`ANGEL' CASE TO STAY LOCAL.

Byline: Donna Huffaker Staff Writer

BURBANK - A judge denied a change of venue request Friday for the civil case against the so-called ``Angel of Death,'' the former respiratory therapist who confessed to killing up to 50 seriously ill patients, but later recanted.

Meanwhile, as the nearly two-year-old Glendale police investigation into the confession trudges along, the man who brought the suit against Efren Saldivar and Glendale Adventist Medical Center said the lengthy, tight-lipped investigation is frustrating for the family. Saldivar has not been charged with any crime.

``There's a sense of unfairness in my mind,'' said 73-year-old Nibs Waters, the stepson of John N. Schwartz, a 91-year-old Los Feliz man who died suspiciously at Glendale Adventist in 1993.

``I would like to be privy to the investigation - good or bad. We want to get at the truth and find out what happened and why. That's why we filed the lawsuit,'' he said.

Because Saldivar's confession, which he recanted on national TV, snared a glut of local media coverage, defense attorney Terry Goldberg asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Carl West Friday to move the case to San Francisco.

``There has been so much publicity in the Glendale community and such an impact upon the people who were treated at Glendale Adventist Medical Center that we felt it was impossible to obtain an impartial jury,'' Goldberg said.

West disagreed, saying he feels it is possible to seat an impartial jury.

Attorney Christopher Nicoll filed the lawsuit on behalf of the Schwartz family last March. The suit alleges negligent infliction of emotional distress.

David O'Keefe, attorney for Glendale Adventist, said he was glad to see the case stay in Burbank - even though he doesn't believe it holds any merit.

``I don't think Saldivar had anything to do with this patient,'' O'Keefe said, adding Schwartz suffered a blod clot to the brain after he fractured his hip.

The suit alleges the last time medical personnel checked on Schwartz, who had Alzheimer's disease, on May 31, 1993, Schwartz was in stable condition with his wrists restrained to the bed to prevent him from falling.

Thirty minutes later Schwartz was untied and on the floor, Nicoll said. He died 15 minutes later.

``There are no facts in the (complaint) that my client did anything wrong,'' Goldberg wsaid, adding that Saldivar suffers from depression and has been ``very distraught'' over the whole chain of events.

Saldivar, of Tujunga, told Glendale police in March 1998 that he considered himself an ``Angel of Death'' and euthanized up to 50 terminally ill patients. According to court documents, the respiratory therapist told police he injected patients with lethal doses of muscle paralyzing drugs or suffocated them.