Richard Worthington now blames his ex-wife, Karen Worthington, for the siege at Alta View, insisting that she encouraged him to blow up the hospital.
However, Karen Worthington says Richard Worthington is lying to strike out at her because she plans to remarry. Worthington is engaged to marry Ronald Lee Brown. Media have reported that the couple will be married May 22 in the Jordan River Temple. However, Worthington refused to confirm the date.In a statement sworn before a notary public May 1, Richard Worthington said, "On Sept. 20, 1991, Karen Worthington suggested to me that I kill myself and Dr. Curtis to `get this all over with' `or if you want, just blow up the whole damn hospital.' "
The statement, along with hundreds of pages of excerpts from the depositions of Karen Worthington and others, was filed in 3rd District Court Friday. Karen Worthington is seeking to have those and all other depositions taken in the case sealed.
The depositions were filed in support of a memorandum that also blames Karen Worthington for the Alta View siege that left nurse Karla Roth dead.
Karen Worthington gave her former husband the idea to storm Alta View Hospital and knowingly pushed him over the edge the night he did, according to a brief filed by an attorney for David Roth, Karla Roth's widower.
"Karen Worthington played a key role in furthering and exacerbating her husband's warped anger toward Dr. (Glade) Curtis and Alta View Hospital," according to the brief. On the night of the siege, "she quite knowingly pushed him over the edge and literally handed him the means and idea for his night of terror and murder at the hospital."
"That's not true," Karen Worthington said when contacted at her home. "I was a very loving, kind and sweet wife." Roth made the allegations because the only way he could hold her civilly liable for what happened is to suggest the whole thing was her fault, she said.
She has asked 3rd District Judge Kenneth Rigtrup to dismiss Roth's suit against her because she contends she was not responsible for the siege and did not have a legal duty under Utah law to warn Alta View Hospital.
Roth argued otherwise in his brief.
Karen Worthington also challenged the sworn statement of her ex-husband. She did not encourage him to kill himself or anyone else, she said. "What he is saying is an absolute, outright lie. I fought for 21/2 years - since Rick turned suicidal - to keep him alive. I didn't want my children to think their father would ever do that to them (commit suicide.) Rick is mad because I am getting married. This is the only way he knows to strike out against me."
Richard Worthington learned of the pending marriage through the couple's children, she said.
"I would swear on a stack of Bibles that Rick is just doing this to be hurtful. I just got two letters from him today, and I'm not even going to open them. He says he still loves me, then he turns around and does this."
According to Roth's brief, Worthington knew her husband was becoming increasingly violent in the weeks before the standoff. He tried to commit suicide at least twice and threatened to kill himself and Karen on at least two occasions.
As Richard Worthington's hostility continued, Karen Worthington took out a $700,000 life insurance policy on her husband and opened a secret bank account, according to the brief.
Karen Worthington "repeatedly made secret transfers to it from Richard's business account totaling several thousand dollars," the brief says.
On the night of the standoff, Karen Worthington went to a neighbor's home to get Richard's guns. While there, she made a telephone transfer of $700 from Richard Worthington's business account to her secret account, according to the brief.
In the two years after undergoing a tubal ligation, Karen Worthington had placated her husband by agreeing that the procedure was a mistake and should never have taken place, although she did not really believe that, the brief says. "By so doing, she deceived and misled him, deflecting his anger away from herself and focusing his misplaced hatred at Dr. Curtis," the brief says.
In the week before the standoff, Worthington and her ex-husband argued repeatedly and for many hours over the medical procedure performed by Curtis.
Alarmed by her husband's rage, Worthington called the hospital twice to talk to Curtis. However, she did not talk to him either time or leave a message, the brief says.
Based on Karen Worthington's admissions in her depositions, it is clear she gave her husband his guns, "taunted him to kill Dr. Curtis and blow up Alta View Hospital and knew that he intended to do exactly what she had suggested," the brief says.
Despite her knowledge of her husband's plan, Worthington "purposefully delayed taking any action or making any telephone calls for approximately 25 minutes after her husband left home the night of September 20," according to the brief.
Oral arguments in the matter are scheduled for May 18.
Karen Worthington has sought to have all depositions in the case sealed. However, area media oppose her in the move. A hearing on the matter has not yet been scheduled.