Police trace threatening e-mails to hospital where med students were to work

Sun Sentinel Link http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-sstudents17sep17.story?coll=sfla%2Dnews%2Dsfla By Vicky Agnew Staff Writer Posted September 17 2002

State law enforcement officials said Monday that they plan to investigate threatening e-mails sent last weekend to a Miami-Dade County hospital after three medical students set to work there were accused -- and then cleared -- of plotting a terrorist attack on Miami.

The three men: Kambiz Butt, 25, of Chicago; Ayman Gheith, 27, also of Chicago; and Omer Choudhary, 23, of Independence, Mo., were stopped by police and detained for 18 hours on early Friday along Alligator Alley after a Georgia woman told police she heard them in a restaurant plotting a terrorist attack on Miami.

A search of the men's cars turned up nothing suspicious, and police have filed no charges.

The men are students at Ross University's medical school in Dominica, an eastern Caribbean island. They were scheduled to begin a nine-week clinical rotation this week at Larkin Community Hospital in south Miami and were driving from Illinois to Miami to begin internships when they were stopped.

But the intense media scrutiny of a blitz of more than 2,000 e-mails to the hospital prompted hospital officials not to allow the men to do their rotations there. About 200 of the e-mails were threatening and were turned over to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

"After the fourth or fifth one, I didn't feel like reading any more," Larkin CEO Jack Michel said. "Most were ethnic and racial slurs."

Amos Rojas, FDLE's chief of investigations, said threats combined with racial slurs constitutes a first-degree felony.

"We're covering those e-mails. If we can prosecute, we'll prosecute," Rojas said.

Despite receiving some support for the men from the community, Michel said the students' notoriety would be disruptive.

"We also remain concerned for the safety of our patients, our staff and the students due to the large number of disturbing communications, phone calls and e-mail received by the hospital since Friday," Michel said. "In addition, we felt that the students' medical education would be adversely compromised due to the current national attention focused upon them."

But one local Muslim leader disagreed with the hospital's decision.

"We can't have a hundred hate e-mails dictating how we'll act," said Altaf Ali, executive director of CAIR, a nonprofit organization composed of Muslim activists. "To disallow them [from working at the hospital] is an act against society and the community's well-being."

Larkin Community Hospital is a 30-year-old, physician-owned general medical and surgical hospital with 112 beds. Dr. Michel, who along with his brother, George, had practiced at the hospital since the mid-1990s, purchased it in 1998 from Island Trust, a group of investors that included Anthony Kennedy Shriver, a nephew of the late President John F. Kennedy.

Larkin is accredited by the Joint Commission on Health Care Accreditation and received a score of 98 percent after its most recent inspection in July 2000.

The three students were not available for comment Monday, but one of their attorneys said they understood the hospital's concerns. The men have no plans to sue anyone, he said

"We just want to restore these men's reputations," the attorney said. "There's no ill will here."

Larkin is one of 40 hospitals throughout the country affiliated with Ross University, and school officials were working to place the men elsewhere, said Dr. Nancy Perri, dean of clinical science at Ross.

"We can certainly provide adequate clinical training," Perri said. "We have no real control over who the hospital takes. These are not employees of the hospital, so they did not dismiss them."

Perri said that the students' training schedules would not suffer as a result of the changes and that they could know where they'll go as early as Wednesday. Their rotations at Larkin would have had them meeting with patients, taking medical histories, performing physical exams and then working with experienced doctors on diagnoses.

Since the late 1990s, Larkin has added out-patient facilities, reopened its emergency room and plans to expand its psychiatric unit.

The hospital offers services from coronary care to diagnostics and also caters to patients who suffer from excessive sweating, a condition called hyperhidrosis. The hospital also offers plastic and cosmetic surgery, according to Larkin's Web site.

CEO Michel said it was unprecedented for the hospital to turn away students for such a reason.

"My first concern is the protections and safety of my patients," he said. "We are a hospital, not a medical school."

Staff Writers Diana Marrero and Nancy McVicar contributed to this story.

Vicky Agnew can be reached at vagnew@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7922.

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