Tampa Attorneys Win Case for Victim of Molestation - awarded $1.5million

Victim of Molestation Awarded $1.5 Million

St. Petersburg Times
Publication Date: 2/13/97
BY: William R. Levesque
DL: New Port Richey


A jury awarded $1.5- million to one of the victims of neurologist Danny Iskandar this week after deciding that he molested the woman during a 1992 office visit.

Iskandar, 54, who is already under house arrest for molesting six patients, neither defended himself nor allowed anyone to defend him during the civil court trial Monday.

Only two people testified at the half-day trial: the victim and her husband. With his assets uncertain and with federal officials trying to deport Iskandar to his native Indonesia, the award may prove elusive for the Hudson woman. “The big day will come if we ever collect anything.” said Mike Trentalange, the Tampa lawyer representing the woman. “This case was not really about the money. It’s about a jury righting a wrong. We feel vindication.”

Trentalange said he would try nonetheless to identify assets that may still be in the possession of Iskandar, who pleaded guilty last year to a felony count of sexual battery and six counts of misdemeanor battery.

Trentalange said he did not know what assets, if any, are in Iskandar’s possession. The woman, who is not identified by the Times because if the nature of the offense, filed suit against Iskandar for assault, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.

She said she visited Iskandar after an automobile accident. During a medical exam, she said Iskandar drugged her and began molesting her. Three additional lawsuits filed by other former patients who said they were molested by Iskandar are pending.

Trentalange said he was under the impression that Iskandar already had been deported. But the state Department of Corrections said he is still under house arrest, which is scheduled to end next year.

If Iskandar is not deported, his house arrest will be followed by five years of probation. Iskandar came to he United States in 1980 on a work visa that had expired long before his 1996 guilty plea. He was licensed to practice medicine in Massachusetts, New Jersey and New York before coming to Florida in 1986. He lives in Palm Harbor. He already has voluntarily relinquished his medical license.


– Information from Times files was used in this report.

SC: Pasco Times
AT: medicine assault lawsuit finish

St. Petersburg Times
Publication date: 11/26/97