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Malpractice case was filed by wife of William Sharkey, the former court administrator.
WILKES-BARRE – The medical malpractice lawsuit filed by the wife of the former county court administrator should be dropped because the couple had a tie to the judge presiding over the case, an attorney said Thursday.
Attorney Michael Badowski said in court papers filed Thursday that the case against his client, Dr. Ki Bum Lee, M.D., was unfair because Debra and William Sharkey had a relationship with former judge Mark Ciavarella that led Ciavarella to rule against the doctor in nearly every instance in the case.
The lawsuit, originally filed in October 1997, claims Lee caused Debra Sharkey “serious and severe injuries sustained as a result of uncontrolled and damaging intra-abdominal bleeding after a laproscopically assisted hysterectomy.”
Debra Sharkey claims Lee was negligent in his performance of the surgery and the follow-up treatment.
In court papers filed this week, Badowski said the lawsuit should be dropped and his client should be awarded damages after information recently surfaced regarding Ciavarella, William Sharkey and Sharkey’s attorney, Robert Powell.
“There is little doubt, in retrospect, that Dr. Lee was one of many victims of the corruption and criminal activity of Ciavarella, Conahan and Powell,” Badowski said in court papers.
Ciavarella and his co-defendant, former judge Michael Conahan, were charged with accepting nearly $2.6 million in payoffs from Powell for jailing juveniles in a detention center built by developer Robert Mericle.
Conahan and Ciavarella initially agreed to plead guilty to charges of tax evasion and depriving the public of their honest services, but they withdrew the pleas last month after a federal judge rejected the terms of their plea agreement. The men now have the option to take the case to trial or try to negotiate a new deal.
Sharkey has pleaded guilty to embezzling more than $70,000 in gambling proceeds from the county, while Powell pleaded guilty for his role in the juvenile detention center kickback scheme.
Badowski said in court papers that Conahan assigned Ciavarella to the malpractice case, and it was later learned that Conahan is the first cousin of Sharkey.
Badowski said that in November 2001 Lee filed a motion after Powell refused to allow them to answer certain questions – including whether Sharkey had a personal relationship with any of the county judges.
Lee also filed court papers asking for a transfer of venue, believing he couldn’t receive a fair trial since Ciavarella ruled against him so many times.
That motion was denied by Ciavarella at a hearing where he said he had “no extra-judicial relationships with either Sharkey or Powell.”
A trial for the matter has still not been scheduled, and Badowski said “(The Sharkeys) have taken no substantive steps to move this case to trial.”
Badowski said witnesses, as well as Lee, may have already forgotten information about the procedure Lee performed, since it has been so long ago.
Badowski also noted that Ciavarella said in July this year that “no party ever moved for his recusal in any case that Powell served as trial counsel,” and that “he should have recused himself in any case involving Powell and/or Sharkey.”
Badowski said only the dismissal of the suit will cure any damages suffered by Lee, and “remove the taint from the judicial system in Luzerne County.”