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Doctor admits affair with 'Black Madam'

Gastroenterologist James Taterka said that it was in 1993, and that afterward Padge Victoria Windslowe threatened him.

Padge Victoria Windslowe, who calls herself "the Black Madam."
Padge Victoria Windslowe, who calls herself "the Black Madam."Read more

IMAGINE BEING a respectable doctor, married with children, and having to tell your wife that you cheated on her.

Then imagine that you had to tell her because the person you had an affair with was the now-infamous butt-injector Padge Victoria Windslowe, a/k/a "Black Madam," who was arrested for murder in the February 2011 death of a woman she injected in the butt with silicone.

Now, imagine having to tell all of this to a Philadelphia Common Pleas courtroom full of strangers. And, while you are on the stand, the defense lawyer basically reveals to the jury that Windslowe, 45, used to be a man.

Surely, it wasn't a good day for Dr. James Taterka, 55, a gastroenterologist in Flourtown, Montgomery County.

Under questioning yesterday by Assistant District Attorney Carlos Vega in Windslowe's third-degree-murder and aggravated-assault trial, Taterka said that he had a three-month affair with Windslowe in 1993.

He broke it off because he felt guilty cheating on his wife. But over the years, Windslowe contacted him for money, from about $2,000 to $10,000, and in one case to co-sign for a used Lexus, he said. A few times, they had sex.

He said he responded to her because he was anxious and "didn't want this whole thing to get out of hand. I didn't want her to do something crazy like she did when I first broke off the affair."

The first time, he said, "besides calling my house and my wife repeatedly, she mailed a package to my house." Inside were a naked photo of Taterka taken by Windslowe and a letter to Taterka's wife, who saw the contents.

Taterka was brought into the police investigation of Windslowe after the Feb. 8, 2011, death of Claudia Aderotimi, 20, whom Windslowe had injected with silicone in her butt at a hotel near Philadelphia International Airport. Prosecutors contend that Windslowe used unsafe, industrial-grade silicone in her injections.

They contend she bought liquid silicone, lied that it was being purchased by Taterka's medical practice, Hillmont G.I., and had it sent to a Narberth apartment on Montgomery Avenue.

Taterka said he never ordered the silicone, and never showed Windslowe how to use a syringe.

Sometime after Aderotimi's death, Taterka said, Windslowe called him at his office and asked for $5,000. This time, he thought, "Enough is enough," and he told her, "Please leave me alone."

But then Windslowe began to text him with threats, Taterka said. "She claimed to have an embarrassing video of me," which she threatened to post on YouTube and then on his son's Facebook page, he said. To stop the threats, he said, he deposited money into her bank account.

Then, Windslowe asked him for $17,000, but he didn't respond, he said. This time, he said, she posted his photo on BuzzFeed.com with "Bad Doctor" in large letters, and a note saying: "The Philadelphia community will be shocked when it learns" that Taterka had been "loved by the Black Madam."

Taterka said he then used the website Reputation.com to put up positive postings of himself.

Windslowe is a transgender singer who has performed under the name "Black Madam."

Her lawyer, David Rudenstein, asked Taterka if he had reasons to want his affair with Windslowe kept "on the down-low."

"Yes," Taterka said.

In the end, Taterka, who said he'd been humiliated and embarrassed, basically said he found the affair troubling because "an affair's an affair. I was cheating on my wife and I didn't want her to know about it."