California Watch

Note: California Watch co-reported this article with Orange County Register reporter Landon Hall.

An Orange County doctor who gave up his license in 2002 amid accusations of gross negligence and saw it reinstated is now facing accusations that he committed homicide in the 2009 death of a patient.

Dr. Andrew Rutland has faced license revocation for allegations of gross negligence since December, but the Medical Board of California stepped up its case Wednesday.

The deputy attorney general, who filed an amended complaint Wednesday, said a new decision by the county coroner spurred his office to accuse Rutland of negligent homicide over the death of a 30-year-old abortion patient. “We take this case pretty seriously,” Deputy Attorney General Klint McKay said.

Rutland, 67, has railed against the Los Angeles County coroner’s June decision to re-classify the death from an accident to a homicide in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, Oprah Winfrey, politicians and pro-life advocates.

He also reveals in the letter that the Los Angeles district attorney’s office is considering whether to charge him with criminal homicide, a probe Rutland’s attorney said he's aware of.

A spokeswoman for the LA district attorney’s office said she had no record of the case being declined or filed and could not confirm whether it is under investigation.

Rutland, outraged by the scrutiny, penned the letter (posted below) seeking a congressional inquiry into his claim that he is being unfairly targeted by pro-life interests due to his practice of mostly performing abortions since 2009.

“I believe the Medical Board of California is unfairly prosecuting me in an attempt to appease the anti-abortion activists,” Rutland wrote in a letter sent to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Sen. Barbara Boxer and First Lady Maria Shriver.

However, Rutland’s letter left out details that have been widely reported in the Orange County Register and other outlets. Messages left at Rutland’s home phone number on Wednesday and Thursday were not returned.

The doctor agreed to give up his license in 2002 while facing accusations of gross negligence related to the deaths of two infants. The Medical Board agreed to license Rutland a second time in 2007.

Fewer than two years passed, though, before Rutland’s conduct at a San Gabriel clinic landed him in trouble again. According to an accusation filed by the Medical Board, Rutland was performing an abortion on a woman who had an adverse reaction to the anesthetic lidocaine.

Medical Board records say there was “a significant delay” before emergency workers were called. When paramedics arrived, they saw another physician and an acupuncturist who share an office with Rutland performing CPR on the woman.

The woman, Ying Chen, died six days later in a hospital.

The Medical Board sought to revoke Rutland’s license in December, accusing him of incompetence and saying the procedure was done with inadequate staff and at a facility not well-equipped to handle emergencies.

According to Rutland’s letter, the board has since provided the Los Angeles County coroner’s office with “voluminous amounts of information” and “irrelevant, yet biasing, information.”

Rutland goes on to say that one deputy medical examiner, presented with new information, stood by his August 2009 conclusion that the case was an accident, a determination that the chief medical examiner endorsed at the time.

However, the office’s chief medical examiner, Dr. Lakshmanan Sathyavagiswaran, deemed it a homicide in June.

The LA County coroner’s office did not return calls about the matter Thursday.

Rutland’s attorney, Paul Hittelman of Los Angeles, said the case was changed from an accident to a homicide after officials conducted additional interviews. 

Hittelman said Rutland is emotionally drained from the accusations but is still treating patients, although within limits set by the Medical Board.

Rutland Letter

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