Anti-SLAPP Suit Legislation Is In The Works: Slapping "Hosebags" And "Rich Douche Bags" (Like The Ones Running Randolph Hospital) Back

I've de-linked Overlawyered on the Housecalls sidebar (where it was for years - until I got tired of having my comments over there deleted or heavily edited), but I still read it on occasion.

Walter Olson reports that Federal Anti-SLAPP legislation is in the works (HR 4364).

Pertinent links are here and here.

I ABSOLUTELY LOVED the description of a SLAPP suit offered up by Marc Randazza of the Citizen Media Law Project:

A SLAPP suit is a "Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation." In other words, it is a lawsuit that some hosebag files against a critic -- not because he hopes to win anything, but because the mere filing of the suit is punishment enough for the critic. Lawsuits are expensive, and when a rich douchebag has plenty of money to spend on attorney's fees, he can afford to sue a couple of critics, thus scaring the bejesus out of anyone else who might criticize him.

Now, in my case, the "SLAPP suit" in question was filed by Randolph Hospital as a counter-suit to my original 1999 "breach of contract" lawsuit against Randolph Medical Associates . . . a lawsuit I filed because I really did not appreciate and could not reconcile being fired the year before (without ANY kind of due process) for doing my DUTY as a Pediatrician.

It was simply WRONG that, based on the trumped-up accusations of an uber-entitled local dentist, I had been forced by a "non-profit" to chose between my job and a newborn baby's life.

I cannot just "get over" that and "move on".

The most mortifying moment in my life was arriving home late one Friday night (after a four hour drive coming in from an assignment) to find an e-mail in my Inbox from a Greensboro News & Record reporter asking me if I had any comment to offer on a story running the next day . . . about a "libel" lawsuit that Randolph had filed against me.

Of course, I got home too late to reply to the e-mail.

I did not even know the lawsuit was in the works (in stark contrast, the hospital had known my lawsuit was coming their way for the better part of a year). And my lawyer was out-of-town. The next morning, my parents and I got to read all about evil me in the paper.

The headline was that I was a liar.

My Mother read that. And my Father died without ever seeing the headline he should have (as my ultimate legal "victory" only merited a second-page "short-take in the Courier Tribune).

In the wake of the newspaper articles in which Asheboro's ruling elite proclaimed me a liar, the hosptial tried to compound the humiliation by having the lawsuit served on me at work in Duplin County (instead of serving it on my attorney in Asheboro). A world-weary-uber-wise Sheriff's deputy would have none of that garbage, and he let me pick it up (small kindnesses matter) when I got off work.

(As an aside, I've found that the people/practices/hospitals of Eastern North Carolina generally appreciate their physicians . . . and treat them them a whole lot better . . . than those in the Piedmont.)

AND/SO HERE'S A MESSAGE TO ANYONE WHO HAD ANYTHING TO DO (ACTIVELY OR PASSIVELY) WITH THAT DESPICABLE LAWSUIT: I TRUSTED YOU/YOUR HOSPITAL WITH MY FUTURE. I BUSTED MY TAIL TO MAKE THAT PRACTICE A SUCCESS, AND I DID EVERYTHING I WAS SUPPOSED TO DO FOR YOU. BECAUSE IT WAS HOME AND I CARED, I PUT UP WITH ALL THE BROKEN PROMISES AND THE KNIVES IN THE BACK, AND FOR THOSE CONSIDERATIONS WAS REWARDED WITH SEEING THE LIFE I HAD BUILT IN MY HOMETOWN TURNED TO ASHES.

I WILL NEVER, EVER FORGET WHAT YOU, OR YOUR THIRD-RATE/WAY-OVERPAID ADMINISTRATORS, OR YOUR TWO-BIT BAND-AID STATION DID TO ME AND MY FAMILY.

AND I WILL NEVER, EVER LET YOU OFF THE HOOK.

YOU ARE THE LOWEST FORMS OF BOTTOM-FEEDING SCUM TO ME.

AND UNTIL I GET FULL/FAIR RESTITUTION AND AN UNCONDITIONAL APOLOGY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO ME, I WILL CHASE YOU PEOPLE TO HELL AND BACK, EAT A SANDWICH AND CHASE YOU AGAIN!!!

"A LITTLE WACKY"? NO. VERY, VERY, VERY ANGRY? YES.

Hummmmmmm . . . how's that for "critical"? Well hold on tight ladies and gents because there's a whole lot more where that came from.

Randolph's "libel" lawsuit cited select excerpts from a 30-some page letter I sent to Clinton USDHHS Secretary Donna Shalala (I'm thinking seriously now about publishing it online) . . . after the National Health Service Corps asked for feedback on my experience in Asheboro/at RMA. The letter was marked "CONFIDENTIAL" on every single page and sent ONLY to oversight agencies that had the right/need to know.

And, in fact, the NHSC removed Randolph Medical Associates from their list of approved providers based on what was in that complaint. So it obviously had merit.

Those are the FACTS. But little things like FACTS never stopped this hospital and its band of bullies.

What Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin and their slick attorneys (not to mention their useless, unconcerned-about-medical-ethics-at-all, rubber-stamp Board of Directors) did not know when they filed their bogus lawsuit (I heard through the grapevine that several of the bigwigs thought it was funny) was that two of my former colleagues in Asheboro had written their own letters (to JCAHO) . . . supporting the veracity of what was in my complaint.

To quote Dr. Anderson:

I would like to assure you that I agree with everything which Dr. Johnson wrote, and I feel her missive to be an accurate representation of the events which took place in Asheboro during the time I was there (July 1995-January 1999).

Unfortunately, Randolph Hospital and Mr. Eblin have not made the same effort to be factual in their communication with other physicians, other hospitals or JCAHO.

So the REAL liars here . . . the people with ZERO credibility . . . were Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin . . . not that anyone in a position of oversight, law enforcement or journalism has ever cared.

One gets a little tired of the likes of Edwards and Sleazely sneering and spitting at her. And don't even get me started on entitled know-nothing-of-the-real-world elitists like Olberman.

The hospital was hosed pretty much from day one on their not-so-slick legal trick . . . and ultimately had to tuck tail and run from their own lawsuit.

And if they had played fair (as they filled their own pockets), the story would have ended at settlement.

But Randolph's senior executives did not play fair (yet again). In FACT, they repeatedly lied under Oath during the discovery phase of their own "libel" lawsuit (no irony there) . . . AND negotiated the terms of a settlement of both lawsuits based upon those lies (getting out on the cheap) . . . in-your-face perjury, contempt and fraud . . . something that, six years after reporting it, I'm still waiting Garland Yates and/or the US/NC Attorneys General to do something about.

And while cyber-stalking local bloggers or lawyers like Sam Spagnola (now running for public office) would like you to think that BAD FAITH does not matter in North Carolina Courtrooms (wait, I know, let's ask Greg Taylor), and that I should just "shut up about it" and move on, I'm afraid I'm gonna have to tell Sam to go blow. And this "eternal victim" will see "Fec" in Court.

It's just not change I can believe in.

I defended the "libel" lawsuit all by my lonesome - paying as we went - nothing on contingency. My legal fees (to the incredibly-negligent, always smiling, Steve Schmidly) were ultimately not reimbursed.

So let's review the case of Dr. Mary Johnson vs. Randolph Hospital using Marc Randazza's analogy:

I am the "critic": The doctor who was brought home with Federal money to start a practice that she was supposed to be able to transition if she did not stay with the "parent company" (Randolph Hospital/RMA) once her public service obligation was up . . . the doctor who was fired for saving a dying child's life (to facilitate a cover-up for a Cone-owned physician) . . . the homegrown Pediatrician whose reputation was pummeled and practice destroyed/absorbed by a series of despicable actions on the part of a "charitable" institution supposedly charged with the public good.

The big "hosebag" here was "non-profit" Randolph Hospital, specifically "douche-bags" Bob Morrison and Steven Eblin . . . their actions condoned and approved of by the "rich-douche-bags" (aka "honrables") sitting (and smirking through it all) on their Board of Directors.

But the "rich-douche-bags" were actually not really footing this bill . . . either for Bob & Steve's bad/incredibly stupid business moves . . . or the legal expenses incurred from said bad/incredibly stupid moves.

That would the the taxpayer.

The purpose of the lawsuit was to "scare the bejesus" out of me (and anyone else - most specifically any doctors or nurses - who might support me), and to "punish" me fiscally.

I was punished alright. And VERY scared for a VERY long time. Forced on the road, financially devastated, unable to find work locally, I spent YEARS scraping by . . . even after the lawsuits were resolved . . . barely holding onto my house . . . at one point my Mom (the lady who had to read on the front page of the newspaper of the town where she taught for 30-some years that her daughter was a liar) had to pay my mortgage.

NO MORE.

I sincerely hope that this blog is scaring some of these people now - giving them just a small taste of what they dished out on the taxpayer's dime. Criminals deserve to be scared . . . to constantly look over their shoulder and wonder if/when the hammer is going to fall.

So do the people/institutions/towns that given them shelter and aid.

If anybody has ever wondered how/why Asheboro, North Carolina found itself on a list of dying towns, look no further than the machinations and players behind this story.

And I'm wondering. What exactly does it take for John Robinson or Ed Cone or the new Editor at the Courier Tribune to come to the conclusion that my twelve-year-old story-of-medical-woe-in-a-Southern-mill-town is "relevant" to the events of the here and now?

Author's Note: This post just flew out of my fingers very late last night - after finding Olson's post and reading Randazza's. It's been edited & embellished this morning.

3/13 Update:

Related (on a local lawyer-now-candidate-for-public-office who should know better).
Also related (on the trials and tribulations of anti-hero Andrew Young as he fends off the evil Edwardian lawers).
Also related (Popehat weighs in on SLAPPs).

3/16 Update:

This post was featured on this week's "Grand Rounds". My thanks to Dr. Kim.

As I said a long time ago (as I mourned the premature demise of "Flea's" blog), I've been sued twice in my life . . . once (unsuccessfully) for "malpractice" . . . and once (unsuccessfully) for "libel".

Getting sued for "libel" was MUCH worse.

You see, getting sued for "malpractice" was about what I do.

Getting sued for "libel" was about who I am.