"Sustained."

Evan bowed his head in acknowledgment. "Yes, your Honor. Let me approach this from another angle."

The judge nodded. "Do so. Just keep in mind that Ms. LaFleur is not a mind reader, unless you'd like to lay the groundwork for such?"

Laughter rumbled throughout the courtroom.

Evan smiled even as he winced. "No, your Honor. I think we can get at this another way."

He turned back to Jeanette and winked. "Ms. LaFleur. What do you know about Ms. Barrios's case?"

Jeanette waited for an objection. Dubois stared at his notes.

"I'm not sure what you mean."

"Could you tell me why you are a witness here today?"

"Because I found evidence that Dr. Rutherford was slanting his statistics to show a higher success rate than what he told the Review Broad, the university, and his patients, including Ms. Barrios."

"Yes, exactly." Evan smiled broadly. "Please tell the jury how you discovered this manipulation of the surgical outcomes."

"From the billing records."

"Please tell us specifically how the billing records led you to this conclusion that Dr. Rutherford was 'cooking the stats.'"

"Objection!" Dubois again surged to his feet. "The billing records have

nothing to do with what happened to Ms. Barrios."

The judge sent a laser-like glance at Dubois. "Overruled. Mr. Devereaux laid the foundation. The court shall decide what is relevant. Now, sit down."

The judge turned to Jeanette. "You may answer the question."

Jeanette nodded, then looked at Evan. "Should I start from when I first looked into the billing records?"

"Start wherever you need to."

"Okay."

Jeanette fixed her eyes on the jury. She could hear Rutherford angrily

whispering to Dubois. She blocked them out.

"It first started about a month or so after I began working for Dr. Rutherford.

The patient records were a mess. I started a database to sort out who had the

surgery, who was billed and for what, and who was seen afterward in follow-up."

"Why did you go into the billing records to help straighten out the patient

files?"

"The billing records were the most accurate, up-to-date and complete records the study had. Basic costs have to be covered. Every patient had a certain

amount of costs associated with their surgeries. The project budget didn't cover everything, you see, and doctors do like to get paid."

Laughter scattered throughout the courtroom.

Evan paused to let the courtroom quiet.

"What did the billing records tell you?"

"They told me who'd been operated on."

"How did that help you with the patient records?"

"It told me that I should, at the very least, have patient files on all those people billed."

"And did you?"

"No."

Murmurs of shock rumbled through the room.

"How many files were missing after your examination of the billing records?"

"Over sixty percent."

The chatter in the courtroom rose.

The judge rapped his gavel several times. "Order in the courtroom. Any more

noise and you're all out of here."

When all was quiet once more, the judge turned to Evan. "Continue, please."

"Let me rephrase what you just said. Is it your testimony that of the patients

who were billed for the living lens surgical procedure, you only found forty percent of those patient folders in the project's file room?"

"Yes."

Evan turned and walked over to Monique, who handed him several large folders. He took the folders, left a set with Dubois, and brought the others to her.

"Ms. LaFleur, would you please look at what have been marked as Plaintiff's

Exhibits 15 A and 15B and identify them, please?"

Jeanette opened up the folders. "Exhibit 15A is a spreadsheet of the billing records for the Epi Study from its inception. Exhibit 15B has the databases and spreadsheets I created, cross-checking the billing records with the patient files as they existed when I took over the position of Clinical Coordinator."

"Are these the records you used to draw the conclusion that sixty percent of the patient files were missing?"

"Yes."

"Your Honor, I would like to submit what have been marked as Plaintiff's Exhibits 15A and 15B into the record."

The judge looked at Dubois who said nothing, then said, "So entered." Evan handed the exhibits to the court reporter, then walked back to Jeanette.

"Let's explore another area, Ms. LaFleur. Where did the study get the data for the statistics on its success/failure rate?"

"From patient follow-up after the surgery. The Clinical Coordinator would examine the files and following the protocol, would list certain medical indicators for each patient at predetermined intervals post-op."

"From which patient files would the statistics come?"

"The only ones the project had."

"The same files that don't account for sixty percent of the patients receiving the surgery?"

"Yes."

Murmurs of unease threatened to erupt into something more, but the judge gaveled sharply and cast a stern glance at the courtroom observers. The noise died an instant death.

"Is it your testimony that the Epi Study data, as published in official reports to both the Review Board and the University and mentioned in the patient interview process and on the surgical consent forms, did not account for all the patients receiving the procedure?"

"Yes. But the data was never in the consent forms. I had to assume it was mentioned to the patients prior to surgery, because I have no specific knowledge of what happened prior to my coming on board."

"Thank you. I stand corrected. Suffice it to say, 'if' the data was mentioned to the patients, then it was incorrect in that it did not take into consideration all the patients operated upon, is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Was Lynn Barrios in the forty percent of the patient files you found in the clinic?"

"No."

Evan stopped and looked around the courtroom, pausing only when he reached the jury. After the short hesitation, he turned back to Jeanette.

"Let's go back to something you said just a bit ago. You said something about the consents for surgery not mentioning the statistics. What did the consents contain?"

"Objection." Dubois popped up like an over-dressed Jack-in-the-Box. "She just testified that she hadn't seen Lynn Barrios's file so she has no way of knowing what the consent Ms. Barrios signed said or did not say. Mr.

Devereaux has already in this trial entered the consent into evidence, and..."

"Sit down, Mr. Dubois. Overruled."

"Thank you, your Honor." Evan walked over to the court reporter and picked up a piece of paper from a pile on her desk. "Since Mr. Dubois was so kind as to remind me the consent signed by Ms. Barrios is already in evidence, I'll ask you Ms. LaFleur to look this consent over and see if it is in any way familiar to you."

Jeanette took the form. "Yes. This is the general surgical consent that was being used when I first hired on and was included in most of the patients' charts. Although they weren't always signed according to protocol."