VA Nurses Face Sentencing On Sept. 15

VA Nurses Face Sentencing On Sept. 15

DETROIT — A federal judge has set Sept. 15 as the day he will sentence two Filipina nurses convicted of conspiracy and poisoning patients at the Ann Arbor Veterans Administration Hospital.

U.S. District Court Judge Philip Pratt could send the women, Leonora Perez, of Ann Arbor, and Filipina Narciso of Ypsilanti, to prison for the rest of their lives.

Perez, 33, and Narciso, 31 were intensive care unit nurses during the summer of 1975 when a rash of mysterious patient breathing failures and deaths swept through the hospital.

A 12-person jury deliberated 94 hours before convicting the women on July 13 of conspiracy and using the paralyzing drug Pavulon to poison five patients.

The conviction ended a complex 13-week trial during which federal prosecutors Richard L. Delonis and Richard F. Yanko pieced together a circumstantial case which placed the two nurses at the stricken men’s bedsides moments before the victims suddenly slopped breathing.

Both women testified during the trial and insisted they were innocent of any wrong-doing.

Critics of the verdict, including an alternate juror from Ann Arbor who did not participate in the lengthy deliberations, have called the case against the two natives of the Philippines “flimsy.”

Delonis, in a recent exclusive interview with The Ann Arbor News, admitted the prosecution case was a circumstantial one but asserted “those circumstances pointed strongly toward guilt.”

Perez and Narciso have remained free under $75,000 bail each awaiting sentencing. Their attorneys say they will appeal the conviction.