The jury may soon hear from a string of former employees, whose harrowing, low-paid work led them to face criminal charges of their own.
In opening statements, Assistant District Attorney Joanne Pescatore said they were nearly as “desperate” as the women seeking late-term abortions. Three have pleaded guilty to third-degree murder, and potentially face 20 to 40 years in prison.
The two other “doctors” on Gosnell’s staff were medical school graduates without Pennsylvania licenses, one of whom, Steven Massof of Pittsburgh, worked for just a few hundred dollars a week, authorities said.
An** employee giving anesthesia was a sixth-grade dropout, while a 15-year-old high school student helped in the surgical and recovery rooms**, Pescatore said. That girl’s mother also worked at the clinic, and was charged, among other things, with corruption of a minor.
Adrienne Moton has been the only worker to testify so far. Moton, a family friend, had moved in with the Gosnells in high school, then worked at the clinic from 2005 to 2008. She earned $8 to $10 an hour.
But she could make $120 on a busy Saturday, when Gosnell performed what he called “second trimester” cases and gave staff $20 per patient. Prosecutors charge that some of those procedures were illegal, third-term abortions.
Moton, 35, has been in prison since the indictment two years ago, and awaits sentencing for third-degree murder.
“I kept doing whatever I was told,” she told the jury last week.
That included cutting the necks of at least 10 babies after they were born. Gosnell told her it was standard procedure, she said.
