More than five years after filing a civil suit against his former employer, Dr. William Husel's defamation case against Mount Carmel Health System will get underway this week.
Husel was acquitted in 2022 of 14 murder charges. Prosecutors dropped 11 murder charges before the case went to trial.
He had been accused of causing several patients' deaths by overprescribing fentanyl and other drugs while working in the ICU at Mount Carmel West. Husel’s attorneys argued that the palliative care that he provided to dying patients did not violate hospital policies or nationally accepted standards.
The court filtered through jurors Monday and opening statements from the defense and prosecution are expected Tuesday in Franklin County Common Pleas Court. A livestream will be available when proceedings are active.
In the suit, Husel names former Mount Carmel CEO Edward Lamb, the health system and its parent company Trinity Health.
Trinity Health has called Husel's suit unfounded.
An attorney for Husel told WOSU in 2023 that the health system convinced Franklin County prosecutors to charge Husel.
"Every single time Mount Carmel or Trinity looked into whether there was any evidence that William attempted or intended to do anything that was harmful, there just wasn't,” said Landy. “No one ever supported that theory."
Last year, a Michigan judge dismissed a federal suit Husel filed alleging he was maliciously prosecuted by the hospital’s parent company, Trinity Health.
Husel was seeking $20 million in that lawsuit filed last April in the U.S Eastern District of Michigan Court. The suit claimed Michigan-based Trinity Health intentionally provided wrong information to prosecutors and the media before Husel was indicted on 25 murder charges in 2019.
