
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, August 9, 1995                   TAG: 9508090073
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Medium

DOCTOR GUILTY OF MURDER IN BOTCHED ABORTION

A doctor whose botched abortion caused a patient to bleed to death was convicted of murder Tuesday in a rare instance of criminal charges filed over a medical mistake.

A jury took just three hours to convict Dr. David Benjamin in the death of Guadalupe Negron, a 33-year-old mother of four. The jurors rejected lesser charges of manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide.

Benjamin, who was appealing a license revocation for incompetence at the time of the abortion, sat without emotion as the verdict was returned. His wife and his mother-in-law left in tears.

Benjamin, 58, faces 25 years to life in prison at sentencing Sept. 12. His lawyer said he will appeal.

Criminal prosecutions of doctors for botched work are extraordinarily rare. Usually, such cases are settled through malpractice lawsuits or disciplinary proceedings.

Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said he knew of only one other murder conviction: In 1989, Dr. Milos Klvana was convicted of murder in Los Angeles in the stillbirth of one infant and the death of eight newborns.

Prosecutors said Benjamin left a 3-inch rip in Negron's uterus and left her to die on an operating table covered in blood and vomit.

Brown also contended that Benjamin lied to the two paramedics who arrived on the scene. The district attorney said the coverup was one reason for pressing charges.

Prosecutors argued that Benjamin was grossly negligent and showed depraved indifference to human life.

Defense attorney Brad Leventhal said Benjamin did everything he could to save Negron. The defense claimed she caused the tear by sitting up during the abortion.

by CNB