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Doctor in Hepatitis C outbreak declares bankruptcy

"It's been two and a half years of these innocent victims trying to get their day in court."

Attorney Ed Bernstein represents Michael Washington, the first patient who was scheduled to go to trial in May against Dr. Dipak Desai. Dr. Desai is the man Washington says knowingly infected him with Hepatitis C.

Over the last two plus years, Bernstein says the delays have been like bricks in an ever-growing wall.

"First it was a delay in getting medical records, then it was him exercising--Dr. Desai exercising--Fifth Amendment rights and not being willing to testify, not being willing to cooperate, not having documents, then he had his medical board issues and he kept delaying that saying he was not mentally or physically fit to deal with that."

Then in July, Desai's gastroenterology and endoscopy centers filed bankruptcy. Desai has filed Chapter 11 or reorganization bankruptcy.

A Chapter 11 debtor usually proposes a plan of reorganization to keep its business alive and pay creditors over time.

But according to federal court records, Desai has not prepared a debt repayment plan... leading many to believe it's just another delay tactic.

"This has been a habitual situation of delay and procrastination. I guess the object is to outlast a lot of these elderly people," Bernstein said.

He says every inch gained in his client's case has been a struggle and a fight.

And since Desai admits in his own court filing that he has a lot of money to fund that fight, that, Bernstein says, is part of the problem.

Court records obtained by Contact 13 show Desai has more than $22 million in assets, including his $2 million dollar home in Red Rock Country Club.

His liabilities at this point are just a fraction of that at $1.9 million.

"Unfortunately," says Bernstein, "Dr. Desai is doing a lot better financially than all these other innocent victims that have contracted Hepatitis C. He's got millions of dollars and these people are still waiting for their day in court and to hold this man accountable."

Filing a federal bankruptcy petition stops all state court proceedings indefinitely while it proceeds on its own course.

At some point, patients will be able to ask the federal court for permission to proceed on their state cases, but that could take months or even years.

Bernstein says there's no doubt that the cases scheduled for this year won't see the inside of a courtroom until at least 2011.