A major insurance company is contending in a lawsuit that dental offices who hired a man whom prosecutors called a “serial pervert” should be liable for his actions.
Or at least some other insurance policy should be liable. Hartford Underwriters Insurance Co. says in a lawsuit filed Monday it should not be liable or any damages if they are assessed.
The new lawsuit is the reaction to a pair of lawsuits filed in May 2012 that seek undisclosed financial damages after a Cobb County nurse anesthetist was sent to prison for sedating female dental patients awaiting surgeries — including a 15-year-old — and sexually assaulting them as they lay unconscious in 2009.
The cases are pending in Fulton County State Court. The law requires lawsuits to be filed in the county where the defendant has its corporate office.
Paul Patrick Serdula, who was sentenced to life plus 25 years, also videotaped his assaults on the patients. His crimes were uncovered after a woman visiting the dental office found his cellphone affixed to the underside of the bathroom sink. The lens of the cellphone camera was trained upon the commode.
Investigators then discovered video of Serdula sexually assaulting dental patients. He was arrested Nov. 18, 2009, was found guilty on 34 charges during a bench trial April 11, 2011.
The parents of the teenager and another adult patient filed lawsuits against Goldstein, Garber & Salama LLC, the Marietta dental practice that performed the surgeries and hired Serdula to administer the anesthesia.
Police found images of Serdula touching and sexually assaulting unconscious women at a Cobb hospital, where he also worked. He also secretly videotaped seven women in a bathroom in his Marietta home.
During his trial, prosecutors called Serdula a serial pervert who assaulted 19 patients, including one during childbirth.
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