DALLAS — The trial began Monday in federal court for Dr. Raynaldo Ortiz, the Dallas anesthesiologist accused of poisoning IV bags with dangerous drugs in 2022 where he worked at Baylor Scott & White Surgicare North Dallas.
Prosecutors say a fellow anesthesiologist died after taking home one of the tainted bags, and 11 others, patients at the facility, suffered severe cardiac events after receiving fluids from other bags.
The day began with jury selection. Early on, Chief District Judge David C. Godbey asked the potential jury pool of 65 men and women if they'd heard about the case in the media, and about 12 answered yes. They were also asked if they had ever had any procedures done at a Baylor Scott & White facility, and several more answered yes. After about four hours, attorneys settled on eight women and six men to make up the jury, and opening statements began.
Ortiz walked into the courtroom with long grown out grey hair, wearing a navy suit jacket and white face mask. He pleaded not guilty to four counts of tampering with consumer products resulting in bodily injury, one count of tampering with consumer products and five counts of adulteration of a drug. He's long denied the allegations and told WFAA in a 2022 phone interview he's being set up.
Before federal prosecutors began opening statements, they read the indictment to the jury. The indictment makes mention that Ortiz had a disciplinary history with the Texas Medical Board.
"Starting in or around late 2020, the Texas Medical Board investigated Ortiz related to an incident where a patient had experienced an adverse event while under Ortiz's care at a surgery center in Garland, Texas ('Facility-2')," the indictment reads. "Ortiz resigned from the medical staff of Facility-2 over the incident. In or around May 2022, another incident occurred at Facility-1 involving a patient under Ortiz's that experienced an adverse event. Facility-1 began an internal investigation into the May 2022 incident."
After reading that indictment in its entirety, prosecutors began opening statements and said Ortiz, "used his medical skills and knowledge to hurt people instead of help them." They pointed to surveillance video and said the facility's recorder only holds a month worth of activity, but said that was enough to catch Ortiz carrying out crimes on film.
Federal prosecutors said they intended to prove doctors rarely take their own IV bags out of a warmer as Ortiz is observed as doing, and said they plan to call several of Ortiz's alleged victims and their family members to the stand.
Prosecutors also revealed new details about the death of 55-year-old Melanie Kaspar, who worked at that same facility with Ortiz. She died, prosecutors say, after taking home one of those tainted IV bags to rehydrate herself. They revealed Monday how she died at the top of the steps in her home, clutching her chest, screaming for her husband. He tried to give her CPR himself, but prosecutors told the jury she died right there on the ground.
Ortiz's defense attorney started his opening statement by telling jurors he's "proud" to be Ortiz's lawyer, and said the evidence presented by prosecutors will not show the full story of what happened.
Ortiz's team alleged prosecutors suffered from "confirmation bias," meaning they only looked for evidence to confirm what they already believed. They said Ortiz was a "convenient person to blame" for the medical episodes at the facility and that the evidence presented against him will be selected intentionally to try to show that.
His attorneys, for example, said throughout the course of the trial they will play the fuller, longer versions of surveillance video presented by prosecutors to show the "full picture." They said they will show clips of other staff putting IV bags in the warming bins after or before Ortiz is shown doing the same thing.
Defense attorneys also said they will rely on fingerprint evidence, alleging there was a fingerprint found on the plastic cover outside of one of the IV bags. The fingerprint, his attorneys said, was tested against Ortiz's fingerprint, but didn't match.
Day 2 of the high-profile trial will begin at 9 a.m. Tuesday.
