[ad_1]
HOUSTON (AP) – A judge on Monday dismissed a theft charge against a Houston-area health department doctor who was accused by prosecutors of stealing nine doses of the coronavirus vaccine from a damaged vial and to have administered them to family and friends.
Authorities alleged that Hasan Gokal, who worked for Harris County Public Health, stole a vial of Moderna coronavirus vaccine while working at a vaccination site in a park in suburban Houston on December 29. .
But Harris County Court Judge Franklin Bynum concluded there was no likely reason to charge Gokal with theft. The judge criticized prosecutors for indicting Gokal, saying their probable cause complaint was “riddled with negligence and error.”
“In the number of words commonly used to describe an allegation of retail shoplifting, the state is attempting, for the first time, to criminalize the documented administration by a physician of doses of vaccine during a public health emergency Bynum wrote in his two-page order dismissing the charge. “The court categorically rejects this attempt to impose criminal law on the professional decisions of a doctor.”
Dane Schiller, a spokesperson for the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, said Bynum’s decision raised questions about his fairness and impartiality.
“We plan to present all the evidence on this matter to a grand jury and go from there,” Schiller said.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office did not comment immediately on the dismissal of the theft charge, but said it could issue a statement later on Monday.
Gokal’s lawyers had said the doctor had done nothing wrong and was only trying to make sure that the vaccine from a punctured vial was not wasted.
Paul Doyle, a lawyer for Gokal, said his client plans to file a wrongful dismissal complaint. Gokal was fired after an internal health department investigation.
“The agency denigrated the name of this good official and took his job away for no reason. Managers must do more to make this fair, ”Doyle said in a statement. “We also sincerely hope that this incident will not deter other frontline medical staff from doing all they can to ensure that vaccines are not wasted.
Prosecutors had alleged that after a day of administering vaccines on Dec. 29 at a park in suburban Houston, Gokal, 48, took the vial offsite and vaccinated nine people, including his wife. They claimed the action ignored Health Ministry rules that doses from damaged vials must be reported to the main office so that they can be administered to frontline workers at risk, including healthcare workers. and police, and vulnerable populations.
But Doyle said after the vial was punctured, Gokal only had six hours on December 29 to administer the doses before they expired and after being unable to find frontline workers to whom give the vaccine, he gave it to people. who qualified to receive it. Gokal did not hide what he had done but told his vaccination team, Doyle said.
Gokal had faced a charge of theft by an official. If found guilty, he could have received up to a year in prison and a fine of $ 4,000.
In Wisconsin, a pharmacist was arrested in December after being accused of ruining 57 vials of the Moderna vaccine because he believed the vaccine would mutate the DNA of recipients.
___
Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
[ad_2]
Source link