Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 29, 1993 TAG: 9307290128
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. LENGTH: Medium
One problem, said Martin County State Attorney Bruce Colton: The suspect is dead.
"I can't prosecute a dead man," Colton said Wednesday, "as much as I want this question answered, as much as it needs to be answered. For me to do a criminal investigation, I have to have a reasonable expectation of a prosecution."
In three years, Florida disease-control experts have been unable to determine how Acer, a reclusive gay dentist who died in 1989, managed to infect six patients. Two of them have died.
Last month, the investigators turned to Colton for help.
"I don't think they believe some of the people they've talked with have been totally candid about what went on in that office," Colton said. "They just feel like they've done everything they can. They don't want to leave any stones unturned."
He said state officials were hopeful that a criminal investigation and the threat of prosecution for perjury would loosen tongues.
Colton said his office would be willing to review the evidence already collected "to see if there is something they missed or questions they didn't ask."
The case has been on his mind since the announcement of Acer's most recent victim, 18-year-old Sherry Johnson, in May. Johnson's mother is Colton's office manager.
John Witte, the top disease-control investigator for the state Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services, flew to Martin County for the June 11 meeting with Colton.
He did not return telephone messages Wednesday. His second-in-command, Tom Liberti, said the meeting was "merely an inquiry about all the options left to us through the legal system."
"You have to understand, this is an epidemiologic investigation. When we start these things, criminal behavior is obviously not the first issue," Liberti said. "But that was when we only had one victim. Then there were three, then four. Now there are six. At some point you have to wonder."
"No one has looked at this case from a criminal perspective," said Douglas Feldman, as associate professor and AIDS researcher at the University of Miami. "They're not asking the right questions. They don't subpoena records. They're looking at this from a medical, scientific angle."
Feldman is seeking a federal grant for a statewide survey of 5,000 dentists. A preliminary sample suggests that dentists are not convinced that the AIDS virus cannot be transmitted from dentist to patient, or vice versa, despite precautions. Feldman said there is no evidence to support their fears.
"I think a criminal investigation would resolve a lot of these conflicts and uncertainties in a lot of dentists' minds," he said.
by CNB