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Harish Bharti, who became famous for his successful action against McDonald's in the beef flavoring case, has been fined $300,000 in a sensational case in Seattle involving identical twin physicians.
But he asserted immediately after the verdict on Wednesday that he will appeal the judgment.
One of the two brothers, Dr Charles Momah, who had been found guilty of improper sexual proprieties with many of his patients including an Indian woman, was slapped with a 20-year-sentence six months ago. His twin brother Dennis Momah, who was not criminally charged in the case, brought the suit against Bharti's client.
The judge said Bharti was an "active and knowing participant in the fabrication" of his client Perla Saldivar's "ever-changing accusations against Dennis Momah." Bharti had filed "irrelevant and salacious" allegations just to get media attention and "harass and damage the reputation" of Dr Dennis Momah, judge Katherine Stolz declared.
The court also ordered, Perla Saldivar, who accused Dr Charles Momah of sexually molesting her and allowing his identical twin-brother Dennis to impersonate him and molest her on other occasions, pay $2.8 million to the latter. She had fabricated the allegations, the judge ruled, in response to the lawsuit brought by Dr Dennis Momah.
Bharti had told rediff.com that no attorney in Seattle was prepared to take up their case against the brothers. Charles Momah has appealed his conviction. The brothers are from Nigeria. Bharti had claimed that while he was on a visit to India, Charles Momah threatened to set Nigerian gangs on his clients if they did not withdraw the allegations against him.
While Bharti is getting ready to appeal the judgment against him, he issued a statement: "Everything worthwhile I did in my life, I caught hell for," he said. "This is the most worthwhile cause I will ever do in my life."
Saldivar is also standing by her accusations and planning to fight the judgment against her.
Earlier Judge Katherine Stolz had said, while fining Bharti that he "was a knowing participant in the falsehoods against the physician, Dr Dennis Momah, and his brother, Dr Charles Momah."
The Seattle Times said that Stolz's ruling, on a counterclaim filed by Dennis Momah, does not affect Charles Momah's criminal convictions, which included one count of second-degree rape, one count of third-degree rape and two counts of indecent liberties.
Saldivar had sued Dennis Momah in 2004, alleging he sexually assaulted her during an examination. She added Charles Momah to the lawsuit a few weeks later.
Dennis Momah, who has not practiced medicine for the past two years, following a stroke. On Wednesday Stolz, in her ruling, blamed on Saldivar's "false allegations" for the stroke.
She also ordered Saldivar and her husband to pay attorneys' fees and costs to Dennis Momah and to US Healthworks, his employer at the time. That amount could exceed $500,000.
The judge has also ordered Bharti to "prominently" post the judge's scathing ruling on his Website "for as long as the site contains any reference to the Momahs, and at least for a year."
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