A cardiologist should be ordered to pay $1.1 million to a technician he allegedly groped at Kindred Hospital in Gardena, an attorney told a jury Friday, but a lawyer for the doctor urged the panel to reject the plaintiff’s claims.
In his closing argument to a Los Angeles Superior Court jury deciding Yunuen Campos’ lawsuit against Dr. John M. Kennedy, her lawyer said his client suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the alleged April 10, 2013, groping incident.
Campos filed suit four months later, alleging sexual battery, gender violence and civil rights violations.
“It’s going to be with her for the rest of her life,” attorney Frank Magnanimo said. “She’s never going to look at the world the same way and that’s because of what Dr. Kennedy did.”
Defense attorney Mark Hathaway countered that there is no evidence to substantiate Campos’ claims. He also said Campos never cried out for help, though she alleges she was in distress at the time.
“All we have are her allegations about what happened in the room,” Hathaway said.
Campos is a cardiac sonographer who performs diagnostic and imaging procedures for doctors who treat patients with cardiac disease, her lawsuit states. She alleges she went to the doctor’s lounge in the mid-afternoon to deliver a report concerning a patient and Kennedy followed her into the room, where he groped her upper body and pushed her against the wall.
The suit further alleges that Kennedy then pushed her into a nearby bathroom and fondled her again, this time below her waist. He allegedly asked her to go home with him and suggested the two of them have some wine.
Campos was eventually able to free herself, went to her car and contacted the hospital management and the police, her suit states.
Magnanimo said the defense strategy was to make Campos look as bad as possible in the jury’s eyes.
“They tried to beat her up the whole case,” Magnanimo said.
Magnanimo alleged that a medical assistant for Kaiser Permanente, where Kennedy previously worked, also experienced inappropriate conduct by the doctor.
“He needs to know he can’t do this to other women,” Magnanimo said.
The District Attorney’s Office declined to file charges against Kennedy, who has provided television commentary on medical issues on several occasions.
Kennedy was interviewed on Anderson Cooper’s former daytime program “Anderson Live,” about Dr. Conrad Murray’s decision to prescribe propofol as a sleep aid for Michael Jackson, who died of an overdose of the powerful anesthetic. Kennedy has also appeared on the daytime talk show “The Doctors” and provided commentary on PBS and the Fox News Channel.
— City News Service