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400 Protest VA Nurses' Convictions

400 Protest VA Nurses' Convictions image
Parent Issue
Ann Arbor News, July 28, 1977
Day
28
Month
July
Year
1977
Copyright
Copyright Protected
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Donated by the Ann Arbor News. © The Ann Arbor News.
OCR Text

400 Protest VA Nurses’ Convictions

DETROIT UPI- An estimated 400 persons about half of them nurses, gathered in the heart of downtown Detroit Wednesday to protest the conviction of two Filipino nurses accused of poisoning patients at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Ann Arbor.

The chanting demonstrators formed a line around Kennedy Square to dramatize their support for Leonora Perez, 33, and Filipina Narciso, 31. Neither of the nurses attended the rally, but Perez’ husband spoke briefly to the crowd.

Bill Loesch. one of the patients the nurses were convicted of poisoning, also addressed the rally and vowed to continue his efforts to reverse the verdict.

"I will stay with them until we get justice done and we find out who did it,” the Vietnam veteran said.

Joel Block of the Narciso-Perez Legal Defense Fund described the conviction of the nurses by a federal jury earlier this month as “one of the worst travesties of justice in American history.

"The only indictments that should have been handed down should have been against the FBI and the Justice Department.” Block told the crowd.

Judy Polachek, a nurse who quit her job at the VA hospital within hours after the verdict was announced, called for a special Watergate-style investigation of the case.

Larry Burgess, a Detroit attorney and member of the defense team, was in the crowd but said he would have no comment on the case.

Dr. Robert Frank of Detroit General Hospital said the medical community was "outraged at the frameup” of the nurses.