PROVO — For news stories in 1995 and 1996 about Orem doctor Michael H. Jensen, former KTVX Channel 4 reporter Mary Sawyers won two awards for investigative reporting — one from the Society of Professional Journalists and one from a national medical organization.
Friday, Jensen won an award of his own — a $2.2 million verdict from a Utah County jury that said the stories defamed the former family practitioner and cast him in a false light. The jury also found that Sawyers and United Television, owners of KTVX, violated Jensen's privacy when Sawyers posed as a patient and took a hidden camera into an examination room of Jensen's clinic in July 1995.
The jury award might increase next week when the jury considers punitive damages. Friday's award was actual compensatory damages for economic harm the stories caused Jensen who lost his job and said he suffered social ridicule after the stories aired alleging he violated laws and regulations when he prescribed the diet drug Fen-Phen to Sawyers.
"I socially isolated myself as a result of this," Jensen said.
The verdict came after a monthlong trial where evidence was presented challenging the conduct of Jensen, Sawyers and the news directors of the television station. Robert M. Anderson, attorney for Sawyers and the station, told jurors in closing arguments that the three stories were true, balanced and well-researched.
"We did a good story, and we stand behind that story," Anderson said.
The station decided to do a story on Jensen after former assistant news director Jeff Roth said he witnessed the doctor prescribing Fen-Phen at a Fourth of July party to the party host. Sawyers called Jensen on the telephone a few days after the party and tried to get him to prescribe diet pills to her over the phone, but the doctor refused and asked her to come to his clinic.
Sawyers went to the clinic armed with a hidden camera in a day planner. In the examination room, Jensen discusses
diet pills with Sawyers and prescribes Fen-Phen, saying he "maybe" would be willing to prescribe Dexedrine if Fen-Phen didn't work. Dexedrine cannot legally be prescribed as a diet medication.
Sawyers took the hidden-camera video to state licensing officials who said Jensen's conduct was improper. KTVX then ran a story alleging Jensen failed to follow the law and medical guidelines when he prescribed Fen-Phen to Sawyers without weighing her or giving her a physical. She testified she believed the stories were newsworthy because of Jensen's eagerness to prescribe the diet pills and because of his suggestion of maybe using a false diagnosis to prescribe Dexedrine.
"It seemed to me that he had knowledge that this was illegal, yet he was willing to do it," she said.
After the first story aired, Jensen was fired from the Orem clinic and denied insurance privileges with Intermountain Health Care.
The station ran another story a few months later when state licensing officials filed a disciplinary petition against Jensen. The doctor later agreed to a public reprimand where he admitted violating regulations for prescribing medication. He was ordered to attend education classes, but his license was never revoked or suspended.
A third news story about "questionable doctors," one accused of homicide, one of sexual misconduct and one of disfiguring patients, also included a segment on Jensen where Sawyers said she caught Jensen on camera "promising me illegal drugs."
Former news director John Edwards testified it was his decision to use the hidden camera because he felt it was the only way to discover the true nature of Jensen's practice. He admitted that he did not check on the legality of using the camera and the station had no policy on the use of hidden cameras. Edwards also approved airing the stories because they involved issues he believed were important to public health and safety.
"In our environment, you can't defame someone by telling the truth about them," Edwards said.
Dale Gardiner, Jensen's attorney, acknowledged to jurors that Jensen did prescribe diet pills too freely and was punished for it. However, he said the news stories about Jensen had content that was not truthful — mainly where Sawyers said she caught Jensen "promising" illegal drugs when he actually said "maybe" he'd be willing to prescribe Dexedrine. Jensen also recanted that possibility later and told Sawyers he couldn't prescribe Dexedrine for diet purposes prior to the first story airing, Gardiner said.
Gardiner also pointed out to jurors that in the first story Sawyers said Jensen did not ask her if she had high blood pressure, when the hidden camera video shows Jensen's nurse checking Sawyers' blood pressure. The second story said state officials were "going after" Jensen's license, when they testified at the trial they never intended to seek revocation of his medical license.
Jensen's attorneys also claimed their client was cast in a false light when the station used lead-ins suggesting Jensen passed out "drugs to addicts" and lumped him in with doctors accused of murder, disfiguring and sexually molesting patients in the "questionable doctors" story.
"Where's the fairness in that? Where's the balance in that? Where's the truth in that?" Gardiner asked jurors.
Alf Pratte, a journalism professor at Brigham Young University, testified his opinion was that Sawyers failed to follow "generally accepted standards of professional journalism" and the stories were "mildly sensational" and distorted.
Anderson said the stories were truthful in that they showed Jensen was "predisposed to prescribe diet pills rather carelessly and predisposed to prescribe them without following proper rules and regulations." He said Jensen was a victim of his own conduct and was not damaged by Sawyers or the station.
"They didn't cause his problems. He caused his own problems," Anderson said.
Gardiner, however, urged jurors to find that Sawyers and the station maliciously went after Jensen and "nailed his hide to the wall." He said the station was motivated by ratings and awards.
"That's why they do what they do," he said.
Jensen is now a physician at nursing homes in Salt Lake City, where his attorneys say he makes much less than if he was still a family practitioner and could accept patients covered by IHC insurance plans.
Sawyers left the station in 1998 and moved back East. Attorneys for Sawyers and the station are expected to appeal the verdict.
E-mail: jimr@desnews.com