Crocked Doc Won't Say If He Gave Drugs To JaxBY GREG B. SMITH DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Wednesday, February 09, 2000
An upper East Side doctor who shot himself up with morphine while treating patients said yesterday that he was pop star Michael Jackson's tour doctor in 1997.
Dr. Neil Ratner, testifying yesterday in the insurance fraud trial of high-profile infertility expert Dr. Niels Lauersen, was evasive when asked if he had administered drugs to the Gloved One.
"Would you give Michael Jackson drugs?" Lauersen's demanded attorney, Theodore Wells.
"I'm not going to discuss a patient's personal medical condition," Ratner replied.
In a telephone interview from Los Angeles, Jackson's attorney, Brian Wolf, said the singer "denies that Dr. Ratner ever prescribed any inappropriate medications or treatments."
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Wolf insisted that any medical treatment is confidential and said Ratner was correct not to disclose it.
Ratner, a 49-year-old ex-rock 'n' roll drummer and manager of Peter Frampton and Edgar Winter, has been on the stand for days, admitting he repeatedly took drugs while caring for patients during the 1980s.
In May 1989, he collapsed after shooting himself up with a paralytic agent during cosmetic surgery on the upper East Side.
Ratner, who still practices in Manhattan, pleaded guilty to insurance fraud and is cooperating with Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White in the case against Lauersen in hopes of reducing his prison sentence.
Lauersen is accused of lying to insurers to make them pay for $2.2 million in infertility treatments the companies traditionally don't cover. Ratner was Lauersen's chief anesthesiologist for the past decade.
Ratner, who graduated from a medical school in Mexico and cut his ponytail two weeks before trial, said he traveled with Jackson as paid tour doctor during the African leg of the singer's 1997 world tour.
When Wells pressed Ratner about giving drugs to Jackson, prosecutor Christine Chung asked to discuss the matter outside the presence of the jury.
At Manhattan Federal Judge William Pauley's bench, Wells insisted that Ratner had, in fact, given Jackson unnamed drugs.
"I want to explore the implication, and I think what he is doing is illegal," Wells added.
But prosecutor Chung argued that the mention of Jackson was distracting jurors from the case at hand. Pauley warned Wells to avoid further references to the Gloved One.
During cross-examination, Ratner then repeatedly dodged Wells' questions about whether he administered drugs to anyone on the tour.
"In the course of performing your job as tour doctor, did you have occasion to administer narcotics to persons on the tour?" Wells asked.
Ratner: "No."
Wells: "Drugs?"
Ratner: "What is your definition of drugs?"
Wells fired back, "You're the anesthesiologist, you define it."
Pauley instructed the jury to ignore Wells' comment.
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