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Ex-physician pleads not guilty in hospital killings

Swango walks out of a courtroom in this 1985 image

July 17, 2000
Web posted at: 7:17 p.m. EDT (2317 GMT)

UNIONDALE, New York (CNN) -- Former doctor Michael Swango pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of killing three patients at a Long Island veterans hospital -- with injections that stopped their hearts -- assault, making false statements, mail and wire fraud.

The U.S. attorney's office said it has not decided whether to seek the death penalty against Swango, who, when the charges were issued, was on the verge of completing a prison stretch for making false statements designed to cover up his past. Prosecutors have 60 to 90 days to decide whether to seek the death penalty. No trial date was set.

U.S. District Judge Jacob Mishler scheduled a status conference with prosecutors and defense attorneys for October 27. The defendant was ordered held without bond.

Swango, 45, who had been serving a 3 1/2-year term at the federal prison in Florence, Colorado, walked into the federal courtroom in Uniondale, New York, on Monday, where the ex-wife and stepdaughter of one of his alleged victims, George Siano, expressed wonderment over why it has taken seven years for charges to be filed.

The stepdaughter, Roselda Conroy, said Swango -- bent over, pale, thin and scarred on his right cheek -- looked "nothing like the man he was."

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The suspect remained seated, his eyes cast down, as the "bill of particulars" from his indictment was read aloud by U.S. prosecutors Gary Brown and Joseph Conway.

Asked twice if he was pleading not guilty to the charges, he responded "yes" both times. He said nothing else.

Swango was serving time for making false statements to federal authorities after leaving Zimbabwe and stopping in the United States before moving to Saudi Arabia. His prison term would have ended Saturday had it not been for the new charges.

He is charged with murder in the deaths of three male patients in 1993 while he was on staff at Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Northport, New York -- Siano, Aldo Serinei and Thomas Sammarco, all killed by injections that stopped their hearts. As a result of false "Do Not Resuscitate" orders that Swango allegedly provided, no attempts were made to revive the patients.

Swango also is charged with assault for allegedly using a similar injection to try to kill another patient at the same hospital, Barron Harris , who survived but has since died.

Several publications and a book have reported that Swango is suspected in more than 60 deaths around the country.

The indictment against him says he was first suspected of murder just after his graduation from Southern Illinois University Medical School in April of 1983.

He was investigated in the death of a patient at Ohio State University Hospital when he was working there as an intern, but he never was charged in relation to that investigation.

Swango was convicted 15 years ago of the nonfatal poisonings of co-workers at an ambulance service in Quincy, Illinois, where he worked as an emergency medical technician. He was convicted of aggravated battery and sentenced to five years in prison.

Despite that conviction, Swango was able to get employment at hospitals in South Dakota, Virginia, and New York, the indictment said. He also worked at a hospital in Zimbabwe and had received a job offer from a hospital in Saudi Arabia.

Irene Martinez, Siano's ex-wife, appeared in court Monday and said she "felt a lot of pity for this man," while Conroy, the stepdaughter, said she "almost felt sorry for him."

In a reference to the murders that Swango has been charged with, and those he's suspected of, Conroy said she didn't "understand how he went on for so long."

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Northport VA Medical Center
Veterans Health Administration: Health Programs and Initiatives
Do-Not-Resuscitate (DNR) Orders
Blind Eye : How the Medical Establishment Let a Doctor Get Away With Murder

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