For over five years I have been targeted, stalked, harassed and persecuted by AIDS activists.

The first two complaints against me were complete fabrications. After more than four years, these two cases against me were dropped the first time the activists appeared before a judge. Naturally, this cost me and my family considerable time, money and effort.

In the fall of 1994, the activists started the present case. In the depostitions of this case, it has been stated that my accuser was actively recruited by AIDS activists and that she told at least one person that one reason she agreed was a new car. The worst they have been able to say about me in the present case is that I would be happy to treat her in a controlled environment, and it was determined by her attorneys that would cost an extra $150. Personally, I do not think this is unreasonable and, in any event, the Patients’ Association for Randon Bragdon, D.M.D. Inc. has agreed to pay for any extra costs involved that insurance or Medicaid does not cover.

I am confident that we will ultimately win this case and be vindicated. However, it will probably be several more years of moving through the mazes, quagmires and pitfalls of the judicial system before my constitutional right to a trial by jury will be realized. One who has never been through such an ordeal cannot imagine what a formidable and frustrating process this is.

The Maine Human Rights Commission gave me only 10 minutes to defend myself and never looked at one word of my scientific documentation in five archive boxes standing over 4 feet tall!

Many thousands of pages of depositions, briefs, motions, scientific papers and other documentation have accumulated. Here are some examples of the mind-boggling irrelevance I have had to endure. Janet Reno’s Justice Department has asked me on deposition: 1) Do I go swimming in the ocean? 2) What kind of gun do I hunt deer with? 3) Do I hike alone in the woods? The Maine Human Rights Commission maintains that requiring wheelchair lifts on buses in South Portland has a direct bearing on this case.

Pardon my sarcasm, but the MHRC et al. maintains that a dentist cannot treat a healthy non-infectious patient one whit different than a terminal, full-blown AIDS patient (which the first two fabricated complaints involved). Applying the “treat everyone alike” principle to the South Portland city buses would mean that all passengers would have to enter and leave the bus in a wheelchair by means of the wheelchair lift. Thus, wheelchair-bound passengers would be spared the mental anguish of perceiving themselves put on and off the bus differently from others. Though bizarre, this is not far-fetched. Last summer, the Ottawa Human Rights Commission fined a dentist $8,000 for mental anguish caused by wearing a disposable gown while treating an HIV patient for 2 1/2 hours.

At this point in the case, the judge has ruled against me in summary judgment. Naturally, I was disappointed as I have a much higher opinion of the judge’s intellectual abilities than this decision reflects. Essentially, the judge ruled that he did not need to consider anything except the affidavit of a single public health official, Dr. Donald Marianos. This CDC official does not know how Kimberly Bergalis and five other patients were infected in Dr. David Acer’s Florida dental office. But Dr. Donald Marianos does not think that a dentist needs to do anything different than Dr. Acer did. Also, he does not know how an Australian dermatologist cross-infected four patients with HIV in a single day from a HIV-infected patient he treated earlier that day. He readily acknowledges that the dermatologist and Dr. Acer used universal precautions.

Why do I fight this fight? Honor and integrity cannot and will not let me betray the trust put in me by my 8,000-plus patients, staff, family and the next generation. Over the years I know that I have saved lives by using different protocols and modalities when indicated by my professional judgment. For example, as a project electro-optical engineer, I built the first Raman spectrometer to use a nitrogen laser and to use a doubled argon laser for the Army. The purpose of the instrument was to get never-before-obtained Raman spectra of chemical and biological warfare agents and plastic explosives. The instrument was delivered to Edgewood Arsenal, the Army’s chemical warfare center.

The technician I was training to use the spectrometer was filling the second or third specimen cell with a warfare agent for which a 1-micron drop on intact skin was lethal. He was wearing fresh latex gloves. There was a slight spill and almost instantly the chemical agent wicked through a hole in the glove to an area of about 1 1/2-inches in diameter. He turned white and I probably turned white, too.

If he had not been double gloved or the second glove had had a slight pinhole, he would have been dead! Yes, I know it pays off big time to take extra precautions.

We are becoming a nation held hostage by petty tyrants. If Judge Brody determines that our state and federal governments have become so tyrannical and oppressive that it is now a high crime to be a responsible, caring dentist willing to treat HIV patients in a controlled environment and to help establish state-of-the-art dedicated facilities, then I shall willingly hand him the keys to my home and office, pack my bag and check in at whatever jail or prison that he and this government-run-amok designate. But, I will never betray the thousands that depend on my integrity and professional judgment!

The AIDS activists are disappointed with their limited success against me in the last five years. They have asked the judge to force me to turn my office into a recruiting station for them. Therefore, I am posting the following:

“I have not knowingly or unnecessarily offended or discriminated against anyone. Nor is it my policy to do so. However, if anyone should feel that I have discriminated against them or broken any laws, you may get help, assistance and advice by contacting a lawyer or calling or writing: Maine Human Rights Commission, 51 State House Station, Augusta 04333-0051, (207) 624-6051.

“Please clip and save this notice. A copy will be posted in my office and copies will be available at the receptionist’s desk.”

Randon Bragdon is a dentist in Bangor.