PHYSICIAN AWARDED $1.8M IN LAWSUIT

A jury awarded $1.8 million Thursday to a local doctor who sued
Gilchrist County Sheriff David Turner and a deputy in federal court
for a wrongful arrest in 2000.

Jurors found that Gilchrist County Deputy Kenneth Carlisle, who died
last year, had violated Dr. Andrew Nguyen's constitutional right not
to be arrested or have property seized without probable cause and had
falsely arrested and maliciously prosecuted the physician, the jury's
verdict form stated.

The jury also upheld a false arrest claim against Turner, who was
named in the case in his official capacity as sheriff. However, they
did not agree that Turner should be held liable for the civil rights
violation claim filed against both him and the deputy.

The jury awarded $1,836,100 to Nguyen. The three-day trial started
earlier this week at the federal courthouse in Gainesville .

"It means a lot for me," Nguyen said Friday. "I'm looking for justice
for me. Justice was served in my case."

"With great power comes great responsibility," said Nguyen's attorney
Robert Rush, referencing a quote in the Spider-Man comic series.

"One of the most precious features of American culture is that we
enjoy freedom. It sounds a little corny but the Fourth Amendment is
there to protect us from government action like this."

Nguyen, now 68, was arrested in March 2000 for six felony counts of
delivering a controlled substance and held in jail on a $60,000 bond.
Three months later the case was dropped by the State Attorney's
Office, which cited insufficient evidence.

An affidavit, created by investigators and using information from a
woman serving as officers' confidential informant, failed to note
that she had been Nguyen's patient since 1997 and falsely claimed the
doctor, a general practitioner, had failed to conduct any physical
exam of the woman, Nguyen's lawsuit stated.

But law enforcement tape recordings showed Nguyen had conducted a
physical exam, conflicting with statements made in the affidavit, Rush said.

Investigators didn't have evidence of an illegal act and shouldn't
have used the information they had to pursue a warrant against the
physician, Rush said.

"Any competent law enforcement officer would have prevented this from
happening," Rush said. "When you do an investigation and you don't
find the evidence, you close it down."

At the time, Carlisle had been serving on a multi-county task force
involving the Drug Enforcement Administration. That agency also
initially had been listed as a defendant in the case, but Rush said
the DEA was dismissed from the case because the court found it had
immunity as a governmental entity from the lawsuit.

John Jolly, a Tallahassee attorney who represented the sheriff and
Carlisle's estate, said no one intentionally erred in arresting Nguyen.

"I acknowledge Mr. Nguyen was not guilty of the crime he was arrested
for," Jolly said, but "nobody acted maliciously or intentionally,
though errors were made."

Jolly also noted that the criminal case against Nguyen was dropped.

"The criminal justice system has safety valves built into it. This
case was derailed by one of those safety valves at the first court
stage," he said.

But Rush said the investigation and the arrest "decimated" Nguyen's
practice, even though the criminal case ultimately was dismissed. The
physician, who lives in Gainesville but practices in Trenton and
Newberry, lost about 2,000 patients, he said.

Jolly said there still are motions pending before Senior U.S.
District Judge Maurice Paul contesting the legal sufficiency of the evidence.

If the verdict stands, Jolly said, "It's a virtual certainty that it
will be appealed."

Turner said it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the case
since motions are still pending.

Recovering the $1.8 million award also will be an issue. Florida laws
limit the amount a state agency must pay on certain claims made in
the lawsuit and require a special enactment by the Legislature to pay more.