Doc Charged With Obstruction Allegedly Kept Bullet from Suspect's Surgery
A Florida surgeon who wanted a souvenir from surgery to remove two bullets from a suspect in a homicide case allegedly palmed the one slug he was able to extract instead of turning it over to law enforcement agents waiting near the operating room to collect it.
So now Dr. David J. Ciesla, a highly regarded physician who is medical director of the trauma center at Tampa General Hospital, is facing a criminal case, too. He was charged earlier this week with providing false information to law enforcement during an investigation and obstructing or opposing an officer without violence, reports the St. Petersburg Times. Both charges are misdemeanors.
Ciesla, 42, allegedly told law enforcement agents after the surgery that the two slugs couldn’t be recovered, the newspaper recounts. However, a week later he reportedly turned over the one bullet he removed from the patient after another doctor told hospital supervisors about the claimed bullet caper during the April surgery.
Ciesla declined to comment, and the lawyer who is defending him could not be reached by the newspaper.
