Trial begins for Dallas doctor accused of putting heart-stopping meds in IV bags
DALLAS - A jury is now seated in the trial of a Dallas doctor accused of putting dangerous drugs into patients' IV bags.
Dr. Raynaldo Ortiz was arrested in 2022 on tampering charges. He’s accused of putting dangerous drugs in saline bags at Baylor Scott and White Surgicare in North Dallas between May 2022 and August 2022.
Monday, Ortiz was no longer in an orange jumpsuit. As opening statements got underway, he was wearing a face mask with a navy blue suit.
After a prosecutor read Ortiz’s indictment, the judge asked how he pleaded. He pulled down his mask and said, "Not guilty, your honor."
Prosecutors got right to the surveillance video in opening statements, saying Dr. Ortiz was "caught on camera carrying out his crimes."
Video captured Ortiz repeatedly placing IV bags into a warmer minutes before nurses took bags out of the same location. Minutes after the bags were used, patients suffered cardiac emergencies.
Prosecutors said fellow doctor Melanie Kaspar took one of the IV bags home to rehydrate and died.
Prosecutors also quickly spelled out the alleged motive, saying Dr. Ortiz retaliated for being disciplined in 2018 and again in 2021 and 2022.
Eleven patients also received tainted bags and suffered cardiac emergencies.
Attorneys for Ortiz said the video does not show him actually inserting drugs into the bags.
Paul Coggins, a former U.S. attorney and now white-collar crimes attorney, said establishing a motive is not required but is important to a jury.
"One of the key things to remember is in a criminal case motive is not an element," he said. "But I've never talked to a juror who did not want to know what the motive was."
Ortiz had already lost his privileges at a different surgical center 14 months earlier.
Prosecutors said the alleged poisonings of other doctors’ patients began soon after Baylor Scott and White started investigating Ortiz when one of his patients stopped breathing.
Prosecutors said Ortiz was already in financial trouble, and desperate times called for desperate measures.
Dallas doctor accused of tainting IV bags pleads not guilty to federal charges
Raynaldo Ortiz Jr, the Dallas anesthesiologist accused of injecting heart-stopping drugs into IV bags at a surgery center, will be arraigned Friday on federal charges.
John Nicholson, the public defender for Dr. Ortiz, told the jury that he is proud to represent him and that this is a case of what is called "confirmation bias," where one only sees what they want to see.
Nicholson showed videos of many other people at the facility handling the IV bags and added Dr. Ortiz often did helpful things that other doctors did not do.
Overall, it does not appear publicity is a factor in this case. During jury selection, only 12 of the 65 potential jurors said they remembered hearing about it in the news.
"Even people who have seen the news about the case can be qualified if the judge says can you put that aside and judge the case based on evidence in the courtroom," he said. "If the juror says yes and the parties believe them, it may be allowed."
The jury of 12 with two alternates is made up of a diverse group of eight women and six men.
The trial will resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday morning and is expected to last 2-3 weeks.
If he is found guilty, Ortiz could be sentenced to life in prison in the federal system.