Yesterday, I had LASIK surgery done on my other eye. I had a re-check this morning, and so far so good. I found a cute set of (purple) readers, and all is well with the world. If I sit far enough away from the computer, I really don't need them. It's amazing really - going from WAY extreme nearsightedness to needing readers. But hey, I can now see (sans glasses) the needles on the tops of the pine trees. It is so totally cool!
Anyway, in the my very brief abscence, many interesting things have happened the Nifong/Duke fiasco.
First, the judge in the case ordered a paternity test to identify the Father of the accuser's new baby. I loved Ann Coulter's take on that: "Not a trace of DNA from any of the lacrosse players was found on the accuser, though this girl had more DNA (that of five men) in her than a refrigerator at a fertility clinic" .
Then defense attorneys filed a motion to dismiss ( per CNN, "the accuser also said she was no longer certain she had been penetrated vaginally by a penis, a necessary element of rape charges in North Carolina" . . . hear THAT King Dozier?).
Then, in a Sixty Minutes interview, David Evans' Mother issued the following admonition to Nifong: "I would say with a smile on my face, 'Mr. Nifong, you've picked on the wrong families … and you will pay every day for the rest of your life.".
YOU GO GIRL!
Finally (drum roll), Mike Nifong sent a letter to NC Attorney General, Roy Cooper today and asked to be recused from the case. Cooper's "special prosecutions" unit can now take over. The question is, will our chief legal eagle take the case . . . or try to turf it in some fashion?
A report in Sports Illustrated offered the following pearl of wisdom as part of a more expanded analysis: Under North Carolina law, only a district attorney can formally request a special prosecutor. The request can be made when there are potential conflicts of interest, when a case is particularly complex or when there are other unusual circumstances.
Herein lies the basis for my own original entreaty to Randolph County District Attorney, Garland Yates. I am a duly licensed and Board-certified, "home-grown" Pediatrician, formerly in public service who has made serious accusations of perjury, contempt and fraud against very influential local businessmen who run a "non-profit" hospital (whose actions were supposedly overseen by other very influential community leaders). The case is very complex . . . ripe with state-sanctioned bad faith . . . and there are a myriad of unusual circumstances. I have also documented a potential conflict of interest . . . the office's well-demonstrated contempt for a physician who criticized their actions in a case that was too agressively prosecuted and ultimately overturned on appeal.
What we have here is the flip side of the Duke case. Instead of an overzealous prosecutor, we have a (A) vindictive or (B) lazy or (C) cowardly or (D) all-of-the-above local prosecutor who will not pursue (or properly refer) a legitimate criminal accusation made by a reputable physician . . . because the accused are very important people.
That is why I now want to file an affidavit to remove Mr. Yates from office. The Randolph County Clerk of Court's office has yet to get back to me on exactly where and how I can do that.
Here's the thing. Without a second thought, Randolph Hospital administrators, Bob Morrison and Steve wrecked YEARS of study, hard work and personal sacrifice. They destroyed my practice and HUMILIATED me in front of my parents . . . my friends and my neighbors. They did it for all of the WRONG reasons. They did it for no other reason than because they could.
What they did was illegal. And they should be held accountable.
My Father passed away in 2005. But not before standing up in front of the Asheboro City Council and begging them to help his daughter find justice and bring her back home. Instead, the "honorables" on the town Council pretended they hadn't heard any of it, and (a year later) appointed Bob Morrison to plan our future. Never mind how many doctors he drove out of town for the sake of his precious business.
Ethics smethics.
I have a Mother too. She taught in Asheboro for thirty-some years. She's a Deacon at First Baptist Church. In the spring of 2004 she wrote a letter to the Editor of the Randolph Guide (as the Publisher of the Courier Tribune long ago stopped printing any stories or letters that had anything to do with Dr. Mary Johnson). Doing my taxes the other day, I found a copy of the letter carefully preserved in my files. I remember that Daddy made a point of bringing the Guide by the house after the letter was printed and showing it to me. He was almost giddy (and Tom Johnson did not EVER get giddy) . . . bursting with pride . . . both in Mama and in me. It is one of the memories of Pops that most makes me smile.
Here's the text of Mama's letter. The Editor of the Guide styled it, "Good-ole-boys society rapped".
Citizens, rise up for a change.
We love our churches, our schools, our homes, our geographic location in the state. However, if we are to continue to make progress and see new companies come into our area, we desperately nee to eradicate the good-ole-boys-society way of running our city.
Asheboro has grown in population AND diversity of population and business. We are too big to have leadership lead in this manner. Good-old-boys-society members promote and protect each other's personal ego, power trips and greed. They sit on each other's non-governing boards creating all kinds of conflicts of interests and futhrer promoting, protecting and covering up for each other. There is no room here for governing, no checks and balances to keep them and others responsible to the community they are supposed to serve; and no respecting and listening to citizens and employees . . . just circle the wagon and protect themselves.
Asheboro needs a newspaper that represents and serves the community rather than good-ole-boys-society brothers who advertise. What has happened to journalistic integrity and investigative reporting?
Asheboro needs new leaders and officers at Randolph Hospital who are paid like not-for-profit hospitals of like size and who are beyond the good-old-boys-society way of doing business.
Asheboro needs Hospice as it has been and is . . . without any kind of hospital control. It does have a functioning governing board and treats citizens and employees well.*Bob Morrison is now on the Hospice/Center of Living BOD.
Asheboro needs people on hospital boards and other boards that listen to find the truth, to provide checks and balances, and to deomonstrate to the community/potential in-coming businesses that employees and community progress are important.
Asheboro needs its doctors to come and stay and to be ables to police their own via peer review without administrators present and in control.
Asheboro needs doctors on the hospital board who represent the total medical community, and (who do) not just sit to benefit their own practice and specialty.
Asheboro neess a Chamber of Commerce, since it stands against unions, to police its own along with trying to recruit new industry. New industry will prefer strong, fair and cooperative leadership to the good-old-boy-society way of doing business.
Asheboro needs less family physician control. Yes, we do have more different specialty doctors now. Numbers have come and numbers have left. However, certain specialties are not favored for growth. Think obstetrics and gynecology and pediatrics. Historically, small towns in remote locations have been controlled by some family physicians. Asheboro is too big for that. Asheboro couples and parents need more choices. Fine, if they choose family practitioners, but they should be able to make that choice without going out of town.
Asheboro needs a hospital that does recruit doctors and seeds practices . . . say for three years . . . after that time, the doctors should be on their own.
Individual practices cannot and should never have to compete with hosptial-owned and subsidized practices.
Asheboro needs a district attorney and local lawyers to on with seeking justice for the citizens of Asheboro and Randolph County. When you don't and won't refer cases to the SBI, you are denying justice to citizens you are supposed to serve.
Asheboro needs a City Council and city officials to listen to and represent fairly all the citizens of this city.
I could go on but this is enough for you and me to think and act to end the good-old-boys-society way of operating business. I've witnessed this as a citizen of Asheboro for 43 years. It is time for change.
Talk, write, scream now and until we all see real and lasting change . . . we need it, we deserve it and we need to pass on better to our children.
Irene Johnson
Asheboro
Note: Have you visited www.asheboropediatrics.com? As a citizen, you should.
Ray Evans has nothing on Irene Johnson.
Late Saturday Afternoon Update: I've been out with my awesome Mom all morning. I returned home to find that North Carolina's Highest Law & Order officer is now on the case and will take possession of all of the case files next week. A scheduled hearing on February 5th is very much up in the air.
Somehow, I'm not sure the Duke boys can yet breath a sigh of relief. Justice is not exactly swiftly exercised in North Carolina.
In fact, justice is often not exercised at all.
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2 comments:
I took a couple of customers to lunch this week at Jed's in Asheboro. As we were getting up to pay a fellow who seemed vaguely familiar was leaving on crutches.
I said to the proprietor manning the till, "Wasn't that Garland Yates?"
Indeed it was. He was in a car wreck six months ago and is lucky to be alive.
I am not ascribing karmic notions, but you seem not to have known.
Yes, Fec. Thank you (as I noted in my first correspondence with the Clerk's office), I knew.
I do not ascribe karmic notions either.
Mr. Yates had his accident in August . . . and I acknowledged it on this blog . . . and wished him well. From all that I understand about the nature of his accident and the severity of his injuries, he is indeed very lucky to be alive. I am glad he is recovering.
I would expect that, by virtue of the position to which he was elected, Mr. Yates enjoys state benefits (which probably includes medical leave and/or disability), and has not had to worry too much about day-to-day expenses.
With this in mind, I would point out that I brought my criminal allegations against Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin to Mr. Yates' attention THREE YEARS ago. The case should have been immediately referred to the state Attorney General for a proper investigation AND prosecution. Instead Mr. Yates buried it. Since then, his office staff has treated me with complete contempt.
In the meantime, I have continued to make my living on the road as an independent contractor (I wanted to continue working in the area - near my family - but two different physician recruiters told my partner and I that we had been "black-balled" within an approximate hour's radius of Asheboro). I pay for my medical insurance. If I don't work, there is no money coming in.
As you know, I have been on medical leave for over four months. Sinus surgery (to repair a botched job at Randolph), then a hysterctomy, then two separate LASIK procedures (not covered by insurance). I am taking a little extra time off to assist my Mom while she has cataract surgery (God knows my Mama has been there for me), but I do not yet have an assignment lined up, and I worry every night about how I am going to make ends meet.
Unlike Mr. Morrison and Mr. Eblin and the doctors they just handed my practice to . . . I don't have state-subsidized pay or benefits.
This has been the story of my life for nearly nine years. This is what Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin gifted upon me for doing the right thing.
On a very basic human level, I sympathize with Mr. Yates. However, he has a job to do and he has not done it. I have suffered considerably because he has not done it.
He should play fair or he should go. His accident has no bearing on that.
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