The following is the text of a letter to the Presidents (past/present/future) of the North Carolina Medical Board. It is followed by the text of a post first published on February 14th. I had planned to send the letter out last week, but held off . . . as I realized it risked getting lost in the immediate aftershock following the very hard fall of former House Speaker Jim Black.
21 February, 2007
H. Arthur McCulloch, M.D. President
Janelle A. Rhyne, M.D. President Elect
Robert C. Moffatt, M.D. Past-President
North Carolina Medical Board
P.O. Box 20007
Raleigh, N.C. 27619-0007
RE: Request For The NC Medical Board To Refer A Criminal Case To the Attorney General
Drs. MuCullock, Rhyne and Moffatt,
My name is Mary H. Johnson. I am a Board-certified Pediatrician who lives in Asheboro. I was born, raised and educated within an hour’s radius of the town. However I do not work there anymore. Since leaving practice in Asheboro in 1998, I’ve made my living as a Locum Tenens physician . . . covering practices all over this state (and others).
For nine long years, I have been the bastard-stepchild of North Carolina physician public service. In the past, NO ONE at the Medical Board, or in NC Medical Society’s leadership has wanted to publicly acknowledge what happened to me in Asheboro . . . when, in 1998, as a young and naïve physician finishing up a public service obligation, I stood up for the best interests of a patient (specifically a critically-ill newborn being grossly mismanaged by another doctor). I answered the nurses’ call in the middle of the night and did my duty (for a patient that was not even mine). The baby survived . . . by ALL accounts because of my efforts. I reported what happened to hospital peer review.
For my trouble, my life as I knew it . . . the life, hometown practice and good reputation that I had worked very hard to build . . . a practice that (by the terms of state & federal agreements) I was supposed to be able to transition as my own . . . was systematically destroyed/absorbed. Within two weeks of my intervention in the case (and filing the report with peer hospital review), I was fired.
The problems I was dealing with (as Chair of the the hospital's "Peri-natal Committee) and could not just overlook were "embarrassing" to the hospital. And had I been allowed to transtion to private practice, I would have been a competitive threat to the hospital-owned affiliate that fired me.
Knowing I was in the right and (incorrectly) assuming that the state of North Carolina would not condone what Randolph Hospital had done, I fought back. I litigated. It has been a nightmarish nine years . . . a medico-legal quagmire of conflicting jurisdictions and ineffectual, disinterested regulatory agencies. The details of that ordeal are now outlined on my website (www.asheboropediatrics.com) and blog (www.drjshousecalls.blogspot.com).
Those with short attention spans (which, alas, will mean most of you) can view the profile on my blog for the “short version” of what happened. The “long version” is cited in a homepage side-link. I am, quite frankly, tired of spoon-feeding the story to deaf ears.
I have discovered that what the law says does not matter in North Carolina. It is about who has the money and power. I have found that NO ONE really cares about justice or medical/legal ethics as long as their own lives are not inconvenienced or disrupted.
For four years I have been begging the Randolph County District Attorney, Garland Yates, to refer the allegations I’ve made (of perjury, contempt & fraud) against “non-profit” Randolph Hospital executives (Robert Morrison and Steven Eblin) to the State Attorney General’s Office/SBI for a proper investigation and prosecution. The basis for these allegations is well-documented in the black and white of sworn court documents . . . and well-founded in the circumstances that existed when these documents were sworn. It is clear that Randolph Hospital executives wanted to avoid scrutiny of the hospital's assets (and their bloated salaries) as they negotiated a settlement in bad faith. I originally went to court in order to recoup my losses and be in a position to start all over. The "in-your-face" perjury of these two "non-profit" hospital administrators thwarted that hope/goal . . . and obstructed (civil) justice.
A case that many regulatory agencies previously brushed off as "too complicated" is now quite simple.
These things notwithstanding, District Attorney Yates has repeatedly refused to take phone calls or schedule appointments to discuss the complaint . . . he has failed to answer correspondence, and has consistently treated me with general condescension & disdain.
But then again, so has Thomas Mansfield, the head of your legal Department . . . who once dismissed me in an e-mail . . . saying he was “sorry” he could not help me with my “problems”. Never mind that Randolph Hospital officials all but spat on a half-dozen Medical Board "position statements" as they railroaded me out of my hometown. Never mind that my “problems” exist because the NC Medical Board (and DHHS) let me swing while Randolph Hospital did whatever it wanted (ethical, legal or not) under cover of its “non-profit” status.
It was more important to be “collegial” and to go along to get along.
Public corruption abounds in North Carolina. Pursuing my case has taught me many things that I did not want to know. In the fashion of Jim Black, smooth-talking, slick “good-ole-boys” rule our cities and small towns with a cool & casual, gentlemanly arrogance that makes the more crass antics of politicians in Louisiana look positively amateurish. The NC Medical Board does NOTHING to defend the duties it requites . . . physicians cannot rely upon the Board’s ethical position statements for ANY legal protection in any contract matter. The NC Medical Society does not “do” individual advocacy . . . and has entrenched itself so deeply with the “pay to play” culture in Raleigh, that it has forgotten who it is supposed to serve. And the NC State Bar has proven beyond any shadow of any doubt that “legal ethics” is a contradiction in terms. Meanwhile, our legal system is a joke. Victims of white-collar crime have no standing in this state, and must bang their heads against the doors of prosecutors who pander to special interests and chant, “You can’t make me”.
I also found out, long before the Duke Lacrosse fiasco, that citizens in the state of North Carolina do not have the right to directly petition the Attorney General for help.
*Two paragraphs referencing a nursery case I rescued last year are omitted from this blog-copy, as the matter is still under investigation by the NCMB.
The case last year was the last straw. I am tired of what I have seen over and over again on the road. If I am to remain in this profession for another 15-20 years (and I’m not sure I want to), I cannot remain silent about the joke that is our current system of medical oversight. "Just go away" is not an option.
Last year, Mr. Mansfield was instrumental in getting the legislature to pass House Bill 1301. It modified General Statutes pertaining to the policing of physicians. Of note is NC General Statute 90-16(h), which states, “if investigative information in the possession of the Board, its employees, or agents indicates that a crime may have been committed, the Board SHALL; report the information to the appropriate law enforcement agency.”
90-16(h), as written, does NOT specifically & only apply to physicians. It says that if the Medical Board has evidence of criminal conduct in its possession, it SHALL refer the matter to appropriate law enforcement agencies. It does not say this will happen only if Thomas Mansfield wants it to . . . or on the third Tuesday in November every second year (serving the political agendas that apparently fuel perjury trials). It says the Medical Board SHALL refer the matter to the proper authorities.
Just like NC General Statute 14-209 (SubChapter VIII, Article 28) says that lying under Oath about matters relevant to a damages claim (in ANY court venue, and in ANY deposition or affidavit) IS PERJURY and SHALL be prosecuted as a Class F felony.
It doesn't say only when Garland Yates wants to prosecute.
I copied everything I sent to the Randolph County District Attorney to the Medical Board. Therefore the NC Medical Board has long had in its possession black & white evidence that Randolph Hospital administrators committed crimes as they attempted to silence and destroy a physician for doing her duty . . . then swindle her of fair restitution after she dragged them to trial.
Randolph Hospital is a “non-profit”, licensed as a public charity by the state of North Carolina. And I was in state and federal public service (via the NC Office of Rural Health and National Health Service Corps). My former partner and I received federal and state repayment of our medical student loans in return for service . . . money that was poured down the drain when we were literally driven from Asheboro (while the state and federal governments we served sat on their hands and did nothing to stop what was going on). We are talking about an amount of money that far exceeds anything that Jim Black ever passed under the table. The taxpayer paid that bill . . . as they have since supplemented the generous salary increases of the men who did us wrong.
Therefore, I am sick and tired of being told by state officials that the state of North Carolina does not have the power to do anything unless Garland Yates wants to call in the Attorney General. For the reasons I've outlined above, that is simply a lie and a cop-out. The State of North Carolina licenses and regulates non-profits. It controls much of their funding. The State of North Carolina also licenses physicians . . . and then charges them with duties that the state is supposed to protect and defend. The NC Attorney General represents DHHS and has the clear jurisdiction to protect the interests of doctors in public service. Something could have been done to STOP what was going on long before now. But everyone dived under their desks.
The truth is that (1) Robert Morrison and Steven Eblin are “very important people” in Asheboro . . . and obviously well-connected in Raleigh, and (2) and no one dares offend/challenge the mighty NC Hospital Association on the ethical behavior of hospital administrators.
The truth is, I am a nobody. That is exactly the way the state of North Carolina has treated me.
Mr. Mansfield's excuse until now has been that the NC Medical Board had no authority to refer matters related to a non-physician's behavior to law enforcement. When Mike Easley signed HR 1301 into law, that excuse ceased to exist. And perjury has no statute of limitations.
Therefore, I herein request that the North Carolina Medical Board refer this matter to the NC Attorney General . . . and make the strong recommendation that Randolph Hospital officials (Robert Morrison and Steven Eblin) be investigated & prosecuted (and Randolph Hospital sanctioned) to the fullest extent of the law.
North Carolina is facing doctor shortages in the very near future. As the profession becomes increasingly corporatized, we on the front lines of medicine are being pummeled by outside interests whose only concern is profit . . . not the patient. Pediatricians, in particular, are often regarded as being there to “just dry off the baby” . . . and are generally treated like pawns on a chessboard by hospitals pandering to the higher-dollar specialties. The state of North Carolina must WAKE UP and start fixing what my case proves is obviously wrong with our current system of medical and legal oversight.
Doctors in this state should not have to endure the kinds of professional insults and hardships I have simply because they’re trying to do the right thing: Retaliation against physicians for doing their jobs is unacceptable.
And "non-profits" do not get to lie their way out of accountability.
If the state prosecuted just ONE case like this . . . if North Carolina clocked JUST ONE hospital for the kinds of amoral/unethical/illegal things that were done to me, it would nip a lot of the nonsense that has been going on in the bud.This letter is posted on my blog (omitting two paragraphs referencing the case last year – as it is currently under investigation by the Medical Board). The full letter has been hard-copied to officers of the NC Medical Board and Pediatric Societies. It has also been copied (by e-mail) to members of the appropriate NC House & Senate oversight committees . . . along with a link to the post that outlines my case against Randolph Hospital executives.
Please note that one of the Representatives receiving this letter is my own, Harold Brubaker, of Asheboro. The former House Speaker serves on the House Committees for Ethics and Health, yet has never deemed it necessary to respond to correspondence on these matters. Ditto for Senator Jerry Tillman. The best financial interests of the hospital and its Board of Directors have always come before the small matter of right and wrong. I believe the strategy has been to bounce me from jurisdiction to jurisdiction . . . or dismiss me as a “whack-job” female.
It is funny how, in the middle of the night, it’s been the “whack-job” that the nurses called in to clean up the bad messes.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.
Mary H. Johnson, M.D.
*Street Address Omitted
Asheboro, N.C.
mary.h.johnson@att.net
cc: Thomas Mansfield, Legal Department, NCMB
R. David Henderson, Executive Director, NCMB
NC Attorney General, Roy Cooper
Lt. Governor, Beverly Perdue
Senator Mark Basnight
Speaker of the House, Joe Hackney
Robert Seligson, Executive VP/CEO NCMS
Darlyne Menscer, M.D., President, NCMS
G. Hadley Callaway, M.D., President-Elect, NCMS
Charles, F. Willson, M.D., Immediate Past President, NCMS
Herbert Clegg, M.D., President NCPS
Steve Shore, Executive Director, NCPS
House Committees on Ethics, Health and the Judiciary. Appropriations Subcommittee for Health and Human Services.
Senate Committees on Health, the Judiciary (civil & criminal) and Appropriations for Health & Human Services.
THE VALENTINE'S DAY POST:
The N&O reported last Thursday on the deal Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby made in securing a felony conviction against M. Scott Edwards, a political crony of former House Speaker Jim Black. Black resigned from the NC House today, and will plead guilty to a felony public corruption charge tomorrow.
According to Willoughby, Securing a felony conviction sends a message to anyone who might flout state campaign finance laws.
But there's a catch: A small part of why he made the deal deserves some attention from legislators, Willoughby said Wednesday.
It seems that treasurers who file campaign reports are not required to use a notary or otherwise "swear" or "affirm" that what they are filing is true. They are only required to certify that what they submit is true/correct.
Edwards was accused of filing false campaign reports four times in 2002 and 2003. The state's election law says: "Any person making a certification ... knowing the information to be untrue may be prosecuted for perjury.
"Edwards was indicted on four perjury charges.
But perjury -- the willing telling of a lie under oath -- requires that someone took an oath or affirmation.
The lie also has to be "material" to the matters at hand. In this case, Edwards lied about financial matters. No rocket science there.
The lay person will love this: Edwards' lawyer, Stephen T. Smith of Raleigh, argued to the judge before the trial that Edwards could not be guilty of perjury because the forms he filed were sent in only with his certification. He argued: No oath or affirmation, then no perjury.
The judge was reportedly intrigued by the novel argument exploiting a legal technicality, but allowed the perjury charges to stand. However, the issue was ripe for an appeal, both sides agreed.
A deal was cut. Before jurors started hearing the case, Willoughby offered to allow Edwards to plead guilty to a charge other than perjury: One count of obstruction of justice.
Smith said Edwards took the deal because it was a substantial reduction of the original charges, and his client would avoid jail. "We never believed he would have been guilty of perjury," Smith said.
I'm not so sure about that. I think the people of North Carolina are pretty sick and tired of liars.
After six years of obfuscation and every legal dodge under the sun, I'm very sick and tired of liars too.
Let's review why I'm tired:
As per North Carolina General Statute 14-209, SubChapter VIII, Article 28 “Punishment for Perjury”, “If any person shall willfully and corruptly commit perjury, on his oath or affirmation, in ANY suit, controversy, matter or cause, depending in any of the courts of the States, or in ANY deposition or affidavit taken pursuant to law, or in ANY oath or affirmation duly administered of or concerning any matter or thing whereof such person is lawfully required to be sworn or affirmed, EVERY person so offending shall be punished as a Class F felon.”
U.S. Code Title 18, Part 1, Chapter 79, Sub-Sections 1621 & 1623, the penalty for perjury (per count) is imprisonment for not more than five years and/or appropriate fines.
The specifics of why I am so peeved are detailed on the Asheboro Pediatrics in this link. But here's the short version:
After working like a dog in public service for three years . . . after taking critical-care back-up 24/7 . . . after building a hometown practice that federal & state agreements stated clearly that I was supposed to be able to transition . . . I was threatened, then fired for doing the duties required by the North Carolina Medical Board (saving a newborn's life and reporting a problem to hosptial peer review) . . . duties the Medical Board did not EVER see fit to protect or defend. The baby was not even my patient. I simply answered a phone call and did what I had to do.
Doctors in the middle? Who cares?
Why, you ask, would Randolph Hospital fire a (by ALL accounts, excellent/dedicated) Pediatrician who went above and beyond? It makes no sense.
But yes, actually it does . . . in the greedy world of what I like to call "evil medicine" (forgive the Austin Powers reference). (1) The things I was complaining about were "embarrassing" to the hospital, and (2) if I had been allowed to transiton into private practice, I would have been a competitive threat to the hospital's "controlled affiliate". Hospital officials did not want that. And God knows, in the town of Asheboro, North Carolina what Randolph Hospital wants Randolph Hospital gets.
I turned to the North Carolina civil courts for justice. For my trouble, I spent three more years in litigation . . . including being SLAPP-sued for "libel" (a despicable legal tactic designed to humiliate and financially/professionally destroy me). But I would not back down . . . or "just go away". And after enduring insult after injury . . . after being locally black-balled . . . after struggling mightily working on the road to make ends meet . . . after surviving a myriad of legal challenges and finally dragging Randolph Hospital to a trial date . . . in the end, I was ultimately swindled of a fair & equitable resolution that would have allowed me to re-build my practice and my life.
Here's how:
Robert Morrison and Steven Eblin, executives of "non-profit" Randolph Hospital repeatedly lied under Oath in their own bogus "libel" suit about the "confidentiality" of their books and salaries . . . information that is, by law (IRS Code), public record. The information they deliberately withheld was certainly relative and material to the considerable financial damages I suffered at their hands. They withheld the information even though a judge ordered them to provide it (criminal contempt). Then they negoitated a damages settlement based upon the lie (fraud). Mr. Morrison and Mr. Eblin swore out their answers/verifications in front of a Notary Public (either Jane Spencer Pinnix or Wanda H. Bray), and those answers were served upon Dr. Johnson’s legal counsel (Steven S. Schmidly) by their attorneys, Robert A. Ford and/or Demetrius L. Worley of Tuggle, Duggins & Meschan, Inc. Mr. Ford and Ms. Worley, as both legal advisors and witnesses to the discovery responses, represented themselves to be “experts” in the representation of non-profit institutions. It was their responsibility, as officers of the Court, to ensure that Mr. Morrison and Mr. Eblin told the truth in their discovery responses.
North Carolina Statute does not specify a statute of limitations on perjury.
Randolph Hospital was made aware of the charges . . . via communications between my attorney (Steven Schmidly) and theirs (Robert Wilson) . . . in 2002. The hospital took no measures to rectify the situation or to discipline Mr. Morrison & Mr. Eblin.
Both gentlemen should have been fired. Randolph Hospital's Board of Directors has KNOWINGLY allowed an agreement negotiated in BAD FAITH to stand. They've made no effort whatsoever to right the wrong. In fact, the "team" of Morrison and Eblin have gotten fat raises.
Citing a recent hospital advertising campaign, I must say the "E" does not stand for "ethics".
Given the strong-arm tactics Randolph Hospital has routinely employed with doctors, why would anybody enter into a business relationship with these people?
Fed up with the endless posturing of lawyers looking to line their own pockets, I presented this information to the Randolph County District Attorney, Garland Yates in June of 2003. The complaint was re-drafted and re-presented in December 2005. All appropriate documentation - including copies of the discovery responses and the sworn signatures of Mr. Morrison and Mr. Eblin were included. Mr. Yates has NEVER met with me to discuss the allegations. He will not take a phone call. He will not schedule an appointment. As I have waited on him to take action, statutes of limitations on civil claims (a corrupted venue in this case & jurisdiction) have run out.
Given the fact that (1) I was in public service and recruited back home to Asheboro with state & federal funds, and (2) Randolph Hospital is licensed by the state of North Carolina as a "non-profit", I was under the apparently misguided and naive impression that accusations as ironclad and black & white as those I was making merited an independent investigation by the NC Attorney General/SBI.
If, because of the very important locals involved (including all of the "honorable" Randolph Hospital Board members who continue to deem Mr. Morrison and Mr. Eblin worthy of employment), Mr. Yates was uncomfortable asking the Asheboro Police Department to investigate (the hospital and Courthouse are in the Department's jurisdiction), ALL Mr. Yates had to do was ask Roy Cooper to take the case (as New Hanover County DA, Ben David, did just this week).
As the general public has learned from the Duke fiasco - presided over by Mike Nifong - the Attorney General cannot intervene in a case unless he's asked. Randolph County ADA Andy Gregson has made it crystal clear that nobody can make the DA prosecute . . . not Dateline or 60 Minutes . . . not the Governor.
"You can't make me", is essentially the DA's argument. It is arrogance in the extreme.
The FACT is that state of North Carolina has NEVER conducted a proper investigation of my case. Justice has been obstructed.
And let's face it, because I will not give up or give in, it's MUCH easier for those involved (and those who should be helping) to slur my character/sanity than really examine what happened . . . and prosecute the find upstanding citizens who abused the public trust and showed nothing but contempt for the law.
I filed complaints with the NC State Bar . . . regarding the behavior of all of the attorneys involved . . . including mine . . . and including Mr. Yates. The Bar very quickly and quietly dismissed ALL of the complaints without even sending an investigator to interview me.
I met with IRS officials in October 2006. The problem there (from a criminal standpoint) appears to be that it does not matter to them if Randolph Hospital officials lied to me. It only matters if the hospital lied to the IRS. The real "jurisdiction" lies with state court.
But victims have no real "standing" in North Carolina, whereas District Attorneys have absolute power & "prosecutorial discretion".
Excepting Congressman Howard Coble, my elected "representatives" including Harold Brubaker, Jerry Tilman and former Senator John Edwards have offered no help whatsoever.
Robert Morrison and Steven Eblin are NO DIFFERENT from M. Scott Edwards. In fact, what they did was technically LEGALLY worse. They REPEATEDLY LIED UNDER OATH in discovery. They lied to me. They lied to the Court. And, by extension, they lied to the state of North Carolina. In doing so, they OBSTRUCTED JUSTICE. So WHY does Dr. Edwards stand convicted of a felony while Bob Morrison & Steven Elbin have yet to suffer ANY KIND of sanction?
With doctor shortages looming in this state's immediate future, where are the bills in the legislature that protect physicians (especially employed ones) from the kind of blatant retaliation I have experienced? Where is the peer review and tort reform? In the wake of Mike Nifong, and given the example of Garland Yates, where are the bills to reign in District Attorneys . . . to protect citizens from being railroaded or victims from being ignored . . . to provide real checks and balances?
WHERE IS THE NC MEDICAL BOARD AND NC MEDICAL SOCIETY ON THESE ISSUES? WHERE WAS THE NC PEDIATRIC SOCIETY? They've known FOR YEARS that good doctors are getting slaughtered playing by the so-called rules of corporate medicine. In my dance with Randolph Hospital, many of the Medical Board's position statements on ethical conduct were literally spat up by hospital executives. They did not have to be bothered and a good doctor was just a bug to crush. What have our medical gurus and professional "advocates" in Raleigh done about it except collegially play politics?
When is the "advocacy" of the mighty AMA going to be about something besides Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements . . . or battling errant insurance companies (who, like the executives of Randolph Hospital, feel that they can ignore and/or distort physician contracts . . . with NO consequences)?
Meanwhile, the legislature is more worried about what one swears on rather than what one swears to. I've asked this question before, if perjury is rarely prosecuted except to pursue a political agenda, why does it matter if you swear on a Bible, a Quran, or a TV Guide?
As the victim of a series of white-collar crimes committed by people charged with the public trust, I would say that there are indeed, "flaws in the law".
The same message that was sent to Jim Black and M. Scott Edwards needs to be sent to "non-profits" in North Carolina:
You do NOT get to lie to the people of North Carolina.
That "message" needs to be sent to EVERYONE gifted with the public trust . . . not just the politicians.
