This was not a planned post, but was born, more-or-less, as a response to a comment left on the previous post (addressing Randolph Hospital CEO, Bob Morrison's, incomprehensible compensation package) by a local Housecalls reader going by the online moniker, "AW".
"AW" wants to bring attention to two alleged murder cases in Randolph County that he/she thinks were swept under the rug by Randolph County District Attorney, Garland Yates. They were too hot to handle.
While I'm sympathetic to the notion that the Asheboro's DA's office is INCAPABLE of conducting even the most rudimentary of investigations - much less a successful prosecution (be they concerning a murdered mailbox - or a cyber-stalker hurling threats into your Inbox - or two overpaid "non-profit" hosptial executives finishing their hatchet-job of your life and career in your own hometown by repeatedly lying under Oath) . . . I am not sure I want my situation or cause tied too tightly to AW's.
(As an aside, I really need to finish the story on the case of my murdered mailbox. Alas, it seems that it's the job of the Randolph County Sheriff's department - who really had this perpetrator handed to them on a silver platter - to negotiate terms on behalf of said law-breakers instead of advocate for the victims of crime.)
A someone else put it today, there's "quite a bit of mileage" between my case for perjury & fraud (as a Pediatrician and former public servant) against Randolph Hospital's senior executives and two alleged murder cases.
It's an apples and oranges thing . . . a whole very ugly, light-years-different can-of-worms that I do not want to delve too deeply into . . . if for any reason but safety's sake . . . because, I (unlike AW) blog under my own name. My blood and guts splattered on the-white-collars-of-the-right-people . . . and against the white walls of Randolph Hospital . . . are metaphoric.
And I'd like to keep it that way.
Moreover, I have my own battle to fight - anticipating, very shortly, that the stakes are going to rise in such a fashion that the Courier Tribune and News & Record are not going to be able to continue to pretend this blog doesn't exist. And any warm-cookie "brand" name that the powers-that-be come up with will be belied by what Randolph Hospital/Asheboro's "right people" did to this home-girl over a decade ago . . . simply because they thought they could - and would get away with it.
But AW and I do have some common ground. And the same themes repeat themselves over and over again in terms of the creptitude in the Asheboro DA's office that we wish to expose to light and air. I certainly concur that Randolph County has long needed someone other than the equivalent of Jabba-the-Hutt running our Courthouse and dispensing "justice".
Anyway, on the previous Housecalls' thread AW asked the following question of my good friend, Buzz-Armfield-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields-whose-incredibly-gullible-cousins-gave-one-million-dollars-to-Randolph-Hospital-for-the-dubious-privilege-of-getting-the-family-surname-displayed-by-the-Cancer-Center's-front-door-while-lesser-being-Buzz-can't-get-the-CEO-to-fully-answer-a-simple-public-records-request:
Buzz-of-the-Armfield's . . . I've read Dr. Johnson's blog, as have many others . . . There's a lot of money being identified here that's scheduled to benefit someone. I believe from what I've read, (it) merits a thorough investigation for intentionally concealing facts from a court proceeding.
By the way, isn't that considered in the criminal justice circles as “obstruction of justice?
So, yes, this post is directed at you, Buzz, for your reply. I truly believe it's time to bring in the silent audience of Dr. Johnson's blog and have a real discussion with those who don't want things revealed in Randolph County!
Now Buzz tried to respond, but Blogger kicked out his comment as too long to post. So he e-mailed it to me to post for him. And here we are.
AW....I'm not sure just what you are getting at, but I'll try my best. See the definition below, it comes straight from Wikipedia:
Deferred compensation is an arrangement in which a portion of an employee's income is paid out at a date after which that income is actually earned. Examples of deferred compensation include pensions, retirement plans, and stock options. The primary benefit of most deferred compensation is the deferral of tax to the date(s) at which the employee actually receives the income.
There is nothing illegal about it, and it is a common practice.
The use of it for the chief executive of a rural hospital (and yes folks in as much as you don't want to admit it in Asheboro, you're still rural) is more of a question of ethics than legalities.
(Insert Dr. Mary Johnson's addendum that a tenfold increase in one year - from around $30,000 to almost $400,000 REALLY, REALLY SMELLS. That, and from the viewpoint of far Eastern North Carolina, the citizens of Asheboro don't know what "rural" really is.)
When I attended new employee orientation in Forsyth County, County Manager Dudley Watts told us that we're part of the "Big Five" - meaning the largest counties in NC (Forsyth ranking in at number four). The clear implication of the title is that after the "Big Five", none of the rest of North Carolina's 100 counties were of much importance.
When I attended new employee orientation in Randolph County, I was told that Randolph County was number nine in agriculture (so yeah, it's in the boondocks I'm afraid).
The President of these United States (I hear Dr. Johnson's not a big fan) earns less than Bobby Morrison, see the information from Wikipedia below:
"The President earns a $400,000 annual salary, along with a $50,000 annual expense account, a $100,000 non-taxable travel account and $19,000 for entertainment. The most recent raise in salary was approved by Congress and President Bill Clinton in 1999 and went into effect in 2001."
One has to wonder just where all that (Bob's) money comes from?
And does Bobby Morrison deserve it?
With regard to the Armfield Cancer Center, it's a warm fuzzy idea, but not something that was really needed. If I lived in Asheboro, and were diagnosed with the "big C", I would know that there were top notch cancer facilities located an hour west (NC Baptist/Bowman Gray), and an hour east (Duke UMC and UNC Hospitals), not to mention the one thirty minutes away in Greensboro where my wife was treated (Cone Hospital), and even others such as Alamance Regional Medical Center, and First Health-Moore Regional Hospital.
All of these treatment facilities are within an easy hour drive of almost anywhere in Randolph County.
Dr. Johnson long ago convinced me that the Armfield Cancer Center was a waste, and so much a money making scheme dreamed up by the management of Randolph Hospital. There are far more pressing medical issues in Asheboro than cancer, and the money donated by my late uncle's foundation could have been put to much better use elsewhere.
But, Bobby and Stevie wanted a cancer center, so there you have it.
And everyone joined the parade when it went by. Cancer is sexy in the medical business and a sure fire way to rake in the donations.
The Armfield Cancer Center donation came about from what I suspect were local connections between my cousin Betsy Cannon Hughes and her brother Bedford Cannon, a retired attorney in Statesville (who just happens to oversee the Edward M. Armfield Foundation). Both Betsy and Bedford were the children of the late Dr. Eugene Cannon, my uncle, and childhood Pediatrician. He was, I might add, one of the finest men I've ever had the pleasure to know, even if we were related by marriage (he married my father's sister, Cornelia "Dee" Armfield).
Doctor Cannon along with the late Dr. John Cochran, and Dr. Ann Suggs, were the three practicing Pediatricians in Asheboro for many years, and treated generations of local residents. A finer group you will not find, especially in Asheboro today.
None of them made anywhere near what Bobby Morrison rakes in, and the only one them lived on the "mountain", and that was my late uncle, and only because my grandmother Armfield gave them the money to build a house and they chose Lexington Road. Dr. Cochran lived in the Greystone neighborhood, and was a one time neighbor of Dr. Johnson, while Dr. Suggs continues to reside in Greystone to this day.
I'll come clean and tell you that I wasn't always on Dr. Johnson's side. I found this blog by pure accident, and I began reading it. And, yes, like many folks, I tended to take the view that she was so much sour grapes, and that she should move on with her life and quit her bellyaching. Mikey Miller ended my career in Asheboro, and I moved on, and actually did better by leaving. But . . .
I kept reading this blog, and I began to see something else at play.
I was a banker, that's an occupation. But Mary Johnson is a doctor, and that's a profession. You don't invest the time, effort,and money to become a doctor just because you thought it might be "fun".
She came back to Asheboro because she wanted to be there. I would say that she's cut from the same bolt of cloth which Drs. Cannon, Cochran, and Suggs are, and that she truly feels compassion and caring for children, and makes a difference in this world.
My regret with regard to Dr. Johnson is that she never tended to my children, nor due to logistics, will ever tend to my grandchildren.
Running her out of Asheboro was a mistake, and only one that someone like Bobby Morrison would make, and sadly, to him it wasn't a mistake, but a cold, calculated maneuver to keep bad press from seeing the light of day.
If you still think Dr. Mary Johnson is crazy, consider this . . .
The Internet runs on search engines, Google, Yahoo, you name it. Every time Dr. Johnson puts up a post, it leaves a little more data out there for a search engine to grab on to. Her repeated remarks about Randolph Hospital & Bobby Joe Morrison, Stevie Wonder Eblin, The Curious Tribune, Garland "I-Know-Nothing" Yates, Stevie Sellout Schmidly, Harold "I-have-to-live-in-this-town" Brubaker, "Evil" Keith Crisco, and yes, that very sick newborn baby she saved (but that's the only one you know about, she won't tell you about the others) . . . well, it just makes her cause against "the Right People" a little better known to the outside world.
Go ahead, try a simple Google search and type in "Asheboro", or "Randolph Hospital", and see if you don't hit this blog.
I once told my wife that Dr. Johnson was a public relations disaster for Asheboro, only to have my wife reply that it was "the understatement of the year". What Mary Johnson is doing with this blog is very much intentional, and with purpose.
She's accused Robert Morrison and Steven Eblin of everything short of necrophilia, but somehow for some reason, they haven't done ANYTHING to shut her up . . . nor do they seem inclined to.
Lately, the "rights" have circled the wagons even tighter. As if that's gonna work.
If it were me she'd come after, we'd have long ago met in a Courtroom . . . that is, UNLESS I had something that I didn't want to come out into the light of day . . . or might go to jail . . . or risk losing lose my accreditation . . . or my non-profit status . . . or my certificates-of-need for various high-dollar/rationed-by-the-state medical equipment.
So, yes, Ol' Dr. Mary Johnson is crazy . . . crazy like a fox. Sooner or later, she's gonna have her day. And I daresay, select City Council members will rue the day they called her "stupid" in an open Courtroom.
The problem with Asheboro is that it has so many good people who genuinely live those small-town-values . . . but somehow the "right" (translated "wrong") people run the place (they ran it right into Forbes magazine . . . albeit not in a good way).
And the good folks have to be very careful, lest they end up in Dr. Johnson's shoes.
I got wind of comments made after I had left Randolph County . . . and Dr. Johnson had blogged about me/my friends . . . that "Buzz better be careful".
Well, fortunately I don't have to be careful in Asheboro. One, I don't live there, nor would my wife let me. Second, I don't work there, so my job isn't at stake (and yes that does happen, I've heard it more than once how local employers tell their employees how to vote, or else . . . ). And honestly, the people that run things there can't really do much other than keep me from joining the Rotary, or Pinewood.
Somehow, I think I'll be okay as long as my broker keeps trying to take me to dinner at the Piedmont Club, and my cousin Jean keeps throwing those big shindigs over at the Oldtown Club. As for Rotary, I attended as a guest when my father was alive. I thought it sucked, and I learned to love the debauchery that the Greensboro Jaycees offered back in their heyday to that of sitting around with a bunch of boring business types.
Now, with all this said AW, why does Asheboro remain "business as usual"?
Think about it this way. Between the mid 1930's to 1940's, millions of people were put to death as a result of rabid national socialism in certain parts of Europe. German civilians, residing nearby the Bergen-Belsen camp liberated by the Allies had no idea (oh, they did, they just didn't want to see it) that something of that magnitude was going on around them, see the link below, and then you can understand how these things happen:
http://www.scrapbookpages.com/bergenbelsen/introduction.html
Consider this quote from Edmund Burke: "When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."
I think Buzz-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields has about covered it. Neither of us think that Randolph County has a snowball's chance in hell of coming out of its deep, dark funk until its leaders change the way they do "business" . . . and some of the mistakes of the past are addressed and resolved - albeit in a way that might not make some "right people" happy.
I also wish that more of "the good people" (Buzz Armfield is one such person - although he doesn't live in Asheboro any more) would put their names and voices behind their support and good wishes. If they did, thing might really change for the better in Asheboro.
But if you silently put up the "leaders" who drive good doctors out of town whilst stuffing their own pockets on the public's dime . . . lawyers and DA's who foster ugly cover-ups that have NOTHING to do with "small town values" . . . politicians who look the other way because they "have to live in this town" . . . mill-town-kings-who-aren't-really-kings anymore treating everyone else like dirt . . . local daily newspapers that say one thing yet do completely another . . . and city/county managers who want to turn our backyard into everyone else's trash depository . . . well, "Trashboro" is what you get . . . and "Trashboro" is what you DESERVE.
I will say to "AW" that I wish him/her the very best of luck with his/her cause, and would I encourage him/her to keep hammering if that's what he/she thinks is right. I appreciate his/her interest in mine, and welcome any help/support readers want to send my way.
Our basic goal is basically the same . . .
. . . justice for all of the people in Randolph County . . . as opposed to just "the right people".
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