Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 29, 1995 TAG: 9511290070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: KATHY LOAN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
The apology was part of the settlement in the $10 million lawsuit Dr. Gus Vlahos filed last year against Doris Sheppard. The remaining terms of the settlement are not being disclosed.
The case had been scheduled for trial this week in Pulaski County Circuit Court.
On Tuesday, Sheppard issued the following statement through her lawyer, Jimmy Turk:
"On or about July 26, 1994, I found in my newspaper box a document purporting to be a memorandum on Montgomery Regional Hospital stationery which stated, among other things, that Dr. Gus Vlahos was a patient at the hospital and had tested positive for AIDS. I took the document to my place of employment at Renfro Corporation and made copies, which were disseminated to others.
"The document was in fact fraudulent, and its content was totally and unequivocally false."
Sheppard said she had never been a patient of Vlahos and did not know him.
It is not known who typed and circulated the memo, which falsely alleged the dentist had gotten AIDS from a patient and was reluctant to use surgical gloves because of their expense and because they hindered his sense of touch.
Montgomery Regional Hospital officials said the letterhead was a forgery.
"I sincerely apologize for any inconvenience, [embarrassment] or harm that my actions in duplicating and circulating the document may have caused to Dr. Vlahos or his family, and I regret that the event took place," Sheppard said in the statement.
Vlahos sued in August 1994. His lawyer, Robert Ziogas, said then that the $10 million suit reflected the magnitude of potential harm to Vlahos' practice and personal life had the false information continued being disseminated.
Vlahos, who has practiced dentistry in Pulaski County for 14 years and has lived there for 41 years, learned about the memo when patients began canceling appointments in late July 1994. One woman called back to ask him if he had AIDS.
The dentist immediately tried to blunt the allegations' possible result: crippling a dental practice he had worked hard to build. To dispute the fraudulent memo, Vlahos obtained records from his doctor saying he did not have AIDS.
But Turk said Tuesday that, while people canceled a few appointments, there were "no allegations that he lost anything from his business."
He said Shepherd is "very happy it's over and she certainly did not mean any harm to Dr. Vlahos." Vlahos on Tuesday expressed appreciation for patients and others who called to support him after news of the fraudulent memo gained attention in the media.
"I would not wish this to happen to anybody," he said, mentioning the stress it has put on him, his family, his practice and employees.
No one was charged with a crime in the case. Intentionally slandering someone is a Class 3 misdemeanor, which carries only a fine and no jail time.
"I wish to put this behind me. ... I'm glad it's over," Vlahos said. But he does plan to encourage local members of the General Assembly to pursue legislation that would spell out tougher criminal penalties for those who intentionally slander professionals such as dentists and medical doctors.
Ziogas said it's hard to gauge the memo's long-term impact or the number of potential clients that have been lost. But "overall, we're pleased that the long-term impact [on] the business was not significantly detrimental.
"It's clearly bizarre," Ziogas said of the memo, which circulated throughout the county. Copies were found in newspaper boxes, posted at a grocery store near his practice and stuck in a door at the local middle school.
Memo: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.