Family of slain Virtua doctor sues hospital

The TARGET of the grudge that festered inside Dr. Giocondo Navek should have remained nameless, a lawsuit contends.

But when the physician was allegedly shown a written complaint that Dr. Payman Houshmandpour had made about him, he blamed his colleague for his dismissal from the residency program at Virtua Memorial Hospital in Voorhees, the suit alleges. Houshmandpour, who according to the lawsuit didn't want to write the letter in the first place, wanted to pack up his pregnant wife and move far away when he found out that Navek had seen the complaint.

Houshmandpour, 32, didn't move, though, and less than two years later, on April 11, Navek, 39, shot him dead outside his Voorhees apartment before killing himself.

The wrongful-death lawsuit, filed by Houshmandpour's wife, names Virtua, Dr. Mario Maffei and Navek's estate as defendants. The suit alleges that Maffei, the physician in charge of the residency program at the time, asked and later "insisted" that Houshmandpour write a complaint letter detailing a May 20, 2010, incident in which Navek berated and threatened him.

Houshmandpour showed up for his shift at Virtua and attempted to get a patient report from Navek, the suit alleges. Navek, according to the suit, complained that he had been "working his ass off" all night, then cursed at and threatened him.

Houshmandpour was fearful of Navek and didn't want to have anything in writing against him, but he relented and filed the complaint with the understanding that Navek wouldn't be told who made it, the lawsuit alleges. Numerous individuals had complained about Navek, the lawsuit contends, and yet Navek focused all his revenge on Houshmandpour when he was shown the complaint letter a month later, the lawsuit contends.

The lawsuit also claims? that the hospital knew about Navek's issues and had recommended that he seek anger management.

Navek, a South Philly native and captain in the Army Reserve who had a home in Williamstown, murdered his girlfriend, Shawna Givens, in North Carolina, just after Easter before returning to South Jersey to murder Houshmandpour. Navek had a history of erratic behavior. Former colleagues told the Daily News that Houshmanpour was actually nice to Navek when they worked together.

"He was so clearly troubled; it wasn't difficult to see that," ?an instructor of Navek's at Virtua Hospital's Family Medicine Residency Program, said in April.

Attorney's for both sides could not be reached for comment. Virtua said in a statement the "lawsuit is related to a very tragic incident that occurred away from any Virtua campus, carried out by a former employee who had not worked at Virtua for nearly 1 1/2 years" and declined to comment further.