A lawyer said Thursday that if a Kanawha County judge agrees to put a hold on a lawsuit against a Charleston gastroenterologist accused of sexually assaulting female patients, while they were under anesthesia, it would cause years of unnecessary delay.
Kanawha Circuit Judge Jennifer Bailey didn't rule during a hearing Thursday on a motion filed last week by lawyers for Dr. Steven Matulis. The motion asks that a lawsuit against the doctor be put on hold until both a criminal investigation into Matulis is completed and the investigation through the state Board of Medicine is closed.
Officials from the Board of Medicine already have agreed to push back Matulis' case, according to Charleston lawyer Issac Forman, with the firm Bailey & Glasser, who represents Matulis.
Putnam County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Sorsaia, who was appointed to investigate and possibly prosecute Matulis, has made it known to Matulis' lawyers he will issue grand jury subpoenas for discovery filed in the civil cases.
"That would dramatically expand the scope of discovery [in the criminal investigation]," Forman said. "In a criminal case, discovery is very limited."
Charleston lawyer Ben Salango, who represents a 25-year-old Boone County woman, who was a patient of Matulis, said that Matulis' lawyers are using the criminal investigation as a tactic to slow the case down while things aren't going their way.
Depositions involving employees of Charleston Area Medical Center, where Matulis often preformed colonoscopy procedures, "didn't go so well for Matulis," said Salango.
"After they took a gamble with CAMC employees and it didn't work out, now, they're trying to stop everything," said Salango, who added a stay would allow Matulis' lawyers to continue their own informal investigation.
A motion filed by Salango asks Bailey to throw out a protective order, which both sides previously agreed to.
The protective order has required just about everything in the case to be filed under seal, Salango said. He noted Thursday that, because of the order, he couldn't reveal some parts of depositions to the judge or use information he's learned by collecting evidence to bring allegations in another complaint.
Salango plans to file a class-action against Matulis, Forman said. Forman didn't believe it was right for Salango to use information from the case to make additional claims against the doctor in a separate lawsuit.
Matulis had agreed to sit for a video deposition on Tuesday but that was put on hold when the motion for a stay in the case was filed.
Salango said the doctor already responded to some of his questions in writing, when Matulis admitted to "sticking his fingers in the vagina" of his patients and feeling the breasts of a patient, Salango said during Thursday's hearing.
At least two of Matulis' former patients were told last year by police that they were victims of sexual assault by Matulis.
Nearly 10 lawsuits have been filed against Matulis since spring 2016.
"It will be two to three years before my client - the victim in the case - would get to go to trial," Salango said.
"T.W.," as she is only identified in her complaint, was the first to file a lawsuit against Matulis making allegations of sexual assault.
If the lawsuits against Matulis are combined, as lawyers for the doctor said they would welcome, the case filed by "T. W." would serve as the lead case, Salango said, adding judges in Kanawha wouldn't want a large number of lawsuits left inactive for a long period.
"There are lots of girls, young ladies, who have no idea whether they are victims because they were under anesthesia," Salango said Thursday, noting that more lawsuits eventually would be filed against Matulis. "I'm confident there are other victims. We're discovering a lot of information.
"We shouldn't put this on hold - we've got a lot of people involved, a lot of people interested," Salango said.
Last year, amid the sexual assault investigation, Matulis switched his medical license to inactive.
Reach Kate White at kate.white@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-1723 or follow @KateLWhite on Twitter.