A University of Maryland Medical Center security guard was acquitted Tuesday of assaulting a Muslim doctor who was washing his feet in the hospital?s bathroom sink as part of a religious ritual.
Baltimore City Circuit Judge Lynn Stewart found guard Rodney Corban not guilty of a second-degree assault charge filed by Dr. Mohammed Hussain, 61, a Waldorf radiologist, who accused the guard of manhandling and humiliating him before his scheduled outpatient surgery for tongue cancer.
After winning acquittal, Corban hugged fellow security guards as his eyes welled up with tears. He declined to comment on the verdict.
Corban?s defense attorney, Kenneth Ravenell, said the guard never manhandled him, but gently led him out of a bathroom at the hospital frequented by drug addicts and the homeless.
“The only person who thinks this was about race is Mr. Hussein,” Ravenell told the judge.
During the trial, Hussain said he was discriminated against while he was performing a Muslim purification ritual.
“Muslims are always treated as outlaws,” he said.
Hussain, who filed a $30 million lawsuit against the hospital in April after the March 22 incident, pressed the criminal charge against Corban in May.
During the one-day trial, Ravenell questioned why Hussein waited nearly two months to press a criminal charge when he filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit first.
“This is a person who is seeking $30 million from the hospital and he creates this story,” Ravenell said.
Hussain, who is Indian-American, blamed bias for the verdict, saying the judge did a favor for an attorney.
“It was a black judge, a black lawyer and a black defendant,” Hussain said. “They manipulated the system. I?m a physician. It?s not my business to lie.”
