Dr. Bhubendra Rasaiah, who is seen denying any personal responsibility for the wrongful conviction of William Mullins-Johnson in a recent CBC Fifth Estate documentary called, "A death in the family", is named in a $13M lawsuit.
Canadian Press reporter Colin Perkel reported the lawsuit on October 02, 2008.
(The statement of claim contains allegations against Dr. Bhubendra and other individuals which have not been proven in court;)
"An Ontario man who spent 12 years in jail after being wrongly convicted for the rape and murder of his four-year-old niece launched a lawsuit against six doctors Thursday, including a forensic pathologist excoriated this week by a judicial inquiry," the story began.
"In his statement of claim filed in Ontario Superior Court, William Mullins-Johnson seeks $13 million in general and punitive damages from Dr. Charles Smith, former chief coroner James Young and his deputy Jim Cairns," the story continued;
"The claim argues the defendants were negligent and reckless in their conduct.
"William has suffered loss of liberty, humiliation and disgrace," the statement of claim asserts.
"He is entitled to substantial damages."
None of the claims has yet been proven in any court.
Mullins-Johnson, 38, was arrested and charged within about 12 hours of the discovery of the body of his niece Valin in her bed in Sault Ste Marie, Ont., on the morning of June 27, 1993.
He was convicted of first-degree murder and spent a dozen years in prison before new evidence emerged to reveal that a crime had never occurred and Valin had died of natural causes.
At least two other lawsuits have already been launched by people who were wrongfully accused of crimes stemming from the forensic pathology scandal.
In quashing Mullins-Johnson's conviction in October 2007, the Ontario Court of Appeal concluded a "terrible miscarriage of justice" based on "flawed pathology evidence" had occurred.
On Wednesday, Justice Stephen Goudge cited the case in his scathing indictment of Smith - once considered the country's foremost child forensic pathologist - and his overseers, Young and Cairns.
Smith's dogmatic arrogance in giving poorly informed but life-altering medical opinions and the unwillingness of his supervisors to call him to account were at the heart of several wrongful accusations of baby and child killings in Ontario, Goudge concluded.
Despite those findings, Mullins-Johnson said he still wants those responsible for his wrongful prosecution to be held to further account.
His lawyer David Robins said Goudge's report will help prove the claim.
"Some of the evidence that was used at the inquiry will go a long way to assist in establishing liability for Mr. Mullins-Johnson," Robins said in an interview from Windsor, Ont.
The suit also names two doctors from Sault Ste. Marie, Bhubendra Rasaiah and Patricia Zehr, along with Smith's colleague at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children, Dr. Marcellina Mian.
"They opined that Valin had been sexually assaulted throughout her lifetime, sodomized shortly before her death, and was murdered," the suit alleges.
"To avoid professional embarrassment, for the next 15 years, they did not revise or qualify their initial opinions even though they knew or ought to have known that their opinions were scientifically flawed."
The claim alleges that Rasaiah, a pathologist, and Zehr, a gynecologist, concluded they were dealing with a horrible case of child sexual abuse based on a superficial examination of the body.
After Zehr phoned for advice, Mian also decided Valin was a victim of chronic abuse, the suit alleges.
Smith would later decide Valin had been sodomized and suffocated.
The suit accuses Young and Cairns of serious misconduct that contributed to Mullins-Johnson's ordeal.
The men "intentionally and maliciously" directed pathologists to "think dirty" - to assume abuse had occurred in cases of suspicious child deaths, the suit claims.
They also "actively protected" Smith despite repeated complaints to avoid their own professional embarrassment.
The government declined to comment because the matter is before the courts."
Harold Levy...hlevy15@gmail.com;
