Ex-UCI Doctor Alleges Libel in Fertility Flap
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SANTA ANA — A doctor who worked in the UCI fertility clinic sued the university and its two top officials Wednesday, alleging they libeled her with the intention of harassing her into leaving the school.
The suit filed in Santa Ana Superior Court by Dr. Jane L. Frederick accuses Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening, Executive Vice Chancellor Sidney H. Golub and the university of making “reckless and false allegations” against her and of intentional infliction of emotional distress.
Frederick worked in the UCI Center for Reproductive Health at the time that its three principal physicians were accused of fraud, including stealing eggs from patients and implanting them in others. Frederick was never accused of any crime or named in any of the lawsuits filed against the other physicians, according to legal papers.
In her lawsuit, Frederick accuses Wilkening and Golub of seeking to “discredit anyone even remotely connected to the Center for Reproductive Health” and engaging in tactics designed to “harass and separate her from the university.”
The suit maintains that the defendants repeated “completely false” statements regarding Frederick’s allegedly prescribing a fertility drug not approved for use in the United States and refused numerous opportunities to retract the false statements.
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