ATLANTA (AP) - Dr. Andrew Nguyen’s only recourse after being unjustly imprisoned twice by authorities in his homeland of Vietnam was to flee in a rickety riverboat, along with 80 others so desperate to get out of the country that they were willing to risk death on the high seas.
Decades later, as a U.S. citizen living in North Florida, Nguyen has another avenue to redress injustice. Jailed on an unfounded charge of writing illegal prescriptions nine years ago last Monday, he can sue the federal government for false arrest and false imprisonment.
But to win that right, the 70-year-old Nguyen had to battle the legal system for years before a recent federal appeals court decision.
“I think it’s important for people to know that one individual man living in a town of 1,500 people can sue the United States _ and win,” says his attorney, Robert Rush. “If you press hard enough, justice is there.”
For Nguyen, who lives in Trenton, Fla., 33 miles west of Gainesville, it’s not quite there. The government could appeal the Feb. 4 ruling, though Nguyen is determined to press on to restore his reputation and the lost income resulting from the arrest.
“My case has been about eight years already, and it’s not done yet,” he said in a telephone interview.
Born in Hanoi in 1938, Nguyen moved to South Vietnam at 16 when the communists took control in the north.
He trained as a doctor and was a captain in the South Vietnamese army where he served as a combat physician during the Vietnam War. After the North prevailed, Nguyen was accused of being a CIA spy and imprisoned for more than a year.
Working at a 600-bed hospital after his release, the 41-year-old Nguyen first tried to escape from Vietnam in 1978. He failed and was imprisoned again, this time for nine months.
He began plotting another attempt to leave the country. Nguyen and half a dozen others accumulated gasoline one gallon at a time on the black market to fuel a broken down riverboat once used to ferry rice.
By the time they were ready, word had spread. The number of refugees had swelled to 81. After a dangerous four-day voyage, they managed to reach the Thailand shore.
Nguyen spent months in a refugee camp before making his way to America with the help of some relatives in this country. He worked as a translator at a newspaper and as a volunteer at a VA hospital in California while learning English well enough to pass three examinations required for a medical license in the U.S.
After buying the medical practice in Florida, Nguyen earned hospital privileges at Shands Teaching Hospital in Gainesville and the nearby North Florida Medical Center.
In 1986, he proudly became a U.S. citizen.
On March 23, 2000, Nguyen was treating patients when a Gilchrist County sheriff’s deputy accompanied by an agent of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration came into the office and arrested him. They seized his DEA license to prescribe controlled drugs.
“I knew that they were wrong,” Nguyen said. “I tried to explain to them. They just put me in jail.”
It was not until he was released five hours later that he learned he was accused of writing prescriptions for a painkiller and tranquilizer for a “confidential” DEA source without performing a physical examination.
However, he had conducted the examination and had records to prove it, including that the patient had complained of “nervousness, insomnia and pain.” The charges were dropped 55 days later for insufficient evidence.
Nguyen returned to work the day after his arrest, but his practice was ruined.
Without a DEA license, he could prescribe no medicine. Insurance companies canceled contracts with him, so patients switched to other doctors. Some called up wanting to know if he was some sort of criminal.
He lost his hospital privileges.
Nguyen was able to get his DEA license back, but it took five months. He had to reapply.
He estimates that 70 percent of his former patients never returned.
“Insurance companies don’t sign with you again. They don’t want to get involved in any lawsuits, so they just drop you,” Nguyen said.
He filed suit against the Gilchrist County deputy, the sheriff and the DEA.
A federal judge dismissed claims against the DEA on the grounds of sovereign immunity, a legal principal blocking the federal government from being sued without its consent.
A jury awarded damages of $1.8 million against the sheriff and his deputy. While their appeal was pending, a settlement was reached for $1 million.
The doctor’s appeal of the dismissal of the government as a defendant in the suit dragged on.
Finally, a three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the sovereign immunity was waived, according to the court’s interpretation of a 1974 amendment to the Federal Tort Claims Act. Congress passed the law after the 1945 crash of a B-25 bomber into the Empire State Building, allowing U.S. citizens to sue the federal government for the first time.
The key issue in Nguyen’s case was whether an exception to the waiver provision was nullified by a provision in the 1974 amendment. The appeals court said it was.
The 11th Circuit opinion originally was handed down in October. After that, Nguyen’s attorney, Rush, said he waited anxiously for a final order, which he expected by mid-January.
A substitute opinion, more expansive than the first, was filed Feb. 4 after the 11th Circuit panel took it upon itself to review the case again, without a request by either party.
Rush said now there is little more to do than establish damages, and he is prepared to take the case to trial if necessary.
“There was a complete absence of probable cause, which is the basis for false arrest,” Rush said.
The Justice Department could further appeal the 11th Circuit ruling, take the lawsuit to a jury or settle the case.
“If they don’t (settle), we’ll be going back to court, and I’ll be asking the court for several million dollars,” Rush said. He estimated that when the suit was first filed, Nguyen had lost $800,000 in revenue from his damaged practice.
Karen Rhew, supervisory assistant U.S. attorney in Tallahassee, would not tip the government’s hand. She said the case “will start anew” before U.S. District Judge Maurice M. Paul in Gainesville.
“I can’t confirm or deny what we’re going to argue. It depends on how the case develops,” Rhew said.
Nguyen would just like for the legal wrangling to end.
“I planned to retire two years ago,” he said. “Now I might have to work two more years because of the economy.”
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