Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 9, 1993 TAG: 9311090189
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Knight-Ridder/Tribune
DATELINE: DETROIT LENGTH: Medium
Instead, Michigan lawyer John DeMoss, who said he thought Kevorkian and his attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, were lying, abusing the justice system and wasting taxpayers' money, went to court Monday morning and plunked down $2,000 cash to make the "suicide doctor" a free man.
"I've been a lawyer for too long. . . . I thought it was a mockery," DeMoss said of Kevorkian's hunger strike. "I thought I could bring it to a screeching halt."
At a news conference hours after he was freed, both Kevorkian and Fieger said they thought his freedom would be short-lived. They predicted that Oakland County prosecutor Richard Thompson would have Kevorkian arrested within days on another suicide at which Kevorkian was present.
Kevorkian, grizzled and gaunt after his four-day fast in the Wayne County Jail, smiled broadly as he was freed shortly before 11 a.m. He said other inmates cheered, applauded and stuck their hands through the bars to offer handshakes as he was led out.
Outside, Kevorkian thanked DeMoss and said that while he was disappointed he hadn't been allowed to stay, he was also happy and grateful to be free.
"There's no way I could have refused. That would have been unconscionably headstrong," said Kevorkian, a retired pathologist whose licenses to practice medicine have been revoked.
"He showed no reluctance to leave," said Nancy Mouradian, chief of staff for Sheriff Robert Ficano, who informed the doctor that he was free to go. "He just smiled and said, `OK,' got up and started organizing his things."
But Fieger yanked DeMoss aside and scolded him outside court, wagging his finger up and down. He was uncharacteristically soft-spoken later.
"This was an effort by opponents to stop the worldwide publicity that was being mobilized," said Fieger. "But I've known John DeMoss a long time. He's a very kind man. And a very smart man."
Fieger rejected DeMoss' belief that Kevorkian never intended to starve himself and was merely seeking publicity.
"This is not a sideshow; this is not a circus; this is not an attempt to draw attention to Dr. Kevorkian. It's not Dr. Kevorkian who dragged Dr. Kevorkian off to jail," he said.
Kevorkian said Monday afternoon that he wasn't hungry and wasn't even sure if he would have dinner. About midday, he said he did have a piece of apple pie, three french fries and a cup of coffee, "all pretty tasteless."
Kevorkian was jailed Friday after Recorder's Court Judge Thomas Jackson found that he had violated conditions of his personal bond in one assisted suicide case by getting involved in another case. After helping Thomas Hyde of Novi die on Aug. 4, he was accused a month later of helping Donald O'Keefe of Redford to die.
Kevorkian, who has been present at the suicides of 19 people, said he has no immediate plans to help anyone else.
Detectives in Royal Oak expect to complete by Thursday their investigation into the Oct. 22 death of an Ann Arbor woman at Kevorkian's apartment, Detective Thomas Poff said. They are still awaiting a final autopsy report on Merian Frederick, 72.
by CNB