"We Are Above The Law"

Dale and I are long-time Randolph County blogging buds. Dale gets it. He's been in my corner for a while now.

Yesterday, in the wake of the press attention afforded several cases involving hospital errors & cover-ups, Dale blogged on hospitals/doctors and public perceptions. He referred to my allegations against Randolph Hospital (a local case that has gotten no press coverage).

I suspect Dale acted from concern about the bile some people are spewing my way . . . because of the hometown "veils" I've pulled back . . . revealing the ugly truth about how things are really done in Asheboro. I appreciate his effort/concern. But when it comes to the ad-hominems, I've got a very thick hide. Getting bogusly sued for "libel" by liars does that to a person.

I responded in the comments at Dale's - but thought it merited a post here.

A lot of people's perceptions might change if our local District Attorney would do his job and refer my allegations against Randolph Hospital executives to the N.C. Attorney General for a complete and thorough investigation . . . as should have happened five years ago when this mess was first brought to his attention.

For in stark contrast to the public perception (fueled by the local notables involved) that there is no case, the actual fact is that this case is way out of Mr. Yates' league. Every lawyer that I've had look at the facts/documentation - either formally or informally - has opined that the proper course of action in this kind of situation - where public programs and moneys were involved - would be for the DA to refer it up and out to Raleigh. Contrary to popular belief, as a matter of jurisdiction, the AG generally doesn't just swoop in without being asked to do so . . . although it is arguable that in this case he certainly could/should (by virtue of my stint in public service).

But Garland Yates has chosen to bury the case - and in five years has yet to even speak to me. Our AG is too busy playing politics - talking about "transparency" and and accountability rather than actually delivering.

So I've got to agree that Randolph County is "backwards". But it has nothing to do with alcohol.

I know I've got some new readers, so for the un-initiated here are the undisputed facts: Randolph Hospital senior executives, Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin (1) threatened a doctor in public service with retaliation if she did not keep her concerns about quality of care issues to herself; (2) fired her after she intervened in a neonatal case being grossly mis-managed by another physician and reported it to peer review (the hospital had advertised the physician as having skills he did not possess); (3) deliberately and methodically lied to her patients and absorbed the practice she had spent three years building and should have been able to transition (in violation of federal agreements); (4) used the legal system as a weapon (when they filed a SLAPP suit against the doctor for telling the truth to the state & federal governments she served); (5) lied repeatedly under Oath in the discovery phase of their own bogus "libel" lawsuit" (in order to get out of the mess they'd made on the cheap); and (6) negotiated a settlement/dismissal based on the lies.

The black and white of sworn discovery responses is not about perception. It's FACT.

It's perjury. It's contempt. It's fraud. Any my saving grace is that perjury has no statute of limitations.

What these executives did is, in FACT, grounds to revoke the hospital's "non-profit" status. All the N.C. Secretary of State would have to do is submit a few interrogatories to hospital executives (they would not even have to be well-crafted), and no matter how Bob & Steve answered, this house of bad cards would blow down. The evidence is plentiful that Randolph Hospital has abused the authority conferred upon it by law - even clearer that it has behaved in a way that is "illegal, oppressive and fraudulent". But I think I'll save that subject for another post . . .

. . . or perhaps a lawsuit against the state that did nothing to protect the duties it required . . . the state that let a good doctor swing.

So Dale is absolutely right about the stakes being high . . . and that what Randolph Hospital did to me has always and only been about money. For instance, things like government grants and CON's (Certificates of Need) for pricey equipment worthy of spaceships would be pretty hard to get if the hospital had its non-profit status revoked.

Moreover, the money stream depends upon the citizens of Asheboro continuing to perceive that the hospital provides "care you can trust".

My unhappy story does not fit in with the happy perception the hospital wants you to have. A doctor is not supposed to "rat" on her colleagues - even when they put patients in jeopardy. Medicine is all about perception. And perception is money.

Another public perception that gets shot all to Hades by my story has to do with the "world-class" Randolph Hospital medical staff caring about something besides money or the easy/comfortable way out of an ugly situation . . . that they actually care about patients. The medical people who have stood on the sidelines for over a decade and done the "hear no evil/see no evil/speak no evil" act are legion. As long as they could move right along with their happy, unencumbered lives, it was okay if mine was splattered all over the walls of their LDRP unit.

On the other hand, if Randolph Hospital was held accountable/forced to atone for its misdeeds and restructure it's leadership, it is my opinion that the citizens of Asheboro might be better served.

While we're talking about facts, here's another one: The very ("prominent") people who used, abused and swindled me have now joined forces with my ex-lawyer . . . who was either knowingly complicit in the ruse or grossly negligent in his representation . . . to force alcohol sales upon the community where I grew up - a community that has THRIVED without those sales for fifty years. They've put forth the ridiculous notion that easier access to alcohol will somehow cure all of Asheboro's economic ills.

To further their scheme, first, these fine, upstanding hospital executives (whose tails have been covered by our local newspaper) teamed up with other community leaders and tried to sucker the leaders of Asheboro's spiritual community (including the pastor of the church where I grew up) to support an alcohol referendum . . . citing the town's dire economic straights (which, in all reality, are no more dire than any other community in North Carolina).

That did not fly. So they rammed a referendum through city council, and now they're slamming and slurring the character of those who oppose alcohol on religious grounds . . . calling them hypocrites for standing up for their beliefs.

It makes me want to vomit. But I won't. You see, the "whack-job" theory doesn't fly either.

I'm as sane as it gets and I see very clearly. I am, as they say, a survivor. But the pro-boozers/their minions would love to have the kept-in-the-dark citizens of Asheboro believe that I'm some kind of obsessed "nut-job" . . . that I'm out for "revenge" . . . as I stand to oppose alcohol based on what I've seen as a Pediatrician who has worked in nearly every conceivable practice setting all over this state (and four others) - not to mention the selfish & greedy motives that I believe drive the people who support it.

Revenge and justice may intersect, but they are two different things. And perseverance against a grave injustice does not an obsession make. The simple fact is that Asheboro is my home - even if the address is not within the city limits (a fleece job my neighborhood barely avoided).

OBTW, for the Mountain residents jumping on the alcohol bandwagon now that their neighborhood is "safe", you are foolish and naive if you believe that the same people ramming this referendum through will not be back in a year or so to take another shot at your pocketbooks.

I would like to see some evidence that "small town values" still exist in Asheboro - instead of this insidious/very ugly evil that seems to be permeating & over-taking our boardrooms and council chambers.

I'm disgusted by the fact that the "leaders" of our local hospital stand very much behind this push for alcohol - that they refuse to discuss the huge human toll alcohol will take upon our community (a toll the hospital would profit from). All the "for" signs have the alcohol in fine print. And the fine print seems to be what these people (so concerned about community health and welfare) would have us all skip over.

I'm also very angry that the people behind it are playing various "victim" cards for all they are worth. That doesn't fly either.

For let's be real clear: Where Dr. Mary Johnson is concerned, the very LAST thing Steve Schmidly is is a victim. For the last ten years, he's lived his happy life in Asheboro - raising his kids and loving his wife and talking his long lunches and coaching his Mock-Trialers and going to his baseball games and throwing his monster-parties. Meanwhile, the client he was supposed to help get back her happy life in her hometown has lived and worked on the road - sometimes barely making ends meet - a black-balled, "radioactive" pariah who cannot get a job within reasonable driving distance of the home she's fought to hold on to - her personal life on permanent hold - often staying/sleeping in places Schmid and his "prominent" friends would sniff at.

She has endured all this because she refused to hang up on a terrified nurse in the middle of the night, roll over/go back to sleep, and let a baby die.

So I'm really not interested in doing battle with Steve's daughters or his wife or a bunch of hard-partying Copperheads or the grateful parents of his "Mock-Trialers" or the clueless booze-loving anons at RIT. The FACT is that Schmidly either screwed up royally by not doing his homework (I'd prefer to believe that) or he completely sold me out for an easy buck.

Again, the black and white of discovery documents - documents he did not question or contest - do not lie.

He's never been man enough to own up . . . or lawyer enough to so something to fix it.

You wanna talk about the future? I trusted this man with mine. It was a mistake.

It will be a mistake if the citizens of Asheboro trust him now.

And even if Steve hasn't had a regular bar-stool at the Country Clubs - I can guarantee you that this crowd he's running with now will keep a seat saved and warm for him.

You gotta wonder how much business Mr. Schmidly's law firm will pick up - if/when Asheboro is faced with the inevitable consequences of his version of alcoholic beverage "control".

As for perception, the cartoon in Sunday's paper wasn't funny. Because all one has to do is cross out "Sign Ordinance" and insert "Randolph Hospital" under the drawing.

The Courier's cartoonist (a young-gun obviously trying to impress the "right people" with the calculated faux outrage) doesn't know that. I do.

"We Are Above The Law"

Yes indeed. In Randolph County, some people are.

It's not perception. It's fact.

Thanks, Dale.