Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, August 9, 1994 TAG: 9408090111
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Dr. Gus Vlahos was devastated by a false claim circulated on faked letterhead stationery from Montgomery Regional Hospital that he had HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, his attorney said Monday.
Vlahos on Friday sued Doris Sheppard of Dublin, alleging libel and slander for making numerous copies of the flier and distributing them to people at work and spreading the claim in conversation.
``It was even put on the wall of a ladies' restroom,'' said Robert Ziogas, an attorney from Roanoke who filed the lawsuit in Pulaski County Court.
The flier said Vlahos had AIDS and that he sometimes ``resisted routine wearing of gloves,'' implying he was putting patients at risk of being infected with HIV.
Filed along with the lawsuit was a doctor's affidavit certifying Vlahos has neither AIDS nor the virus that causes it.
Vlahos is seeking $5 million in compensatory and $5 million in punitive damages from Sheppard.
A man who answered the telephone at the Sheppards' home said no one in the family would comment on the matter and referred questions to James Turk, a lawyer in Radford. But Turk said late Monday the woman had not retained him as her attorney and he could not comment on the case.
The phony document was first circulated about July 26 and rebutted the next day by Gene B. Wright, chief executive officer of Montgomery Regional Hospital. Wright alerted Vlahos that the letter was inaccurate and prepared on fake hospital stationery.
``This letter was not written on official Montgomery Regional Hospital letterhead, but rather the Montgomery Regional Hospital logo appears to have been fraudulently affixed to the letter,'' he wrote July 27.
Wright wrote that there was no record of Vlahos ever having been a patient at the hospital.
Hospital spokeswoman Judy Tynan said the letterhead appeared to have been an amateurish clip-and-paste collage using the hospital logo.
The unsigned flier contends that six unidentified people agreed ``to disregard the entreaty of our superiors at this hospital that we not release information about a patient we know to have been diagnosed as having AIDS ... ''
Neither Vlahos nor his lawyer offered reasons why someone might try to harm the dentist's reputation. Vlahos has practiced in Pulaski County 13 years and has lived there 40 years.
``I have not done anything to upset anyone,'' Vlahos said in an interview with The Southwest Times of Pulaski.
``I am staying here in Pulaski County. I will not let someone destroy my life.''
Ziogas said Vlahos did not know Sheppard.
Vlahos and his lawyer moved quickly to file suit and to produce documents that say the dentist does not have AIDS.
The $10 million asked for in the lawsuit reflects the magnitude of potential harm to Vlahos' practice and personal life had the information continued to have been disseminated, Ziogas said.
Staff writer Kathy Loan contributed information to this story.
by CNB