"They Didn't Tell Anybody".

Probably one of the most chilling pieces of text that I have ever read regarding real-life Rockland County, New York events, is the opening statement of plaintiff-side personal injury lawyer Evan Torgan, Esq. in the case of Jones and Jones v. Daniel Evan (Dan) Spitzer, M.D. et al., Index # 31649/2011 (Sup. Ct. Rockland Co. 2011). That's defendant Dan Spitzer's photograph above, apparently taken back in the days when he was still a practicing neurosurgeon. And yes, he is indeed the same Dan Spitzer that caused a heap of trouble in Piermont this year, due to the lax manner in which he enabled and indeed supported overdevelopment to be engendered by an ill-conceived "CBM Zone". The same guy - Eliot Spitzer's brother:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/commissioner-schuetz-tear-down-this.html

Jones v. Spitzer et al. was a heavily-publicized medical malpractice case wherein a kind and hard-working innocent lady with a family was permanently paralyzed as a result of spinal surgery worked by, inter alia, the same Dan Spitzer. Mrs. Jones died some time thereafter. Although later reduced by further proceedings, the initial jury verdict came in for the Jones plaintiffs at Fifty-Six Million Dollars (US$56,000,000) - reported to be one of the 100 highest personal injury verdicts in the United States during the 2019 calendar year when rendered:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/top-100-medical-malpractice-verdicts-in.html

Piermont's Dan Spitzer was a neurosurgeon. No more, though. In the Jones v. Spitzer case, Dan Spitzer worked with a younger neurosurgeon who was not even board-certified at the time. When testifying at the trial, Dan Spitzer actually indicated under oath repeatedly that he had no memory of the case, and therefore could only speak to what usual custom and practice was.

It is difficult to read the material from this Jones v. Spitzer case. Yet Piermont residents have a current right to know whether former neurosurgeon Dan Spitzer is trustworthy. You see, until Dan Spitzer quit his government post in disgrace this past April, 2024, Dan Spitzer used to serve as Chair of the Village of Piermont Planning Board. Apparently Dan Spitzer needed something to bide his time once he "retired" from medical practice, so he glommed on to Piermont Village government. The residents of Piermont got really unlucky as a result.

Until recently, we thought that we were finished with Dan Spitzer. Done. Yet Dan Spitzer re-emerged a few days ago like Glenn Close's character in the film "Fatal Attraction". On October 10, 2024, documents were submitted to the Rockland County Department of Planning, in which former neurosurgeon Dan Spitzer, by virtue of his printed name as "Responsible Officer in Lead Agency", appears to have certified and attested that the "CBM Zone" proposed by Piermont Mayor Bruce Tucker and others in Piermont government would have no significant adverse environmental impact on the small Village. While the signature on the signature-line intended for Dan Spitzer is near-indecipherable in a manner consistent with the way in which doctors scrawl, let's assume for the time being anyway that Mayor Bruce Tucker did not forge a scrawl on and over Spitzer's signature-line and then fraudulently submit the document pretending to be Spitzer. (If Tucker did, that would be a very different case):

Mayor Bruce Tucker separately attested and certified to equivalent effect regarding environmental non-impact. Yet both sets of attestations and certifications, as indicated by the plain meaning of the writing above, were lies bearing Spitzer's and Tucker's imprimatur, when made and when filed. They remain, reading as on-record lies by Spitzer and Tucker now:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/commissioner-schuetz-tear-down-this.html

Again, did Tucker forge a scrawled signature on Spitzer's signature-line pretending to be Spitzer? Did Tucker cause the "re-submission" of this Spitzer attestation and certification without Spitzer's knowledge or consent? Does Tucker hate Spitzer enough to do that to Spitzer? 

After all, it is difficult to fathom why a neurosurgeon would cause a rank falsehood in a subscribed-to writing to be submitted to a government agency. We all know that such a writing would be FOIL-able - and besides, what about the underlying obvious ethical-compass question to begin with? Isn't there a Commandment on point - or at least an ordinance? Even if the Hippocratic oath does not specifically say, "Doctor, thou shalt not file false instruments with the Rockland County Department of Planning after you retire", doesn't Kohlberg's theory of moral development tell us that presumptively intelligent people tend to dwell on higher moral ground?:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Kohlberg%27s_stages_of_moral_development

Well, don't tell Kohlberg. But sometimes theories get disproven. And maybe sometimes we shouldn't presume so much.

See below. In Jones and Jones v. Daniel Evan (Dan) Spitzer, M.D. et al., we learn that Dan Spitzer participated in a spinal surgery that left an innocent woman permanently paralyzed. Yet the focal moral issue here isn't hand-to-eye coordination. The focal moral issue here is why Dan Spitzer and his surgical cronies didn't tell anybody after the surgical injury happened, until after it was too late for Mrs. Jones to ever walk again. According to plaintiff counsel Evan Torgan, Esq., the motility and quality of life of Mrs. Jones could have been saved, yet it was really the cover-up that did her in and left her permanently paralyzed. That's outrageous. The transcripts comprise one of the most infuriating inculpations of supposed professionals that one would ever want to read, particularly of surgeons and a medical practice that operated so close to home. 

Dan Spitzer former neurosurgeon, is Dan Spitzer recently-departed former Piermont Planning Board Chair. 

Now, the mendacious October 10, 2024 Piermont village government "Referral" packet, and the two false instruments contained within it bearing Dan Spitzer's imprimatur, make total sense. What Dan Spitzer was then, he remains now:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/commissioner-schuetz-tear-down-this.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/my-referral-goes-to-district-attorney.html
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/unhand-piermont-to-new-york-state.html

Do you agree with plaintiff counsel to the Jones couple, Evan Torgan, Esq., regarding the concerted group suppression and concealment of the harm perpetrated to Mrs. Jones by the self-same surgical team? Well, in 2019, one Rockland County jury did agree with Attorney Torgan - 56 million dollars worth. Torgan's full opening statement in the Jones v. Spitzer medical malpractice litigation is here:
https://unhandpiermont.blogspot.com/2024/10/jones-v-dan-spitzer-plaintiff-opening.html

Yet I realize, that is a lengthy document to read, not to mention extremely difficult emotionally, even for the most emotionally-resilient of us. So, the first key excerpt from Attorney Torgan's opening statement, in relevant part, is printed below. More will follow:

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48-49
Jones and Jones v. Daniel Evan (Dan) Spitzer, M.D. et al. - Plaintiff Opening Statement

"… Their own employee at their own neuro-surgical group - she was doing the monitoring. And she was in the room near the anesthesiologist, near Dr. Jones, near Dr. Spitzer when the [motor-]evoked Potentials went down.

… but the keys in our case are the... motor[-]evoked potentials, because right when the… laminas were removed… the motor[-]evoked potentials crashed. They went down. Out of 100%, they dropped 90%.

And for the whole duration of the procedure… the [motor-evoked potentials] never came back.  One came back 50%.  One only came back to 80%, which is really bad. Coming back to only half is bad. One never came back. So these doctors and Dr. Spitzer knew it, because he was in the room.

They knew that [the patient, Patricia Jones] lost motor[-]evoked potentials. And they knew that something happened to Patricia Jones's spinal cord. And when I tell you they didn't tell anybody,  that is true.  I mean they may have told their wives or children. They didn't tell anybody in the hospital. They didn't tell anybody." [Bold-face emphasis added].

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Source: Jones and Jones v. Daniel Evan (Dan) Spitzer, M.D. et al., Index # 31649/2011 (Sup. Ct. Rockland Co. 2011): Plaintiff Opening Statement by Evan Torgan, Esq., attorney for plaintiffs Patricia (Patty) Jones and John (Jack) Jones, at pages 48-49.