayal," said Bellows.
He added that the jurors should hold Jacobson accountable for his actions by convicting him on all 52 counts of fraud and perjury.
But in an emotional appeal, James Tate, one of Jacobson's attorneys, said his client was guilty of nothing more than isolated mistakes and had used his now defunct fertility clinic in Vienna to bring joy into the world.
"This is one of the most successful practices of its kind in the world that's ever been," said Tate, noting that about 400 children were born to Jacobson's patients.
The four hours of closing arguments concluded the 12-day trial against 55-year-old Jacobson in U.S. District Court.
The jury is to begin its deliberations today.
Although public attention has focused on allegations that Jacobson used his own sperm to impregnate patients, only four of the 52 counts against him involve that issue. The case is largely made up of mail- and wire-fraud counts in which the government must prove that Jacobson lied to his patients because he felt that if he could string them along he would make more money.
Bellows reminded the jury that each of the witnesses who testified that their children were fathered by Jacobson said they would never have gone through the insemination treatment if they had known Jacobson was the donor.
Tate countered that the patients in the indictment represent only 2.8 percent of Jacobson's fertility practice.
Tate added that his client is primarily guilty of misreading sonograms because he cared so much for his patients that he refused to see that the pregnancies he helped create had failed.