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Miscellaneous See other Miscellaneous Articles Title: Physician Accused of Residency Revenge Murders Medscape It started with a telephone call on May 17, 2001, if horror and tragedy can be traced. Anthony Joseph Garcia, MD, was a first-year pathology resident at Creighton University (CU) School of Medicine in Omaha, Nebraska, when he telephoned another resident at home and told the resident's wife that his colleague needed to return to their department, according to school records. It just so happened that the resident was taking the UMSLE Step 3 exam at the time. Dr. Garcia's telephone call stressed out the resident while he was trying to pass "a high stakes examination" to stay in the program, according to a letter from the CU medical school dean that terminated Dr. Garcia from his residency program. In other words, Dr. Garcia was accused of sabotaging a fellow resident. The pathology residency program considered it "unprofessional behavior." Dr. Garcia claimed he had called the other resident merely to say that his vacation was not approved. Roger Brumback, MD, then chair of the CU pathology department, was copied on the termination letter. So was William Hunter, MD, director of the school's pathology residency program. Both physicians were instrumental in the decision to fire Dr. Garcia. Dr. Anthony Joseph Garcia Twelve years later, Dr. Garcia is behind bars. He was charged in a Nebraska state court last week with the May 2013 murders of Dr. Brumback and his wife Mary Brumback and with the March 2008 murders of Dr. Hunter's 11-year-old son Thomas and Shirlee Sherman, the family's housekeeper. Omaha police believe that Thomas Hunter and Sherman, slain in the Hunter's home, were not Dr. Garcia's intended targets in the first pair of killings. According to police, Dr. Garcia sought revenge against Dr. Brumback and Dr. Hunter for kicking him out of the CU pathology program. The firing had negative repercussions for him in a checkered medical career, factoring into failed attempts to get licensed in Indiana, California, and Louisiana and to complete a psychiatry residency program in the last state. In a recent news conference, Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer declined to say whether Dr. Garcia had other CU physicians in his sights but noted that he "fit the elements of a serial killer." "We did not feel this individual would stop unless an arrest was made," Schmaderer said. Dr. Garcia's Attorney Calls Evidence "Circumstantial" Omaha state police formed a task force with the Nebraska State Highway Patrol and the FBI shortly after Roger and Mary Brumback were discovered shot and stabbed to death, respectively, in their home. The task force's mission was to investigate whether the Brumback murders were linked to the 2008 murders, committed with a knife, in Dr. Hunter's home. The task force eventually turned its attention to Dr. Garcia, who was living in Terra Haute, Indiana, but licensed to practice medicine in Illinois. Dr. Garcia was arrested on July 15 after Illinois state police pulled him over in a traffic stop. He was drunk and had a 45-caliber handgun in his car. Four days later, the Illinois medical board temporarily suspended his license, noting that Dr. Garcia's license application had not disclosed his termination from the CU residency program nor disciplinary action taken against him by a family medicine residency program in Albany, New York. According to records from the New York state medical board, Dr. Garcia quit the family medicine program in 1999 to avoid an investigation into an incident involving his hospital's radiology department (Dr. Garcia said it amounted to yelling at a technician). The state board issued an administrative warning to Dr. Garcia in July 2001, noting that his conduct throughout the residency program left the board's investigator with "serious doubts as to your future ability to successfully practice medicine within acceptable standards." Dr. Garcia is represented in the murder case by a family of criminal attorneys — Robert Motta, his son Robert Motta II, and the son's wife, Alison Motta. In an interview with Medscape Medical News, Alison Motta said her client intends to plead not guilty. She describes the evidence against Dr. Garcia as "very circumstantial." Motta said the defense team is preparing to ask the Douglas County District Court in Omaha for a change of venue owing to "the poisoning of the jury pool" by the "vast media coverage of the case, and misinformation." At stake is whether the court can find jurors who have not already formed an opinion on Dr. Garcia's guilt or innocence, she said. "We're anticipating an uphill battle in a ver Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: Tatarewicz (#0)
It is significant (assuming the accusations are true) that Garcia waited 7 years to get back at one doctor and a dozen years to get the other. Also surprising that the cops figured it out; the usual revenge murder investigation only backtracks a year or less to find the motivating event.
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