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Judge orders arrest warrant for doctor

Bond was set at $500,000 after A. Hussam Armashi again failed to appear in court. His lawyers say he's in Syria.

By MICHAEL KRUSE
Published August 6, 2005

BROOKSVILLE - A month after being ordered to appear at his next pretrial conference, Spring Hill doctor A. Hussam Armashi again failed to show up inside Circuit Judge Jack Springstead's courtroom on Friday.

Armashi's lawyers, Jimmy Brown of Brooksville and Jackson Brownlee of Orlando, said that their client was in Damascus, Syria, where he's from, to care for his ill mother, and argued that precedent dictated that he did not need to be present for the proceedings.

Springstead listened from the bench, then issued a warrant for Armashi's arrest - and set bond at a half-million dollars.

"That's about as high a bond as I can recall in recent memory for our area by a factor of about five," said Brown, who has been practicing here for 29 years.

Armashi, 58, was arrested in February after being accused of injecting a female patient with a powerful cocktail of medications and trying to sexually assault her at his practice, Active Pain Control Center at 12228 Cortez Blvd.

It was the fourth time the doctor has been accused of assaulting a patient. Three allegations of a similar nature date back to 2000.

The Florida Department of Health has suspended his license.

Armashi's case was called at 10:02 Friday morning.

Brown and Brownlee got up.

They said their client was in Damascus and told Springstead there are 8,000 pages of discovery material that need to be read.

They cited five cases from 1979 up until earlier this year in which the defendant did not have to be present through the pretrial process.

"There is no particular reason for Dr. Armashi to be present this morning," Brown said. "There's not a compelling reason or a particular reason."

The state disagreed.

"We strenuously object to his nonpresence," prosecutor Bill Catto told Springstead.

He mentioned the fact that Armashi is no longer allowed to practice in this country.

He mentioned "ties to Syria" without elaborating.

He said something about his house here being up for sale.

And he cited the previous accusations.

Two of the three women who made the prior allegations opted for civil suits over criminal prosecution. The third accused Armashi of rape. But the testimony she gave in the criminal case conflicted with what she had said during mediation for the civil suit, and the case was dropped.

"There's good reason," Catto said Friday, "for the court to want to see his face."

Armashi has denied everything.

Springstead had ordered him to be on hand for a pretrial hearing on July 8. He didn't show for that one, either, and the judge said then that Armashi "must be present at the next hearing and future hearings." On Friday, then, he said from the bench: "I'll note that he has failed to appear for a second time.

"There was, in fact, a purpose for having him appear," he said. "To allay the fears and concerns of the court that he has absconded."

Then he issued the warrant and set the new bond.

No new pretrail date was set.

Brown said Springstead wants to see Armashi within the week. The lawyer said he did not know whether that was feasible.

"We're going to be in contact with Dr. Armashi," Brown said outside the courtroom, "and advise him what happened and what his options are."

One thing's for sure.

"We obviously will make an appeal," Brownlee said. "The case law clearly says that you have to have good cause" to make someone appear through the standard pretrial process.

Brown and Brownlee are going to file a writ of mandamus, they said, with the 5th District Court of Appeal in Daytona Beach "to make the lower court do what the law requires," Brown said.

Information from Times files was used in this report. Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or 352 848-1434.

[Last modified August 6, 2005, 01:36:22]