On Prosecutors Who Sue, Dr. Sue, And David Wray

No doubt like many doctors, when I'm at work . . . waiting on labs or for patients to be put back into rooms . . . I mindlessly surf the computer and/or answer e-mails. I answered one from from Sue Polinsky tonight . . . about another thread she closed when the questions & observations got a little too pointed - I'll expect I'll decide about midway through this post if I'm going to talk about that. This post,as it begins, is actually kind of relevant to the subject matter of Sue's post.

Tonight on my surf, I found a story on CNN that blew my mind, under the caption:

Kansas City Man Wrongfully Imprisoned Sued By Prosecutor

Now even I . . . after all I've been through courtesy of the NC legal system . . . and living in the land of Nifong . . . had to blink two or three times at that one.

A local man who spent 11 years in an Oklahoma prison for a murder he did not commit is now being sued by the prosecutor who put him behind bars.

Dennis Fritz was exonerated in 1999. Last year, Fritz published a book called "Journey Toward Justice" about his experience. The book pulled no punches about the prosecutor in his case.

INCREDIBLY, the prosecutor, Bill Peterson, STILL IN OFFICE (translation: PUBLIC FIGURE), thinks that the man he WRONGFULLY CONVICTED OF MURDER, has no right to say bad things about the way handled the case!?!

Now Peterson, being one of those lawyers that belongs at the bottom of the sea (before you sue me too . . . it's an opinion, Bill), recognizes a deep pocket when he sees one and is also suing best-selling author, John Grisham . . . who also wrote a book about the case (which focused on Ron Williamson, Fritz's co-defendant in the case - also exonerated).

You see this prosecutor did not just convict one innocent man of murder . . . he convicted two.

I hope when this lawsuit lands in front of the eyeballs of a judge, the judge takes the file and swats Bill Peterson over the head with it . . . and then throws it were it belongs . . . IN THE #^%$*& TRASH!

This is just insane!

Now this brings me back to Sue (in a round-about way, but sometimes that's the way things happen in my noggin). And yes, I've decided to talk about it. As I noted in a previous post, we've been having a civil conversation (for us) about North Carolina's requirement that doctors attend executions.

I'm not stupid. I know that death-penalty opponents want to pound home the "cruel and unusual punishment" argument (that there's a possibility the condemned rapist/murderer/whatever will "feel pain" if a doctor does not "attend"), and abolish capital punishment in this state altogether (a train Sue has clearly jumped on).

With the Medical Board suddenly growing a conscience (after about 100 years), it just may work.

Pain is relative. I tend to think about the victims . . . about their pain and their terror. I think about the devastated lives of their families. And I don't think capital punishment should be abolished. I think it is an invaluable took for good/honest prosecutors to have in their arsenal . . . and to use against the worst of the worst.

I am well aware that there are innocents in jail for crimes they did not commit. But I don't think that's a compelling argument to let "ten guilty people go free". Instead I think it's a great argument for more checks and better balances of prosecutors behavior . . . MORE of a reason to ensure due process and fair play in our legal system.

Because, let's face it people, prosecutors, in all of their glorious "discretion" can do whatever the hell they want to right now. Nifong's downfall was a fluke, and it was a fluke because (1) the boys he falsely accused hailed from Dukified money and (1) because of #1 the national media was crawling up the NC State Bar's tail.

By the way (Sue), Bill Peterson seems to be "living with himself" very well. I cannot believe this looser has the cahoones to sue someone when his way-big mistake stole a huge chunk of their life!?!

Tonight, after closing her comments, Sue e-mailed me. After giving it some thought, I'm not publishing the e-mail. But I am telling you what it said. Because I am SICK TO DEATH of the ^%$#&@ double-standards in the GSO blogosphere!!!

The thread wasn't going anywhere. She's tired of being called names. She moderates comments (so do I - but before they're published, not after). She did not apologize to Billy (after implying some pretty nasty things about his motives & character). She walks forward. She does not want me to publish the e-mail or allude to it in my blog.

Plus there's this observation (that kind of grates with me): Sue can ask questions (and expect answers), but she doesn't have to answer them.

My response via e-mail is as follows:

Sue, I am sorry. You are not playing fair and I am going to call you on it. You feel fee to sling your (not-so-veiled) insults and slurs all over the blogopshere, and then you shut down when some of it comes back to you (it's the reason, I suspect, that MeB asked the question). You pushed Billy's buttons at a time that a kinder, gentler, more understanding person (with an advanced degree no less) would not have. And he blew up.

Then it's his fault, and you (like Ed, like Roch - who loves to fling around the term "liar") cannot admit the error of your own ways. You actually embraced the "bitchdom" with that nasty post, so I really don't understand what Billy had to apologize for.

If you cannot open the comments on your own blog back up and answer fair questions and let the chips fall where they may, do not complain when those of us observing this (and receiving it), comment on it elsewhere. No one in this thread called you a name. We asked questions about (and commented) on your behavior.

And this time, I give you no guarantees.

And there you have it. My name will be local blogger-mud . . . even as I put it all out there (just like a confidential police report). There's a good chance I will be raked through the coals . . . banned . . . de-linked. But I so don't care.

And that brings me to David Wray.

I just got through reading the News & Record's latest expository piece (no doubt motivated by upcoming elections) that really exposes nothing new. Now Sam and Joe and Trouble and Bubba and Wendell and Brenda and Jaycee and a whole bunch of other blogging kiddies who did not drink the GSO City Council's Kool-Aid are all doing an admirable job of holding the feet of those irresponsible to the fire. I don't have a lot to add.

Except this:

David Wray, from all I have seen and read so far, seems to me to have been a good and decent and honorable man charged with to clean up a dirty/corrupt police Department. He was (and is) not perfect. I don't think he ever claimed to be. I'm quite sure he made mistakes . . . maybe some bad ones. But I do think he tried very hard to do the right thing . . . when faced not always with "black and white", but shades of grey. And I certainly don't think he deserved what the city of Greensboro (not to mention the N&R) dished out.

Nearly ten years ago, as a newbie Pediatrician charged to build a Pediatric program I could be proud of, I wasn't perfect either. I made mistakes too. I'll be the first to admit it. But I ALWAYS put patients first. And I most certainly did not deserve what Randolph Hospital and the city of Asheboro dished out.

Wray and I were both charged with nearly impossible jobs . . . him with cleaning up a police department steeped in years of wink & nod cronyism . . . me with "cleaning up" (Steve Eblin's exact words) Pediatrics at a small-town hospital with a way-bad reputation (a reputation that played itself out in my own life and health). Both of us played our fair share of politics, and both of us got knives in the back for our trouble/efforts.

Neither one of us got the one thing that even the worst criminal gets . . .

. . . and that's a little thing called DUE PROCESS.

It's a Fifth and Fourteenth U.S. Constitutional Amendment thing, but in this state (where even contracted employees are concerned) who's counting?

Because we were lowly employees in a "right-to-work" state . . . Wray of the city/state . . . me of a "non-profit" hospital . . . we had absolutely NO rights as "valued" professionals to answer or challenge the veracity of our accusers . . . in Wray's case, Mitch Johnson (no relation to me) . . . in my case, Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin.

And this is specifically addressed to Sue: Doctors ARE indeed different from the average Jane/Joe - especially when it comes to employment. We are NOT just another employee. We spend years training to do what we do . . . these days oftentimes winding up subservient to people in suits who couldn't make it in a corporation that wasn't subsidized by the state. We are responsible for people's lives. We are held to incredible standards of accountability. We take a damned Oath, for God's sake! North Carolina law ought to recognize that.

It does not.

As I understand it, David Wray was not ever given an opportunity to address the GSO City Council. To this day, I have not been afforded an audience with the Randolph Hospital Board of Directors . . . a bunch of big-fish-in-a-little-pond-good-ole-boys that just took Bob Morrison's word that I was "not a team player" . . . the same board that voted to sue me (again on Bob's word) without ever hearing from me.

In my case, the "black and white" of discovery responses leaves no doubt as to whose word was good and who was lying.

They ran from that one (Roch). I'm no "liar".

Meanwhile, my Medical Board, belatedly standing on those ethics (with regards to killing people) as I continue to be pummelled for taking an ethical stand nearly ten years ago (thus saving a life), keeps silent and does nothing to protect those who would be brave enough to blow a whistle on a dark hospital ward in the middle of the night.

Wray and I were were trashed by our respective local papers (firmly in the pockets of the local powers-that-be) . . . Wray by the N&R (did anyone else want to barf after reading "Lessons Learned"?) . . . me by The Courier Tribune. Wray has the exceptional good fortune to have Jerry Bledsoe and The Rhino telling his side of the story. I envy him that.

Me, I have a little blog. JR & Ed & Sue and company invited me to the party that was going to put a new face on local journalism and change the world.

Of course, I did not know (not being of "the burg") that I was going to be their pinata.

Dr. Sue talks a lot about "moving forward" (implying in the comparison, of course, that I am some kind of emotional Neanderthal because I can't just "let go" and move on). When she does, sometimes I just want to "bitch"-slap her into the next Medical Tuesday.

Speaking for myself, it's hard to "move forward" when one is black-balled for miles around (as I know I initially was . . . for after making mulitple inquiries on our behalf, physician recruiters told both my former partner and I that we needed to move far, far away . . . you see, the word was out . . . we were "trouble-makers"). It's very hard to "move forward" when your reputation is raked through the mud (in your own hometown, in the full & painful view of your parents) . . . when your finances are a mess because your career is on eternal hold because you're fighting, all by your$elf a fight that (quite frankly) the Medical Board and NCDHHS should be fighting for you . . . a fight at which your then-Senator turns up his pretty, "champion-of-the ordinary-man" nose because he's too busy running for President and can't be bothered to take a principled, non-self-serving stand (never mind that he's advocating the very kind of public-service program you got screwed in).

I know what it's like to be radioactive. Moving in any direction (Sue) leaves a trail.

David Wray, I expect, feels that pain. I don't doubt that "moving forward" has been kind of difficult for him since the oh-so-noble reporters at the News & Record sharpened their pencils on Wray's life & career.

Those are my thoughts.

It's getting late. I was supposed to be in bed two hours ago. But this stuff just flies out of my fingers.

"Blue Walls" and "White Walls". I see little difference.