After weeks of expert witnesses and testimony, closing arguments began Tuesday in the civil trial pitting a disabled doctor against the city of Bakersfield and Hall Ambulance.
"You have seen that they are still fighting, and Dr. Harb still hasn't received any of the care he needs from the two parties that are responsible for his condition," says Thomas Brill, Dr. Mohamad Harb's attorney.
Brill was first to give his closing statement. Harb once cared for sick children at Kern Medical Center, but for the last five years, the 62-year-old gets around the clock care himself.
Brill says former Bakersfield Police Officer Claudia Payne thought Harb was drunk and sent the ambulance away before the doctor’s condition could be determined.
"She gambled with Dr. Harb's life, when in doubt you transport,” Brill says.
Harb is suing the police department for $25 million claiming the lack of care left him with permanent brain damage. The city is suing Hall Ambulance claiming they are the ones at fault.
Brill played an excerpt from a phone call a Hall Ambulance EMT made to Kern Medical Center in 2007.
“They had him in handcuffs and they didn’t want us to a neuro-test,” said EMT Brian Dumont in the 5-year-old recording. “They want us to check vitals."
Brill says the call shows Harb wasn't given a neurological check, which would've confirmed he was having a stroke.
Mick Marderosian, attorney representing City of Bakersfield says Brill left out substantial evidence in his argument.
“There’s a manipulation of facts under such a microscope for something that happened in 2007, I call that microscopic evaluation,” Marderosian says. “And that’s not fair or right, especially, when you ignore pertinent evidence.”
Marderosian urged jurors not to speculate and judge the real facts.
Hall Ambulance attorney James Braze says Brill was not able to tell jurors what part the EMT was really responsible for.
