On August 28, John Ciccone, Communications Director of ASCRS (American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery) submitted a falsified version of THE LASIK REPORT: A Call for the Discontinuation of a Harmful Procedure to a government agency, at the request of Glenn Hagele who published the following statement on the alt.lasik-eyes newsgroup:
The fantasy that Burch calls "The LASIK Report", fully attributed to her, is being distributed to all doctors cited, Burch's employer...
Contrary to Glenn Hagele's statements that The Lasik Report was "attributable" to Dr. Lauranell Burch, the document was published anonymously. John Ciccone presented a clumsily altered version of the document designed to mislead others into showing that Dr. Lauranell Burch authored the document as a representative of a government agency, when in fact the document was published anonymously by a private citizen.
Glenn Hagele previously threatened to publish the social security number of Dr. Lauranell Burch in addition to the social security number of other individuals. This action follows a pattern of similar behavior in which Glenn Hagele began harassing Paula Cofer at her home and place of employment.
After reviewing the original version of The Lasik Report, ASCRS board members issued the following comments.
| Dr. Sam Masket: | Looks like we are in the middle of a cat fight; time to withdraw. I sense that we should not be responsive at all. |
| Dr. Douglas Koch: | Agree--no wins for us here. |
| Dr. Stephen Lane: | Totally agree - I think we have already wasted too much time and human resources on the "chicken little" subject. |
In discussing Glenn Hagele's harassment of patients, Dr. Richard Lindstrom provided the following advice to ASCRS' Board of Directors.
Posted by Admin at September 4, 2006 12:48 PMI believe this has become a no win tar baby. When founded by Dan Durrie the charter of this group (CRSQA) seemed reasonable. Now it has deteriorated into a Bagdad (sic), Iraq type scene where there will be no winners, just all losers. I suggest we stay away. It has become a lose/lose and is now very personalized. Glenn seems to see himself as a white night crusading for Laski (sic) and his dissatisfied patient enemies wish to destroy the operation entirely. We cannot win by getting involved. There are not at this time reasonable people on either side. What you read here is just a paragraph in a thick book of similar accusations and counteraccusations including active litigation. Sandy Keller is not ASCRS friend, nor at the moment is Glen Hagele. None of this is good for the field or ASCRS. Stay as far away as you can.
I am legal counsel for ASCRS. I have reviewed the email correspondence and the Refractive Surgery News article on the LASIK Report that was published yesterday (http://www.lasikfraud.com/news/archives/000164.html ).
The first statement in that article reads, in pertinent part:
"On August 28, John Ciccone, Communications Director of ASCRS (American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery) submitted a falsified version of THE LASIK REPORT: A Call for the Discontinuation of a Harmful Procedure to a government agency , at the request of Glenn Hagele . . . ."
Now that you have ASCRS's clarification (see below), you can readily see that this statement is false and defamatory. Mr. Ciccone merely passed a document he received along to a government agency and asked the agency to confirm whether the report was an agency document or reflected agency policy. He did not falsify the document or knowingly accept and submit a falsified document as your statement suggests. Nor did he contact the agency at Glenn Hagele's request. In these circumstances, ASCRS demands that you immediately delete the quoted language from the above-referenced article and refrain from making any further statements on this subject that you know or have reason to know are false and defamatory. We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.
Rob Portman
Jenner & Block
Robert M. Portman
Jenner & Block LLP
601 Thirteenth Street, N.W.
Suite 1200 South
Washington DC 20005-3823
Tel (202) 639-6880
Fax (202) 661-4936
RPortman@jenner.com
www.jenner.com
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From: Pattye Whitmer
Sent: Tuesday, September 05, 2006 3:34 PM
To: 'brent@brenthanson.com'
Cc: David Karcher
Subject: E-mail from David Karcher re August 2006 LASIK
Report
Dear Mr. Hanson:
Concerning the August 2006 LASIK Report ( http://thelasikreport.com/TheLasikReport_Aug2006.pdf ) and discussions on your Web site.
Late last week, a copy of the “LASIK Report” was forwarded by Mr. Glenn Hagele to a member of the American Society of Cataract and Refractive Surgery (ASCRS) Executive Committee. The Report, in the form of an Adobe PDF file, included text indicating that it had been distributed by Laurenelle (sic) Burch, PhD., an employee of the National Institute of Environmental and Health Sciences (NIEHS).
The document was forwarded to ASCRS staff, who contacted NIEHS to determine if the Report was an agency document or if it reflected agency policy. The response of the NIEHS director of communications was that the Report is not an agency document and was a private matter of Dr. Burch.
ASCRS wishes to make it very clear that it does not have, and has never had, any business relationship, formal or informal, with Mr. Hagele or any of his activities.
Sincerely,
David Karcher
ASCRS Executive Director