Accredited Psychiatry & Medicine | Harold J. Bursztajn, MD, Forensic Psychiatrist

Clesta Darnaby and Jeff Darnaby v. Martin J. Davis, D.O.

Case No. CJ-97-2997 (District Court, Tulsa County, Oklahoma)

A family physician, was sued for malpractice and battery by the plaintiff alleging two instances of sexual misconduct. The plaintiff who was represented by the plaintiff's treating psychiatrist and expert as suffering from Multiple Personality Disorder, being unable to consent, and having suffered severe emotional injury as a result of the sexual misconduct. The defense retained expert, Dr. Harold J. Bursztajn testified that:

The diagnosis of Multiple Personality Disorder was suspect, having been made without an adequate differential diagnoses to rule out exaggerating, malingering and factitious illness.
The treating psychiatrist and expert roles assumed by the plaintiff's retained expert posed a conflict which precluded the plaintiff's expert from being objective and the opinion as being reliable, as well as preventing effective treatment.
To the extent that the defendant's family physician had made a referral to the plaintiff's psychiatrist more than a year prior to either act of sexual misconduct, the acts, while ethical violations, did not constitute departures from the relevant standard of care nor a medical cause for the plaintiff's claim of injury. Moreover, the family physician's action, while unethical, did not significantly impair the plaintiff's treatment with her psychiatrist.

The jury returned a unanimous (12-0) verdict for the defendant.

Defendant's Expert: Harold J. Bursztajn, M.D.
Associate Professor, Harvard Medical School

Defendant's Attorney: Steven Holden, Esq. & Melissa Sage, Esq.
Holden, Glendening & MeKenna