Pandemic delayed service of lawsuit against doctor, judge finds

Julie Manganis, The Salem News, Beverly, Mass.
·3 min read

Apr. 2—PEABODY — A Lawrence Superior Court judge on Thursday will allow a former patient's lawsuit to proceed against a Peabody neurologist who was convicted of sexually assaulting her during an office visit.

Lawyers for Dr. Walter Levitsky and Beth Israel Lahey had asked Judge C. William Barrett to dismiss the case on the grounds that they were not served with the civil suit until months after it was filed — a circumstance the patient's lawyer said was in significant part due to the pandemic.

Levitsky, 88, was found guilty of indecent assault and battery in 2019, following a jury trial in Peabody District Court. He was sentenced to serve nine months of a 2 1/2 year jail sentence and was released from Middleton Jail in July.

The patient, a paralegal in her 40s, was being treated by Levitsky for substance abuse with a monthly shot of the drug Vivitrol. During an office visit in March 2017, Levitsky, a neurologist by training, told her to show him her breasts in the guise of checking her weight. He then fondled her breasts and commented on their appearance.

The incident left the woman badly shaken, she testified.

At the time the woman, who had been referred to Levitsky by Beth Israel Lahey, did not know he had been accused of similar behavior in the 1980s and early 1990s, pleaded guilty to reduced charges under an agreement and had been suspended from practicing medicine for a number of years after.

By the time the criminal proceedings concluded, the three-year statute of limitations for a civil lawsuit was just a few months away. The woman filed her civil suit in February.

Then the pandemic took hold. Her attorney, David Angueira, said in court filings that he was prevented from serving Levitsky with the lawsuit due to COVID-19 restrictions set up by the Middleton Jail. He also said he intended to serve Beth Israel Lahey after serving Levitsky.

Angueira was allowed additional time to serve Levitsky. However, he then learned that Levitsky was released from custody in July; he said in court papers that the jail could not provide information on where Levitsky went to live.

The cases against both Levitsky and Beth Israel Lahey, as well as Levitsky's former medical practice, were dismissed based on a lack of service to the defendants.

Anguiera told the court that it took several additional months to locate Levitsky, now living in Center Ossipee, New Hampshire, and that he had to hire a private investigator to do so.

In court filings, the hospital's lawyer included copies of Salem News articles about the case referencing the doctor's vacation homes there and in Sarasota, Florida, and suggested that a simple Google search would have turned up information on where Levitsky was living.

It was only after he served Levitsky that he then served the hospital — something the hospital's attorney argued Thursday was based on "no good reason."

The hospital's attorney, Natalia Pena, said there was no excuse for not serving the lawsuit on Beth Israel Lahey immediately after filing it and argued that Angueira had also failed to ask for an extension.

Both Pena and Levitsky's lawyer, William Rose, asked the judge to dismiss the case on the grounds that the statute of limitations had run out.

The judge found otherwise, indirectly referring to the pandemic.

"I do find that there are circumstances surrounding this case that satisfy the court in terms of excusable neglect," said Barrett.

Courts reporter Julie Manganis can be reached at 978-338-2521, by email at jmanganis@salemnews.com or on Twitter at @SNJulieManganis.

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