Lawyer brags about winning medical malpractice suit; has verdict thrown out
ORANGE COUNTY, Calif. - An Orange County lawyer captured on cell phone video bragging about winning a medical malpractice lawsuit ended up derailing the whole case.
"Guy that was probably negligently killed but we kind of made it look like other people did it," says Robert McKenna III in a video that has gone viral. He goes on to explain how they won the case. McKenna is seen in the video telling a group of employees, "We actually had a death certificate that said he died the way the plaintiff said he died, and we said no, you really shouldn’t believe what that death certificate says." The video was posted on the attorney’s social media and then later taken down.
"It’s enraging, I never thought lawyers would ring a bell of someone who has passed away," says Johanna Garcia. She lost her father Enrique Garcia Sanchez in 2017 after he went into a hospital with abdominal pain. In a lawsuit filed by his family, they allege Dr. Essam Quraishi accidentally punctured Enrique’s colon, and allege it led to his death.
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Attorney McKenna defended doctor Quraishi and managed to convince the jury his client had not been negligent. But after watching the video with McKenna bragging, an Orange County judge has thrown out the winning malpractice verdict and has granted a new trial. FOX 11 reached out to McKenna for comment, but he never got back to us.
Scott Nelson, the new attorney representing Dr. Essam Quraishi, issued the following statement.
"Dr. Quraishi vehemently disagrees with the court’s decision to grant a new trial. A jury of Dr. Quraishi’s peers held in a 12 to 0 verdict that he did nothing wrong and was in no way responsible for the death of Mr. Garcia. The motion for new trial was granted as a result of the false statements by Dr. Quraishi’s prior counsel, Robert L. McKenna III. Mr. McKenna made these admittedly fallacious statements to embellish his trial skills, and he made them in disregard of the truth for the purpose of self-aggrandizement. As Mr. McKenna testified, his description was ‘hyperbolic’ and ‘not intended to be … [an] accurate representation of th[e] case.'
These false statements have caused, and continue to cause, Dr. Quraishi and his family tremendous harm, including receiving death threats from individuals who have read the articles published by such publications as the Los Angeles Times regarding this case.
The bottom line is that Dr. Quraishi’s treatment of Mr. Garcia met the highest standards of care, and the verdict was correct and just. His former attorney’s attempt to make himself appear as a hero by mispresenting the facts of the case, and the tremendous harm this has caused Dr. Quraishi, is the story here."