Six Words For Roch Smith (Junior): One Does Not Take On Cone

Former Clinton USDHHS Secretary Donna Shalala is back in the news.

The N&O reports that Shalala was at NC State this week giving speeches: A year ago, Bush appointed Donna Shalala, the former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, and Robert Dole, a former Republican U.S. senator, to investigate the treatment of wounded veterans once they return to U.S. soil.

Shalala reported that President Bush is making serious progress in correcting some of the problems that caused a scandal last year with the shoddy care of wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, but Congress is stalled on other fixes.

This is not a useless political blog, but here’s my political bias: I’ve got no use for any member of the Clinton administration . . . the gang-of-do-gooders-that-didn’t who had their shot at absolute power when I first began my own odyssey in public service. I didn’t dodge bullets on foreign soil (and may God bless those who do now). But I did serve my country.

I also remember the days when Hillary, another pseudo-socialist-lawyer-without-a-clue, was going to fix healthcare.

So right there you have the reasons why I don’t buy the “red phone” garbage (“Hey Bill, it’s for you.”) and I won’t be voting for Ms. Clinton (Obama’s comebacks these days are a real hoot). I’m going with McCain.

He knows about the low points of public service.

Donna Shalala, in particular, with her cushy university post in Florida does not have a fan in this former NHSC physician. And today that brings me to Roch Smith, Jr. and his legal expertise . . . especially as it pertains to my case.

As people who follow my case know, in 1999 (and IN CONFIDENCE) I sent Ms. Shalala a 39-page complaint describing my experience as an National Health Service Corps physician at Randolph Hospital. The complaint was copied to NCDHHS officials and stamped “CONFIDENTIAL” on every single page – only those who had a direct “need-to-know” saw its content. It was not publicized. To this day, the document has not been posted on my website.

Therefore, Roch has not seen it. But Junior knows all.

Ms. Shalala and her “team” pretty much blew me off. “Thank you for your service”. “We wish you well”. “Have a nice life”. That kind of thing. Very Ed Cone. It took nine months and the persistent pesterings of Congressman Howard Coble to get USDHHS to live up to even a small portion of its contractual obligations to me.

So I feel a very small portion of those screwed veterans’ pain.

And Congressman Coble did take me seriously. But Junior knows all.

For the trouble of darkening Ms. Shalala’s mailbox with my missive of public service woe, Randolph Hospital sued me (ultimately unsuccessfully) for “libel”.

Ironically, when Robert Morrison’s good-buddy David Renfro splattered the headline that I was a “liar” all over his front page . . . embarrassing excerpts of the Shalala complaint were placed in the public domain . . . for the public to read all about. It opened up a really ugly can of worms – stuff that would have made for real entertainment in an open courtroom (something I don’t think the Randolph Hospital Board of Directors ever gave a second thought to as they rubber-stamped everything Bob & the lawyers advised).

I did not open that can of worms. Randolph Hospital executives did.

Unbeknownst to those executives or their lawyers, I had asked two of my former physician colleagues to review the Shalala complaint for accuracy before I sent it to Washington & Raleigh. They actually wrote letters of support to JCAHO, confirming the veracity of my account and encouraging regulatory agencies to take it very seriously.

Those letters have never been posted. Unless Roch went to the Randolph County courthouse and rifled through a whole lot of paper he hasnt' seen those letters either. But Junior knows all.

Robert Morrison and his gang of legal bullies were gifted with copies of those letters during the discovery process. The letters . . . in both cases, scathing critiques of executive’s methods and/or integrity . . . confirmed what everyone on the inside knew . . . that the “libel” lawsuit merely added insult to grave injury. Bob and the boys had to tuck tail and run . . .

. . . but not before they lied . . . over and over again in discovery . . . in an effort to save themselves some money at settlement.

What Roch Smith, Jr. does not seem to understand is that I hired the lawyers and fought the legal battle in order to (1) be vindicated and (2) be restored. The whole point of going to court was to be able to resume the work I loved in the place I still call home with my head held high and without going bankrupt. In my case, that most certainly did not mean coming back to work for Randolph Hospital’s “controlled affiliate”. It meant being adequately and fairly compensated for the damage the hospital did to my practice and local reputation . . . so I could start all over from somewhere other than a fiscal position that amounted to worse than nothing.

I really don’t know what planet Roch is from (and at this point I so do not care), but in the world I live in $125,000 (less than one-year’s salary at the time) is NOT fair compensation for a doctor having the rug pulled out from under her after three-years of soul-crushing work building a practice from nothing (in breach of every employment & public service agreement she signed) . . . not to mention nearly three more years of soul-sucking litigation.

I simply do not understand why Roch (who hates it when Mitch & company at the GSO City Hall play fast and loose with the truth) thinks it’s just fine for Robert Morrison and Steven Eblin (as officers of a “non-profit”) and their lawyers (officers of the Court) to have so brazenly lied.

Morrison and Eblin defied a judge’s order, and ignored the law and withheld public documents. Roch Smith, Junior (not involved in the GSO police debacle and who has suffered no fiscal damages) apparently has “the right” to see such documents – by simply asking for them. But Dr. Mary Johnson, who suffered considerable losses at the hands of a “non-profit” apparently does not have the same rights when she goes to Court.

Roch Smith may have spent a few hours perusing my website/blog/old newspaper stories. But he has never asked to see the documents that prove perjury. But Junior knows all.

Even as Morrision and Eblin paid themselves and their doctors very healthy salaries for “service” to a small mill-town hospital, they represented themselves to be “nearly bankrupt” during settlement negotiations. During these “negotiations” (on the day before the case was scheduled to go to trial), I was literally locked in a conference room and browbeaten for hours. My family and my boyfriend were all kept at arm’s length. I could not reach my accountant. In what I later realized to be a ruse to get me to accept a low-ball figure, my lawyer (who should have aggressively gone after this "non-profit's" financial records and did not) “advised” me that “punitive damages” were not taxable.

Of course, they were. Once Uncle Sam (the same Uncle Sam who let me swing) got his cut, and the lawyer got his, there wasn’t a whole lot left to start over with.

Even the trial judge was in on the coercion . . . going so far (at least as it was explained to me by my lawyer) as to threaten to lower any substantial fiscal damages that the jury might see fit to award.

No one but me wanted this puppy to go to trial.

Roch doesn’t get it (why am I not surprised?). I was not “satisfied” with the settlement. But I was way beyond worn down – emotionally drained – physically exhausted – nearly bankrupt myself – and so damned tired of all of it. I just wanted to come home and practice medicine. I was told that $125,000 was all I could get . . . even if I went to trial and fought harder to get more.

I was also told that if I accepted their offer, the hospital would work cooperatively with me to get things up and running again if that was what I wanted to do. In fact, a lot of the wording of the settlement (and quotes given to the newspaper afterwards - which Roch, who knows all, has quoted as "evidence" of my happiness) was geared to that effect. Indeed, one of the terms of the settlement was that I would get a list of my former patients . . . to finally communicate with the people I had been abruptly cut off from. I never got the list.

In a sad, sick way, by accepting the offer, I was still trying to be a “team-player”. But it was all a lie.

For as soon as the deal was done, I was dirt to Bob Morrison & company.

I trusted the Court and its officers to play fair. And they did not.

The North Carolina State Bar does not care. “Expert” corporate lawyers can file false answers with the Court on behalf of their clients. Plaintiff’s attorneys can brazenly lie to and/or negligently represent their clients. District Attorneys can abuse their discretionary powers, and just ignore people victimized by liars and cheats in their Courtrooms.

And make no mistake: many, many people are above the law.

Likewise, the North Carolina Medical Board does not care. Doctors can be fired for saving lives and reporting another physician’s mistakes . . . babies can be endangered and mauled . . . millions of dollars can be wasted . . . and patients can die in scam after scam. From the lofty ivory towers of gubernatorial appointment, the honorable members of our hallowed Medical Board are not going to lift a damned finger to do anything about it.

The Donna Shalalas of this world, USDHHS and NCDHHS, and our US/NC Attorneys General so do not care. Physicians in public service are merely pawns on the chessboard of keeping warm bodies revolving through the doors of rural clinics. “Non-profits” can repeatedly plunder the public coffers – in both small and big ways – and nothing gets done about it.

Big rugs. Big brooms. Sometimes big shovels, actually.

But ALL of these people/organizations (apart from being damned lazy) are just flat-out wrong. We have laws. And we’re all supposed to play by them . . . no matter who we are or who we know. Lying under Oath about matters relevant to a damages claim is perjury . . . a felony. And I’ve got news for Roch. It does not matter if it was committed in civil or criminal court.

It really is not supposed to matter if he is “interested”.

Perjury is a crime. A a citizen on the receiving end of that crime, I should not have to hire more lawyers and spend more money to return to a Court corrupted by perjury to correct the consequences of the perjury.

That’s what Roch Smith, Jr., legal genius (with apparently bottomless pits for pockets) would have me do . . . he also would have me "listen" to and negotiate with the same lawyers who lied to me the first time. How fricking idiotic is that? But Junior knows all.

At this point in the game, it is the DUTY of the state to intervene . . . and to see me restored.

When the state doesn’t step up and do its job, the “free” (as opposed to bought and paid for) press is supposed to be around to light a fire.

And let me ask you this, where else - anywhere - have you ever read anyone talk about what really goes on behind the scenes of litigation the way I have? Besides the basic issue that what Morrison and Eblin did is no different that what Black and Wright and all the other crooks in Raliegh have done and been busted for, I'm supposed to buy the lame excuse that there are no "local" journalistic "hooks" there?

Roch long ago decided that it's all about money. He has cherry-picked to fit his agenda . . . which (fairly clearly) is to blow me off the scene. Junior knows all.

But he doesn't get it. On the other hand, others do.

The Poet summed it all up beautifully this week. Billy gets it.

It's about ethics. Medical and Legal. It's about right and wrong.

Roch likes to make it sound like I "lost". Junior knows all.

But technically, I “won” both cases: My lawsuit against Randolph Medical Associates was settled in my favor, and the “libel” lawsuit filed by Randolph Hospital was quietly withdrawn/dismissed (not that anyone in Asheboro would know that by reading the Courier Tribune).

Right did conquer wrong. But the problem is that the game was fixed. Bob Morrison’s felonies fractured the happy ending . . . and the small portion of justice that I might have extracted from this nasty situation was obstructed. I have not been able to come home. Meanwhile, the people who lied and cheated and stole still rule the medical roost in Asheboro.

The people who really lose are the people who paid for the party (the taxpayer) and the parents/patients who lost a good doctor and did not get her back.

It's time for this crap to end. It's time for Morrison and Eblin to JUST GO AWAY.

Billy and MeB and Brenda and Joe and Bubba and Cara and Dale and many others get all that (again, thanks so much Billy . . . you made me cry . . . but in a good way).

Roch Smith, Jr. and Ed Cone and John Robinson (who all suffer under the delusion that they have their fingers on the pulse of the community) do not.

I could talk all day about six words to describe my life in Greensboro & Asheboro, North Carolina. But here’s the one that fits my situation best, from working as a not-so-well-named physician at Randolph Hospital . . . to rescuing babies under the arrogant/ignorant care of physicians who fancied themselves Neonatologists . . . to being black-balled locally for fighting back . . . to seeing the truth behind the fronting of expensive cancer centers . . . to life in our little blogging “community” (where well-named blogger-kings - one who once offered to be my "friend" - cannot exercise any of the influence they would have us believe they possess in order to help):

One does not take on Cone.

Before I forget, here’s another thing about Roch Smith, Jr. and his so-called legal expertise: I know about Mr. Smith’s small-claims-court dance in Wake County with Connie Mack Berry & Rachel Hunter . . . over “services” (I use that term lightly) he supposedly rendered to her campaign. Roch, predictably full of himself, acted as his own attorney and he sued. Connie & Rachel counter-sued. But our hero Roch, legal genius that he is, ran from small claims court!

He ran.

Yet Roch, the big-bad-blogger who knows all and constantly spouts off about the public’s right to this or that, has the audacity to slur and belittle the lady doctor who had the balls to take on the big boys . . . whose biggest mistake was believing in the system . . . and trusting people she should not have . . . and who has not budged from what right and wrong are supposed to mean.

Gives "Junior" a whole new meaning.

So Dr. Mary Johnson is staying here. In the blogosphere. Looking for justice denied by a system corrupted. And (as I used to say in playful greeting to the Brenner’s transport team every time they picked up a sick baby), Roch Smith, JUNIOR can BITE ME (it's six words). He has not been there. He has not done that.

I have six more words for you: Roch Smith has no expertise here.

He has no clue.