A noted marine biologist has been barred from seeing his wife, who was taken to a D.C. hospital after being found in a semiconscious state and apparently badly beaten in the couple’s Kalorama apartment.
David Guggenheim, who has billed himself as “the Ocean Doctor” in appearances on “60 Minutes” and elsewhere, says he is the victim of a Kafkaesque misunderstanding that has led police to suspect he assaulted his wife, Svetlana. D.C. police have refused to comment, citing “an ongoing investigation.”
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No one has been charged, but the case is now before a local grand jury, Guggenheim said.
And a related drama is unfolding in federal civil court, where Guggenheim says he is trying to regain his right to care for his wife, and the police have countered that they are acting to protect the victim of a potential violent crime.
Guggenheim, 53, hasn’t seen his wife of 18 years since April 19.
“It’s inhumane. They’ve kept us apart during the most critical time that we need to be together,” he said.
A federal judge on Friday denied Guggenheim’s emergency motion to see Svetlana, 46, after city attorneys revealed notes from a hospital nurse saying Svetlana implicated her husband.
Guggenheim said the notes must be a fabrication or misunderstanding because Svetlana was unable to communicate at the time.
According to Guggenheim, he returned home early from a visit to Philadelphia on April 7 after being unable to reach his wife for nearly two days. He said he found Svetlana semiconscious on the bedroom floor, with a black eye and suffering from convulsions.
“There was a lot of dried blood in the hallway,” he said. “It was horrible.”
He called 911 and told the dispatchers it might have been an overdose or a seizure, which she had suffered before, he said.
At the Washington Hospital Center, emergency room staff told him her wounds appeared to be from an assault.
He called 911 again, asking police to investigate, but said he was rebuffed. Only after a third 911 call did police agreed to investigate, Guggenheim said.
On April 19, detectives sat down with Guggenheim at the hospital cafeteria and informed him that his wife could no longer have visitors. They cited a need to protect her and keep her testimony untainted, Guggenheim said.
“It’s painful and frustrating and maddening,” he said. “I feel betrayed by the very police that I worked so hard to get involved in the case.”
D.C. police on Friday agreed to allow Svetlana’s 25-year-old daughter, Anna Pavlichenko, to visit her mother on Mother’s Day.
At that meeting, Svetlana, still unable to speak, wrote her daughter a note saying Guggenheim was not the assailant and naming another individual, according to Guggenheim. Pavlichenko gave the note to prosecutors and told a grand jury Monday about her mother’s revelation.
