An incredible story that I somehow missed last week: ". . . former Luzerne County Judge Mark Ciavarella was convicted Friday of racketeering in a $2.8 million "kids for cash" plot to send youth offenders to for-profit detention centers owned by his friends."
Sandy Fonzo's son committed suicide after being sentenced to one of those programs on a first-time offense for possession of drug paraphernalia. At the Courthouse door, in full view of reporters, Ms. Fonzo confronted the legal scumbag who put her son on that particular road to perdition-on-earth . . . and who, after his own conviction, was allowed to go home with his daughter under house arrest.
I know her permeating-the-very-core-of-your-being sorrow over a loved one lost to suicide.
I also know her rage against a corrupt legal system - where "justice" only works for the moneyed and connected. I know what she means about just existing . . . and about living a "sentence" imposed by people who have no conscience . . . who couldn't care less about the damage they've done.
This woman is my hero.
Monday, February 28, 2011
"Human Nature And The Foibles And The Fall"
In an article worthy of Rob Christensen, the New York Times seems to think that John Edwards is thisclose to being indicted - even as the residents of Chapel Hill struggle with bringing him back into their fold.
Of course, the Enquirer said it first (and, as if Edwards was EVER out of the fold).
A friend of mine, idly musing the other day, wondered how much money local Dem & Randolph Hospital CEO, Bob Morrison, might have poured into Johnny-Reid's campaign coffers - and if it at all affected Johnny's judgment when a certain physician-badly-burned-in-the-very-kind-of-public-service-he-was-advocating repeatedly wrote his Senate offices - begging for a little representation.
Jerks.
Of course, the Enquirer said it first (and, as if Edwards was EVER out of the fold).
A friend of mine, idly musing the other day, wondered how much money local Dem & Randolph Hospital CEO, Bob Morrison, might have poured into Johnny-Reid's campaign coffers - and if it at all affected Johnny's judgment when a certain physician-badly-burned-in-the-very-kind-of-public-service-he-was-advocating repeatedly wrote his Senate offices - begging for a little representation.
Jerks.
On Dr. Raymond Cook
I'm kind of an expert on malice . . . having been on the receiving end of so much of it . . . courtesy of the right-upstanding people of Asheboro with the small-town-values.
The jury is still deliberating on the case of Dr. Raymond Cook - the Raleigh-area surgeon on-trial for second-degree murder after mowing down a ballerina whilst driving drunk in September 2009.
I've not followed the case on the blog because I'm kind of wondering why there was a trial and not a plea bargain. There's zero question the man is guilty.
Of course, given that lawyers are involved, the case will turn on the concept of "malice". And it will be interesting to see if a jury will buy the doctor's lawyerly excuses - that he didn't "mean" to kill Elena Shapiro when he got behind the wheel. The key issue for me would not be what he did after he plowed into her vehicle at high speed (i.e. the bloody/futile mouth-to-mouth) . . . but instead, forethought . . . in other words, what was the doctor's state-of-mind and knowledge-base BEFORE he picked up that first drink?
And I'm thinking it played out like this: He was a big bad important doctor and could do anything he liked and just get slap on the hand.
He could kill ANYONE. It didn't matter who got in his way.
3/1 Update:
The jury got lost in the smoke and mirrors of "malice". Cook was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. As a physician, I am stunned-but-not-surprised. The verdict certainly underscores the need for legislative reform when it comes to drunk driving and death-by-motor-vehicle.
The defense team earned their money. And after they plow through what's left of Cook's assets after not working for over a year, I expect Elena's parents will not see much in the form of damages if and when they sue Cook in civil court.
The jury is still deliberating on the case of Dr. Raymond Cook - the Raleigh-area surgeon on-trial for second-degree murder after mowing down a ballerina whilst driving drunk in September 2009.
I've not followed the case on the blog because I'm kind of wondering why there was a trial and not a plea bargain. There's zero question the man is guilty.
Of course, given that lawyers are involved, the case will turn on the concept of "malice". And it will be interesting to see if a jury will buy the doctor's lawyerly excuses - that he didn't "mean" to kill Elena Shapiro when he got behind the wheel. The key issue for me would not be what he did after he plowed into her vehicle at high speed (i.e. the bloody/futile mouth-to-mouth) . . . but instead, forethought . . . in other words, what was the doctor's state-of-mind and knowledge-base BEFORE he picked up that first drink?
And I'm thinking it played out like this: He was a big bad important doctor and could do anything he liked and just get slap on the hand.
He could kill ANYONE. It didn't matter who got in his way.
3/1 Update:
The jury got lost in the smoke and mirrors of "malice". Cook was convicted of involuntary manslaughter. As a physician, I am stunned-but-not-surprised. The verdict certainly underscores the need for legislative reform when it comes to drunk driving and death-by-motor-vehicle.
The defense team earned their money. And after they plow through what's left of Cook's assets after not working for over a year, I expect Elena's parents will not see much in the form of damages if and when they sue Cook in civil court.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
I Saw Dead People
This morning, I visited the Natural Science Center to see the "Bodies Revealed" exhibit. Got there shortly before the center opened at 9 AM, and there was already a long line. At $21/pop, the place is making craploads of money on this venture.
With a few notable exceptions, it was a lot like anatomy class in the first year of medical school - except you didn't walk out smelling like formaldehyde. Oddly enough,ogling the preserved bodies of mostly gentlemen who may have been political prisoners (like I'm going to believe "suppliers" from the People's Republic of China) did not trouble me nearly as much as what might have been the story behind the 24-week fetus floating in a jar. It's interesting how one reacts to and processes these things.
I bought a souvenir program for Mama to look at - and an anatomy coloring book for me. Back in the day, the best way for me to memorize all those body parts was to color them.
I saw tigers too. They were magnificent creatures.
With a few notable exceptions, it was a lot like anatomy class in the first year of medical school - except you didn't walk out smelling like formaldehyde. Oddly enough,ogling the preserved bodies of mostly gentlemen who may have been political prisoners (like I'm going to believe "suppliers" from the People's Republic of China) did not trouble me nearly as much as what might have been the story behind the 24-week fetus floating in a jar. It's interesting how one reacts to and processes these things.
I bought a souvenir program for Mama to look at - and an anatomy coloring book for me. Back in the day, the best way for me to memorize all those body parts was to color them.
I saw tigers too. They were magnificent creatures.
Put That In Your North Carolina Tort Reform And Smoke It!
The Raleigh N&O has an article up today about the "new" push for malpractice tort reform in North Carolina (the land of legal-eagle-channeling-dead-babies-turned-USELESS-United-States-Senator-turned-wife-cheating-porn-star-turned-baby-daddy).
Allow me to summarize the article. The N&O features (very sympathetically) family members of patients who've taken their cases to settlement despite all of the hurdles already imposed by the heavily-stacked-in-favor-of-hospitals legal system. The new Republican regime in Raleigh is gung-ho-full-steam-ahead-to-pass-something-anything-that-appears-"business-friendly" without really looking at the core of the problem (that would be doctors' & hospitals' ABJECT FAILURE to effectively & fairly police their own) Trial lawyers are having seizures (that part I'm okay with).
But somehow, neither the high-minded journalists in Raleigh, nor the N.C. Coalition for Patient Safety, nor the N.C. House Select Committee on Tort Reform, nor Republican hot-shot Harold Brubaker think that the ugly story of what happened to former state-&-Federal public servant, Dr. Mary Johnson, for reporting malpractice at her hometown hospital is "relevant" to the subject of "reform".
I dropped a comment on the article:
Allow me to summarize the article. The N&O features (very sympathetically) family members of patients who've taken their cases to settlement despite all of the hurdles already imposed by the heavily-stacked-in-favor-of-hospitals legal system. The new Republican regime in Raleigh is gung-ho-full-steam-ahead-to-pass-something-anything-that-appears-"business-friendly" without really looking at the core of the problem (that would be doctors' & hospitals' ABJECT FAILURE to effectively & fairly police their own) Trial lawyers are having seizures (that part I'm okay with).
But somehow, neither the high-minded journalists in Raleigh, nor the N.C. Coalition for Patient Safety, nor the N.C. House Select Committee on Tort Reform, nor Republican hot-shot Harold Brubaker think that the ugly story of what happened to former state-&-Federal public servant, Dr. Mary Johnson, for reporting malpractice at her hometown hospital is "relevant" to the subject of "reform".
A doctor who has endured every manner of professional and personal insult for doing her duty by a patient-not-even-her-own remains out in the cold - not worthy of a phone call or an invite to testify to the Super-Special-Select House Committee.
The Committee would get an earful . . . particularly about the quality of justice for whistle-blowing physicians in North Carolina . . . where the truth doesn't count for a whole lot if you're taking on the "right people".
I dropped a comment on the article:
Here's a response to the oh-so-noble lawyers & politicians.
Saturday, February 26, 2011
"Proof" Of The Uwharrie Bigfoot
Locals-who-have-too-much-time-on-their-hands send me stuff. Sometimes it's just wrong;)
"What you are about to see is real. Viewer discretion is advised."
The clip came with the commentary that it's proof that the area has more attractions than just the N.C. Zoo.
He kinda reminds me of Bob Morrison - what with all of the marking of territory.
I hope the zoo doesn't catch this monkey. Perhaps he'll come to Asheboro and visit The Pig.
"What you are about to see is real. Viewer discretion is advised."
The clip came with the commentary that it's proof that the area has more attractions than just the N.C. Zoo.
He kinda reminds me of Bob Morrison - what with all of the marking of territory.
I hope the zoo doesn't catch this monkey. Perhaps he'll come to Asheboro and visit The Pig.
Can You Give Me A Thumbs-Up, Jimmy?
Presenting Jimmy, the polydactyl cat. It apparently helps if you ask with an English accent;)
Friday, February 25, 2011
On Charlie Sheen
I've not paid much attention to Charlie Sheen's very ugly/public meltdown over the last few weeks. "Two and a Half Men", is not on my list of must-see-TV. When I do catch an episode, it occasionally extracts a good guffaw, but it's not War and Peace . . . although very soon it may be Gone With The Wind Charlie's hot air.
I also find it very hard to feel sorry for spoiled-rich-kid, coke-head, alcoholic, sex addicts who make over one million dollars per 30-minute episode of their-particular-brand-of-mind-candy (not even counting syndication deals) to play cleaned-up versions of themselves.
I did watch the latest episode the other night, and felt like the show had already jumped-the-shark . . . what with the under-rated/under-appreciated John "Duckie" Cryer reduced to talking to toasters and all. But the thing that shocked me the most was Sheen's haggard appearance - far older than his years - something that all the expensive, caked-on Hollywood makeup in the world could not cover.
Charlie resembled these folks-with-similar-demons.
I also find it very hard to feel sorry for spoiled-rich-kid, coke-head, alcoholic, sex addicts who make over one million dollars per 30-minute episode of their-particular-brand-of-mind-candy (not even counting syndication deals) to play cleaned-up versions of themselves.
I did watch the latest episode the other night, and felt like the show had already jumped-the-shark . . . what with the under-rated/under-appreciated John "Duckie" Cryer reduced to talking to toasters and all. But the thing that shocked me the most was Sheen's haggard appearance - far older than his years - something that all the expensive, caked-on Hollywood makeup in the world could not cover.
Charlie resembled these folks-with-similar-demons.
Why Yes, Steve (Schmidly), Damages ARE Taxable!
After three years of legal hell (and, prior-to-that, three years of hard work), down the tubes, the way that local-legal-eagle-with-the-Jack-in-his-drawer, Steve Schmidly, got me to accept the paltry $125,000 settlement Randolph Hospital offered to settle both my lawsuit against Randolph Medical Associates and their despicable SLAPP-suit (well, besides Bob & Steve and their laying lawyers telling me that the practice was "almost bankrupt", and my acceptance of what they offered would be a service to the community that would be rewarded with the hospital's future cooperation in getting a new practice off the ground) was to tell me that the "award" was not taxable.
Alas, I was pretty much locked in a room until the i's were dotted and the t's crossed, and was not able to check-out that "fact" with my accountant - who later informed me otherwise.
I made the mistake of trusting a lawyer - you know the guy who was supposed to put my best interests FIRST.
Schmidly had lied to me. After taxes and paying Schmidly his final cut (which we all know was the most important thing of all), I didn't have much to show for the medico-legal HELL I'd been put through because I refused to give into threats, hang up on a nurse, roll over, go back to sleep and let a newborn baby die.
As a point-of-reference, I had paid Schmidly out-of-pocket as we went along. Bob and Steve's dirty tricks and legal fees were all covered by the taxpayer. NOTHING came out of their own pockets.
One of the nasties Bob & his gang of non-profiteers used to spread about town was Mary Johnson was trying to shake them down, and that "it was all about money". The myth they propagated was that Mary was a greedy, disruptive bitch who just did not "fit in" (in the hometown where she was raised). None of the unethical/ugly/ultimately illegal stuff they did to her was subject to anyone's scrutiny . . . no one cared . . . not the hospital BOD, not the Medical Board, and most certainly not DHHS.
My Father went to his grave believing (as do I) that Schmidly sold me out (and kept all the embarrassing-ugly-for-the-hospital out of an open Courtroom) in order to serve other small-town masters . . . to keep a bar-stool warm at the Country Club . . . and to "fit in".
Of course, these days, the sneers and spits I endured/still endure for the sin of fighting back are kind of hard to take from the $700,000 man and his friends on the Board - you know, like the one whose "stewardship" of FNB saw 250 MILLION dollars go bye-bye in 3 years.
Nothing remotely about money there.
Anyway, the Duke boys are back in the news. And why yes, Steve, damages ARE taxable (just like the loan repayment that so many of the doctors in town begrudged me was taxable) And it's one of the reasons I'm in this blogosphere dogging your treacherous, lying ass.
Alas, I was pretty much locked in a room until the i's were dotted and the t's crossed, and was not able to check-out that "fact" with my accountant - who later informed me otherwise.
I made the mistake of trusting a lawyer - you know the guy who was supposed to put my best interests FIRST.
Schmidly had lied to me. After taxes and paying Schmidly his final cut (which we all know was the most important thing of all), I didn't have much to show for the medico-legal HELL I'd been put through because I refused to give into threats, hang up on a nurse, roll over, go back to sleep and let a newborn baby die.
As a point-of-reference, I had paid Schmidly out-of-pocket as we went along. Bob and Steve's dirty tricks and legal fees were all covered by the taxpayer. NOTHING came out of their own pockets.
One of the nasties Bob & his gang of non-profiteers used to spread about town was Mary Johnson was trying to shake them down, and that "it was all about money". The myth they propagated was that Mary was a greedy, disruptive bitch who just did not "fit in" (in the hometown where she was raised). None of the unethical/ugly/ultimately illegal stuff they did to her was subject to anyone's scrutiny . . . no one cared . . . not the hospital BOD, not the Medical Board, and most certainly not DHHS.
My Father went to his grave believing (as do I) that Schmidly sold me out (and kept all the embarrassing-ugly-for-the-hospital out of an open Courtroom) in order to serve other small-town masters . . . to keep a bar-stool warm at the Country Club . . . and to "fit in".
Of course, these days, the sneers and spits I endured/still endure for the sin of fighting back are kind of hard to take from the $700,000 man and his friends on the Board - you know, like the one whose "stewardship" of FNB saw 250 MILLION dollars go bye-bye in 3 years.
Nothing remotely about money there.
Anyway, the Duke boys are back in the news. And why yes, Steve, damages ARE taxable (just like the loan repayment that so many of the doctors in town begrudged me was taxable) And it's one of the reasons I'm in this blogosphere dogging your treacherous, lying ass.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
A Classic Day In Asheboro . . .
At some point this past winter - with all of the road construction down East - I managed to drive through some wet road paint. I had finely-dispersed yellow & white spatter all over the driver's side of the car. Today, I took the Camry to Automasters on Dixie Drive/Hwy 64 to be cleaned and detailed - inside and out. They did a BEAUTIFUL job getting the paint off and the car clean. It looks and smells like a new car.
When I dropped-off the car this morning for service, local real estate queen, Billie Wilson, was in the waiting room (it's my understanding that some of my neighbors-on-the-wrong-end-of-Viewmont might be coming out of hibernation with regards to getting something done about our crappy roads & cul-de-sacs - alas, since the state is for-damned-sure not going to do anything about Ms. Wilson's failure to maintain the roads of the community-she-developed to state specs - the only alternative I see is residents uniting to sue Ms. Wilson). Billie was dressed-to-the-nines and getting her Mercedes (the Mercedes she can more easily afford because she didn't do right by all of the homeowners she sold houses to) washed.
It was a classic Asheboro encounter between "rights" and "wrongs". She pretended she didn't know me, and I ignored her.
Anyway, a friend picked me up this morning - and another friend dropped me off when the car was done. It was around 3 PM - and we happened to drive by the new Sheetz gas station at the intersection of Hwy 64 & Dublin Road. The parking lot was full and there was a line around the building to get in ?!?
When I dropped-off the car this morning for service, local real estate queen, Billie Wilson, was in the waiting room (it's my understanding that some of my neighbors-on-the-wrong-end-of-Viewmont might be coming out of hibernation with regards to getting something done about our crappy roads & cul-de-sacs - alas, since the state is for-damned-sure not going to do anything about Ms. Wilson's failure to maintain the roads of the community-she-developed to state specs - the only alternative I see is residents uniting to sue Ms. Wilson). Billie was dressed-to-the-nines and getting her Mercedes (the Mercedes she can more easily afford because she didn't do right by all of the homeowners she sold houses to) washed.
It was a classic Asheboro encounter between "rights" and "wrongs". She pretended she didn't know me, and I ignored her.
Anyway, a friend picked me up this morning - and another friend dropped me off when the car was done. It was around 3 PM - and we happened to drive by the new Sheetz gas station at the intersection of Hwy 64 & Dublin Road. The parking lot was full and there was a line around the building to get in ?!?
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The Measure Of Justice & Journalism In Asheboro: The "Gang" That Attacked Dr. Mary Johnson Wears Suits And Dines/Drinks At The Country Club(s)
I'm still smarting over what went down at First Baptist this past Sunday.
It's fine to build bridges and encourage folks to pray for the well-being of Asheboro, but to "honor" and feed people who need to be down on their knees asking some of the rest of us for forgiveness is just too much to turn my bruised and scarred cheek away from.
This morning, after ignoring the story of Dr. Mary Johnson for over a decade, the Courier offers its readers a story on a Father who alleges he only became involved in a recent bar fight to protect his son from a gang.
Dear old Dad's a victim, you see. And we're emphasizing the positive - i.e. his love for his son made him do it.
Perhaps I'm being naive or old-fashioned or too uptight and not progressive enough, but I'm thinking that if the citizens of Asheboro hadn't been snookered by Schmidly-&-"the-rights" into "saving" our town by drenching its every corner in alcohol, we wouldn't be hosting any bar fights at all . . . and maybe twelve-year-olds wouldn't be dying on the sides of our highways after drunk drivers turned automobiles into deadly missiles to be shot through billboard signs.
The Asheboro Police Chief . . . who was honored at FBC on Sunday . . . and "the man" under whose jurisdiction my case-with-no-statute-of-limitations falls (because the lies were sworn and filed within the city limits) . . . the same "man" who could solve many of my problems by simply ceding jurisdiction to the N.C. Attorney General and referring the case for the proper-investigation-it's-never-gotten-because-Bob-Morrison-&-Steven-Eblin-are-simply-too-important to the SBI (yeah, I know, the SBI) . . . states that there's no evidence to support the Dad's claim.
But the Courier will make it front page news anyway.
The "gang" that attacked Dr. Mary Johnson wears suits and dines/drinks at the Country Club(s). And she has black-&-white-evidence proving her allegations - in the form of sworn discovery documents and IRS 990's.
I cannot think of a more egregious affront to those "high moral standards" our Police Chief espouses on his homepage than allowing two local executives laboring under the pretense of public charity to swear a false Oath to God in a Court proceeding (in doing so, not only SPITTING IN GOD'S FACE but treating the community they supposedly "serve" with CONTEMPT), and TOTALLY GET AWAY WITH IT because they're too important to hold accountable - and are held above the law by those who are charged with enforcing it.
Alas, neither Asheboro's Police Chief nor its newspaper publisher are interested.
There's NOTHING positive to emphasis - except the doctor's determination to persevere against the liars and cheats who've run her hometown into the ground.
It's fine to build bridges and encourage folks to pray for the well-being of Asheboro, but to "honor" and feed people who need to be down on their knees asking some of the rest of us for forgiveness is just too much to turn my bruised and scarred cheek away from.
This morning, after ignoring the story of Dr. Mary Johnson for over a decade, the Courier offers its readers a story on a Father who alleges he only became involved in a recent bar fight to protect his son from a gang.
Dear old Dad's a victim, you see. And we're emphasizing the positive - i.e. his love for his son made him do it.
Perhaps I'm being naive or old-fashioned or too uptight and not progressive enough, but I'm thinking that if the citizens of Asheboro hadn't been snookered by Schmidly-&-"the-rights" into "saving" our town by drenching its every corner in alcohol, we wouldn't be hosting any bar fights at all . . . and maybe twelve-year-olds wouldn't be dying on the sides of our highways after drunk drivers turned automobiles into deadly missiles to be shot through billboard signs.
The Asheboro Police Chief . . . who was honored at FBC on Sunday . . . and "the man" under whose jurisdiction my case-with-no-statute-of-limitations falls (because the lies were sworn and filed within the city limits) . . . the same "man" who could solve many of my problems by simply ceding jurisdiction to the N.C. Attorney General and referring the case for the proper-investigation-it's-never-gotten-because-Bob-Morrison-&-Steven-Eblin-are-simply-too-important to the SBI (yeah, I know, the SBI) . . . states that there's no evidence to support the Dad's claim.
But the Courier will make it front page news anyway.
The "gang" that attacked Dr. Mary Johnson wears suits and dines/drinks at the Country Club(s). And she has black-&-white-evidence proving her allegations - in the form of sworn discovery documents and IRS 990's.
I cannot think of a more egregious affront to those "high moral standards" our Police Chief espouses on his homepage than allowing two local executives laboring under the pretense of public charity to swear a false Oath to God in a Court proceeding (in doing so, not only SPITTING IN GOD'S FACE but treating the community they supposedly "serve" with CONTEMPT), and TOTALLY GET AWAY WITH IT because they're too important to hold accountable - and are held above the law by those who are charged with enforcing it.
Alas, neither Asheboro's Police Chief nor its newspaper publisher are interested.
There's NOTHING positive to emphasis - except the doctor's determination to persevere against the liars and cheats who've run her hometown into the ground.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
News Flash: A Fox From Asheboro Is Guarding the N.C. Center For Public Policy Research's Henhouse
Alerted by an incredulous friend, I quote the blurb above the Courier Tribune's paywall:
RALEIGH — The N.C. Center for Public Policy Research announced the election of seven new members to its statewide 23-member board of directors as well as new officers.
Bob Morrison of Randolph Hospital is among those elected to office. Morrison was elected treasurer for 2011. He is also the president and CEO of Randolph Hospital.
Like I said before (earlier today), I'm pretty much numb to this stuff now. It's the same old crap, different day, in our state so concerned about transparency, accountability and ethics.
I rather liken electing a "non-profit" hospital CEO-who-is-guilty-of-perjury-contempt-&-fraud (anyone who wants to see the sworn court documents proving Morrison's guilt need only give me a call - the Randolph County District Attorney hasn't) as treasurer of your organization, to UNC-Chapel Hill teaming-up with ex-Senator-now-porn-star, John Edwards, for the purposes of fighting poverty.
Bob Morrison is a snob, a bully and a liar and a crook. His "yes-men-&-women-need-only-apply/right-people-rule" management style is one of the reasons Asheboro is in the sorry shape it's in.
I'm also thinking that, as a matter of public policy, this sends a very disturbing message to the public - or rather two very distrubing messages:
(1) It's okay to professionally & legally terrorize doctors for blowing the whistle on bad care at your hospital.
Better to set an example, so the next physician will just roll over and let the baby die.
(2) It's also okay to rip-off the community you serve (recently deemed one of America's fastest "dying towns") in the form of your $700,000/year salary - under the pretense of charity and the public good.
RALEIGH — The N.C. Center for Public Policy Research announced the election of seven new members to its statewide 23-member board of directors as well as new officers.
Bob Morrison of Randolph Hospital is among those elected to office. Morrison was elected treasurer for 2011. He is also the president and CEO of Randolph Hospital.
Like I said before (earlier today), I'm pretty much numb to this stuff now. It's the same old crap, different day, in our state so concerned about transparency, accountability and ethics.
I rather liken electing a "non-profit" hospital CEO-who-is-guilty-of-perjury-contempt-&-fraud (anyone who wants to see the sworn court documents proving Morrison's guilt need only give me a call - the Randolph County District Attorney hasn't) as treasurer of your organization, to UNC-Chapel Hill teaming-up with ex-Senator-now-porn-star, John Edwards, for the purposes of fighting poverty.
Bob Morrison is a snob, a bully and a liar and a crook. His "yes-men-&-women-need-only-apply/right-people-rule" management style is one of the reasons Asheboro is in the sorry shape it's in.
I'm also thinking that, as a matter of public policy, this sends a very disturbing message to the public - or rather two very distrubing messages:
(1) It's okay to professionally & legally terrorize doctors for blowing the whistle on bad care at your hospital.
Better to set an example, so the next physician will just roll over and let the baby die.
(2) It's also okay to rip-off the community you serve (recently deemed one of America's fastest "dying towns") in the form of your $700,000/year salary - under the pretense of charity and the public good.
"Hand-delivered To The Up-scale Neighborhoods Of Asheboro"
There's a new monthly magazine floating around Asheboro - published by Sherry and David Johnson (definitely no relation) of "Crown Harbor Marketing". I've thumbed through a few of the more recent editions during my sporadic visits to Circa Gallery downtown (I've long done my small part to support local businesses and artists) - and lately, I've started finding them encased in a plastic bag in my driveway (on Dave's Mountain).
The magazine seems to me to be a rerun from the Steven Eblin school-of-marketing . . . meaning that some well-meaning/ambitious out-of-towners land in the area, and immediately (1) decide what needs to happen to turn the town into their kind of oasis, (2) start sucking up to "the right people", and (3) begin "celebrating the positive" in their own highly-stylized "up-beat" mouthpiece publication - designed to appeal to local egos (like those of assorted/featured healthcare professionals). Apart from chuckling over a few of the articles with friends (we could literally hear the sucking noises emanating from the magazine's spine), I hadn't given it much attention.
But it stopped being amusing when one of my pals pointed out a blurb on the magazine's publishing page - something I had missed:
"Asheboro Magazine's printed distribution is 3000 copies. It is hand-delivered to the upscale neighborhoods of Asheboro which is roughly 1,500 homes. The other 1,5000 editions are distributed through high-end retails locations, the library, hotels and other high-traffic areas. Additionally, Asheboro Magazine is available online in digital page-turner format where it is read by approximately 13,000+ (and growing) people."
Here is what caught my friend's eye (and was the real kicker for me): If you're not "up-scale", you can PURCHASE the subscription that Asheboro's "high-enders" get for free for just $29.95.
Same old crap. Differentday month year decade.
The magazine seems to me to be a rerun from the Steven Eblin school-of-marketing . . . meaning that some well-meaning/ambitious out-of-towners land in the area, and immediately (1) decide what needs to happen to turn the town into their kind of oasis, (2) start sucking up to "the right people", and (3) begin "celebrating the positive" in their own highly-stylized "up-beat" mouthpiece publication - designed to appeal to local egos (like those of assorted/featured healthcare professionals). Apart from chuckling over a few of the articles with friends (we could literally hear the sucking noises emanating from the magazine's spine), I hadn't given it much attention.
But it stopped being amusing when one of my pals pointed out a blurb on the magazine's publishing page - something I had missed:
"Asheboro Magazine's printed distribution is 3000 copies. It is hand-delivered to the upscale neighborhoods of Asheboro which is roughly 1,500 homes. The other 1,5000 editions are distributed through high-end retails locations, the library, hotels and other high-traffic areas. Additionally, Asheboro Magazine is available online in digital page-turner format where it is read by approximately 13,000+ (and growing) people."
Here is what caught my friend's eye (and was the real kicker for me): If you're not "up-scale", you can PURCHASE the subscription that Asheboro's "high-enders" get for free for just $29.95.
Same old crap. Different
Monday, February 21, 2011
There's Victory In The Lord, I Say
I spent the better part of the day trying to track down a widescreen (for obvious reasons) copy of 2010's, "Unstoppable". I wish it had been made while Pops was alive. On a related note, I was unaware that one of my favorite TV duets - courtesy of CMT's "Crossroads" - was posted on You Tube, until one of the Yas sent me there. I present Josh Turner and Randy Travis singing Long Black Train. It's for Daddy. And THANKS Martha.
Lillian O'Briant Jordan: On Hometown Heroes
As Sir Buzz-of-the-Armfields (whose latest exploits in Forsyth County are the stuff of legend) has noted, the Courier seems determined lately to parade a series of "local heroes" through their headline-blurbs-above-the-paywall . . . no matter how tenuous the connections to Asheboro may be (I'll have more on Justice Newby later - I KNEW there was a reason I recognized the name).
A lot of it seems to be about cleaning up the reputation of our local bar (the lawyers, not the drinkers).
The latest article is on Lillian Jordan (speaking of re-hab, it's written by Chip Womick - who inexplicably still has a job). Growing up, I knew her as Lillian O'Briant - the Mother of one of my childhood pals, Tom (we sat beside one another for years in band - we both played trombone - and, for a long time, I had a wee bit of a crush on him). Later-on, I served as kind of a surrogate Pediatrician to one of her grandchildren . . . who was born with an ultimately-fatal complex-congential-heart-defect in 1998 - way back during the six-month "notice period" imposed by RMA. There was nothing "noble" about what I did. I had "free" time on my hands, I was a friend-of-the-family, and I gave a damn. I didn't want anything in return. I was being me. It's as simple as that. It was also something . . . anything else but the nightmare back home . . . to focus on.
The details of that child's very sad story are not cannon fodder for the blog.
Despite our political differences, I have nothing but the greatest personal/professional respect for Lillian. She did indeed blaze a trail in Randolph County. Once, while testifying for the state in a child-abuse case over which Lillian was presiding, a defense attorney addressed me as "Ms. Johnson" instead of Dr. Johnson (it's a common tactic employed by lawyers to demean professional women).
Let's just say, he didn't do it again;)
But I've also been very disappointed in Lillian. Because, after I found out I had been swindled in a Randolph County civil Court proceeding - by perjury, contempt and fraud on the part of "non-profit" hospital executives - I contacted Lillian for some unofficial advice. My personal finances in ruins, and my ability to find local work severely compromised - first by the blackball and then the fight (it makes "moving on" real tough), I had no money to finance another years-long Court fight - especially in a Court that was clearly so easy to corrupt. I needed guidance. I needed to hear that the system could work.
I went to Lillian's (new) home in Randleman and I sat in her living room and we talked about the case in great detail. She knew the players. I'd like to say she was surprised, but she wasn't.
I showed her the evidence, and I asked for her help . . . as a matter of legal ethics.
But apart from pointing me in the general direction of the State Bar (something she had to have known would be an exercise in futility - as the Bar, like the Medical Board, does nothing if not cover the asses of its own) Lillian did not help. And it was not because she did not find the evidence compelling, but because she was a judge and could not get involved. It would not be "proper".
It would hurt her career.
Having gone through what I've gone through courtesy of the incestuously-incestuous mill-town goons running Randolph County, I cannot say that I blame her for that. But still . . . well . . . nevermind.
On second thought, NOT nevermind. To this day, if "ethics" is all it's cracked up to be in North Carolina, I do not understand WHY, as an officer-of-the-Court, Lillian could not pick up the phone, call the Attorney General, and say (honestly), "Look, this woman brought this to me . . . I've seen it with my own eyes . . . it SMELLS . . . and we need some outside eyes."
And, even if she couldn't do that, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Lillian's family had connections in the press all the way to Oprah. I've always wondered if I was left to rot because my story-of-woe in the good-ole-hometown would not reflect well on the all the noble social solutions promoted by the blue-side-of-the-aisle.
Oh well. I guess I need to "get over it".
And/so, the local doctor whose practice in Asheboro was dashed against the rocks in order to service a medical cover-up . . . the Pediatrician who defied threats and saved a life and blew the whistle . . . the physician who lost almost everything for bucking medical (and ultimately legal corruption) in her own hometown . . . the home-girl who was called a liar for telling the truth . . . the woman who put ethics above her own welfare and happiness . . . has stayed mired-down in the muck . . . abandoned by even her childhood mentors and friends as they pursued their own ambitions.
And they are getting the awards now - and the write-ups in the local newspaper.
They are the "heroes".
A lot of it seems to be about cleaning up the reputation of our local bar (the lawyers, not the drinkers).
The latest article is on Lillian Jordan (speaking of re-hab, it's written by Chip Womick - who inexplicably still has a job). Growing up, I knew her as Lillian O'Briant - the Mother of one of my childhood pals, Tom (we sat beside one another for years in band - we both played trombone - and, for a long time, I had a wee bit of a crush on him). Later-on, I served as kind of a surrogate Pediatrician to one of her grandchildren . . . who was born with an ultimately-fatal complex-congential-heart-defect in 1998 - way back during the six-month "notice period" imposed by RMA. There was nothing "noble" about what I did. I had "free" time on my hands, I was a friend-of-the-family, and I gave a damn. I didn't want anything in return. I was being me. It's as simple as that. It was also something . . . anything else but the nightmare back home . . . to focus on.
The details of that child's very sad story are not cannon fodder for the blog.
Despite our political differences, I have nothing but the greatest personal/professional respect for Lillian. She did indeed blaze a trail in Randolph County. Once, while testifying for the state in a child-abuse case over which Lillian was presiding, a defense attorney addressed me as "Ms. Johnson" instead of Dr. Johnson (it's a common tactic employed by lawyers to demean professional women).
Let's just say, he didn't do it again;)
But I've also been very disappointed in Lillian. Because, after I found out I had been swindled in a Randolph County civil Court proceeding - by perjury, contempt and fraud on the part of "non-profit" hospital executives - I contacted Lillian for some unofficial advice. My personal finances in ruins, and my ability to find local work severely compromised - first by the blackball and then the fight (it makes "moving on" real tough), I had no money to finance another years-long Court fight - especially in a Court that was clearly so easy to corrupt. I needed guidance. I needed to hear that the system could work.
I went to Lillian's (new) home in Randleman and I sat in her living room and we talked about the case in great detail. She knew the players. I'd like to say she was surprised, but she wasn't.
I showed her the evidence, and I asked for her help . . . as a matter of legal ethics.
But apart from pointing me in the general direction of the State Bar (something she had to have known would be an exercise in futility - as the Bar, like the Medical Board, does nothing if not cover the asses of its own) Lillian did not help. And it was not because she did not find the evidence compelling, but because she was a judge and could not get involved. It would not be "proper".
It would hurt her career.
Having gone through what I've gone through courtesy of the incestuously-incestuous mill-town goons running Randolph County, I cannot say that I blame her for that. But still . . . well . . . nevermind.
On second thought, NOT nevermind. To this day, if "ethics" is all it's cracked up to be in North Carolina, I do not understand WHY, as an officer-of-the-Court, Lillian could not pick up the phone, call the Attorney General, and say (honestly), "Look, this woman brought this to me . . . I've seen it with my own eyes . . . it SMELLS . . . and we need some outside eyes."
And, even if she couldn't do that, there is more than one way to skin a cat. Lillian's family had connections in the press all the way to Oprah. I've always wondered if I was left to rot because my story-of-woe in the good-ole-hometown would not reflect well on the all the noble social solutions promoted by the blue-side-of-the-aisle.
Oh well. I guess I need to "get over it".
And/so, the local doctor whose practice in Asheboro was dashed against the rocks in order to service a medical cover-up . . . the Pediatrician who defied threats and saved a life and blew the whistle . . . the physician who lost almost everything for bucking medical (and ultimately legal corruption) in her own hometown . . . the home-girl who was called a liar for telling the truth . . . the woman who put ethics above her own welfare and happiness . . . has stayed mired-down in the muck . . . abandoned by even her childhood mentors and friends as they pursued their own ambitions.
And they are getting the awards now - and the write-ups in the local newspaper.
They are the "heroes".
Sunday, February 20, 2011
All The Money-Changers Will Be There!
One of the Yas called last night and alerted me to an event announced in First Baptist's "Visitor" newsletter.
Citing Jeremiah, and members' responsibility to "be a blessing to the city", FBC (the church where I grew up - and to which I now tithe 10% of my gross income) will be hosting Asheboro's Mayor, four City Council members, the Police Chief, the city school superintendent, and the publisher of the Courier Tribune as "special guests" at its 11 o'clock worship service.
The only face missing from that lot of right-folks is that of our "non-profit" hospital's CEO.
At least Bob not being there lessens the chance of lightening bolts from above.
Reminds me of 2008's "Sacred Assembly" - back when all the right types were all pushing hard for booze - as the key to save Asheboro. Back then, it was all about fostering those "small town values" everybody keeps talking about.
And it just gets old.
I sent the Pastor an e-mail this morning and I asked him this question:
When is the Church where I was raised . . . the Church that the little girl whose life I saved now attends . . . going to ask these very people why haven’t they done right by me? When are God’s people going to ACT like God’s people?
I can understand why people in Asheboro sit on the sidelines – why they give up. Some of got involved and gave our all – and paid dearly for it. And we get tired of watching those who did us wrong – who are STILL doing us wrong – dance and sing and be honored as “guests” at the churches were we tithe.
I told Dr. Rogers that I was very tempted to show up and commit public “blasphemy”.
More likely, I will let Mama take me out for my birthday lunch.
Best to keep Church and State separate. Save the confrontations for Court - where God and His people's Oaths to Him have no sway.
Author's Note: This post was written earlier this morning and scheduled for 11 AM - so none of the money-changers could see it and back out. I've walked away from the computer for the day.
Evening Update:
At lunch with Mama in Randleman, I expressed my concern that inviting the local "Caesars" to Church and putting on "the show" gives them the impresssion that all is well . . . and that nobody cares about what has gone on - i.e. what they have done and/or presided over and/or condoned - in the past.
These people are very big on appearances and "cheap grace" . . . i.e. forgiveness and reconcilliation without atonement
But Mama told me that the Church's "guests-of-honor" this morning actually generated some discussion in the Sunday School class she teaches. Church people are nothing if not polite, but these days they're much harder to snow. Consensus seems to be that in the next "forty days of prayer", Asheboro's leaders need to get serious about those "small town values" they espouse . . . and take some active measures to clean up their act(s).
I guess I don't have to worry too much about these "honorables" pulling the wool over anyone's eyes anymore . . . no matter how many "sacred assemblies" they throw.
Citing Jeremiah, and members' responsibility to "be a blessing to the city", FBC (the church where I grew up - and to which I now tithe 10% of my gross income) will be hosting Asheboro's Mayor, four City Council members, the Police Chief, the city school superintendent, and the publisher of the Courier Tribune as "special guests" at its 11 o'clock worship service.
The only face missing from that lot of right-folks is that of our "non-profit" hospital's CEO.
At least Bob not being there lessens the chance of lightening bolts from above.
Reminds me of 2008's "Sacred Assembly" - back when all the right types were all pushing hard for booze - as the key to save Asheboro. Back then, it was all about fostering those "small town values" everybody keeps talking about.
And it just gets old.
I sent the Pastor an e-mail this morning and I asked him this question:
When is the Church where I was raised . . . the Church that the little girl whose life I saved now attends . . . going to ask these very people why haven’t they done right by me? When are God’s people going to ACT like God’s people?
I can understand why people in Asheboro sit on the sidelines – why they give up. Some of got involved and gave our all – and paid dearly for it. And we get tired of watching those who did us wrong – who are STILL doing us wrong – dance and sing and be honored as “guests” at the churches were we tithe.
I told Dr. Rogers that I was very tempted to show up and commit public “blasphemy”.
More likely, I will let Mama take me out for my birthday lunch.
Best to keep Church and State separate. Save the confrontations for Court - where God and His people's Oaths to Him have no sway.
Author's Note: This post was written earlier this morning and scheduled for 11 AM - so none of the money-changers could see it and back out. I've walked away from the computer for the day.
Evening Update:
At lunch with Mama in Randleman, I expressed my concern that inviting the local "Caesars" to Church and putting on "the show" gives them the impresssion that all is well . . . and that nobody cares about what has gone on - i.e. what they have done and/or presided over and/or condoned - in the past.
These people are very big on appearances and "cheap grace" . . . i.e. forgiveness and reconcilliation without atonement
But Mama told me that the Church's "guests-of-honor" this morning actually generated some discussion in the Sunday School class she teaches. Church people are nothing if not polite, but these days they're much harder to snow. Consensus seems to be that in the next "forty days of prayer", Asheboro's leaders need to get serious about those "small town values" they espouse . . . and take some active measures to clean up their act(s).
I guess I don't have to worry too much about these "honorables" pulling the wool over anyone's eyes anymore . . . no matter how many "sacred assemblies" they throw.
N.C.Supreme Court Justice Paul Martin Newby: Asheboro Homeboy
This morning, Sir Buzz-of-the-Asheboro-Armfields alerted me to a story in the Courier (with its new publisher apparently fully vested in only reporting the "happy" stories of home boys & girls) about N.C. Supreme Court Justice Paul Martin Newby (who was born in Asheboro, but actually raised in Jamestown).
As this blog-that-nobody-reads apparently has regular readers from the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, I'm wondering if one of those readers is Justice Newby,
Of course, just like all of the other bystanders in the public-mugging-of-Dr. Mary Johnson, Justice Newby, fine upstanding home-boy that he is (and champion of crime victims), has never seen fit to extend a hand to the Asheboro-home-girl-on-the-medical-side-of-the-over-achieving-aisle whose dreams were shattered for doing the right thing by another baby born in Asheboro . . . and who, as a crime victim, got repeatedly legally-raped by his precious justice system for the privilege of doing her duty.
As this blog-that-nobody-reads apparently has regular readers from the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts, I'm wondering if one of those readers is Justice Newby,
Of course, just like all of the other bystanders in the public-mugging-of-Dr. Mary Johnson, Justice Newby, fine upstanding home-boy that he is (and champion of crime victims), has never seen fit to extend a hand to the Asheboro-home-girl-on-the-medical-side-of-the-over-achieving-aisle whose dreams were shattered for doing the right thing by another baby born in Asheboro . . . and who, as a crime victim, got repeatedly legally-raped by his precious justice system for the privilege of doing her duty.
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Dr. Melvin Levine: Back In the News
2/18 Author's Note: This post has been updated. Melvin Levine is dead. Scroll to bottom.
A flurry of activity on StatCounter today alerted me to Dr. Melvin Levine being back in the news. A civil suit has been filed in Massachusetts. The world-renowned, former-UNC-Chapel Hill behavioral Pediatrician, author of "All Kinds of Minds", stands accused of child-abuse during exams.
As I said when I first blogged the case back in 2008, this is the kind of subject matter that most physicians in the blogosphere are probably not going to touch with a ten-foot-pole (because they might find themselves subjected to the kind of online abuse I was for giving Levine the benefit of the doubt).
Mobs and witch-hunts are not just a phenomenon of the 1600's. The way some of these child "advocates" operate online is the moral equivalent of tying someone to a dunking chair. It's despicable.
If you're objective . . . if you question the veracity of the allegations at all . . . if you are the least bit skeptical of adults who hide behind anonymity as they hurl vile/career-killing/psyche-ripping accusations about things that allegedly happened 25-40 years ago . . . if guilt-by-association means there actually has to BE some association . . . why it stands to reason that you MUST support child abuse!
You probably kill puppies and rabbits too.
And all this physician has to say to anyone who tries that stunt here is STEP BACK AND GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT.
These things being said, this case is exactly the kind of thing that doctors should be discussing - and dissecting. Alas, most of the folks in my profession are scared-to-death of the lawyers and even-more-so of being called names.
From the story:
A former Boston pediatrician was accused in a lawsuit on Thursday of sexually abusing young male patients by giving them genital examinations that were not medically necessary.
The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court by Boston attorney Carmen Durso, alleges Dr. Melvin Levine performed such exams on more than 40 minor patients from 1966 to 1985 while working at Children's Hospital Boston.
The lawsuit seeks class action certification, which would broaden it to represent others who claim they were inappropriately treated. The suit says Levine treated some 5,000 boys over those 20 years.
I'm sorry, but for the reasons given in my original post (most of which I will not re-hash here), this whole thing STILL smells to me of a legal shake-down-of-the-really-deep-pockets (in this case, Children's Hospital in Boston) for money.
Levine was a sub-specialist (with the reputation of being a bit of an absent-minded professor) in an age where doctors were gods-in-white coats who thought nothing of examining children without a chaperone present . . . he was evaluating already-very-troubled children referred to him by other physicians . . . working the toughest cases . . . trying to get past the medical/psychological red herrings . . . looking for zebras and rare birds.
He's one of the people who, quite literally, wrote the books that the rest of us read.
And despite the earlier claims of grand-standing attorneys (what incited me to blog about Levine in the first place), a full physical exam - including a genital exam - at least once a year - perhaps more often than that depending on the circumstances - is part of the evaluation.
It will be interesting to lean more about the specific allegations. And in a legal environment prone to sweeping ugly things under the rug, it would be refreshing to actually see some of these accusations vetted in open Court - and those pointing the finger cross-examined.
Levine still has boatloads of supporters - colleagues and ex-patients-he-helped/their parents who think the allegations are ridiculous. His attorney declares he's innocent of all the charges.
Of course, it's going to be a bit harder to argue that point since the already semi-retired-from-practice-Levine did not put up a decent fight when the North Carolina Medical Board, in typical and cowardly fashion, folded its tent and swept the best chance he had at a real investigation and exoneration under the rug . . . in that icky "no-fault" deal that allowed Levine to give up his license and walk away.
No testimony was publicly offered and no proof of the allegations given.
That spectacular act of cowardice (on the Board's part) still has me wanting to bathe.
Even if I accept the argument that, at the time, Levine was semi-retired, and too old/too demoralized, and without the fiscal resources to wage a prolonged fight (and given my own experience with litigation-as-intimidation, I can accept the premise), walking away was a huge tactical error. And I'll just bet a lawyer talked him into it.
Have I mentioned that I HATE lawyers?
But that's our Medical Board for you. If it's embarassing to the profession, the high-&-mighties in Raleigh's ivory tower are positively gifted at thowing people under the bus . . . be they patients/families-done-wrong or doctors-fired-for-doing-their duty. When it comes to diving-under-the-desk and seeming-rather-than-being, those guys are nothing if not equal-opporunity.
Well, those are my thoughts for now. I'm sure I'll have more as things evolve. There are all kinds of minds, and mine is open.
A reminder to new-comers to the blog. Comments on Housecalls are open but moderated. However, I'm done with the ill-behaved anons and the cyber-stalkers, so if you post something here keep in mind that if you get the least bit out-of-line you will be held accountable.
2/18 Evening Update: I just got in from down East, got unpacked and the cats fed/settled, logged on the computer, and discovered that the garbage-in-the-Inbox has started-up already . . . from people citing allegations in news articles as "FACTS" (never mind that the same news article also reports that police thoroughly investigated these "facts" back in 2008 and declined to prosecute for lack of evidence).
These folks-in-my-Inbox don't seem to register that, once upon a time, I got sued for "libel" for telling the truth . . . by people-charged-with-the-public-good who then turned around and swore-to-God a pack-of-lies . . . in order to save themselves some money.
Anyone with a filing fee can make allegations in civil court. And the facts behind crimes don't always get investigated.
As for the "FACTS" to be found in newspapers, these people also don't realize that I cut my teeth on Asheboro's Courier Tribune and the Greensboro News & Record . . . two newspapers where facts have NEVER interfered with the stories their Editors wanted to tell - or bury.
So I'm closing the comments on this thread. We're not going to do this again.
Oh by the way, Dr. Melvin Levine (71) died today. Details are not available. I'm stunned. But not surprised.
From his attorney:
"This entire episode is a tragedy. Throughout it, Dr. Levine never wavered that his care and treatment of all children was appropriate in all respects, and he steadfastly denied the allegations against him," Attorney Edward Mahoney said in a statement. Mahoney had no further comment on the circumstances of his client's death."
I wonder if this will make his still-anonymous accusers happy?
Will they be satisfied with his blood . . . or will they still want Boston Children's money?
2/19 Update:
As per usual, the Raleigh N&O doesn't have more. The man-whose-life-was-thrown-away-to-satisfy-the-mob gets a throw-away blurb on a Saturday morning.
2/19 Afternoon Update:
I continue to get unsolicited e-mail in the Inbox - from men alleging sexual-abuse-during-exams on the part of Mel Levine. They come in unsigned - or names with no other contact information - giving me no real way to vet them (I have no real desire to do so - that's best left to some hungry journalist looking for a Pulitzer).
One of the e-mails did have the ring of truth to it . . . because the sentiments expressed (regarding "repressed memories") mirror those of a childhood friend of mine who was sexually-abused. But drawing on my friend's experience as a resource, parts of it also felt contrived and manipulative.
To publish the content of these e-mails now would make me no better than Ethan Fiensilver/the N&R, and we're so not going there.
Since this mess became public, I've blogged my honest impressions of the case . . . both as a physician with ADD who greatly respects Mel Levine's work - and as outside observer with nothing but disdain for our legal system. Those impressions have evolved/vacilated as the case progressed.
I cannot imagine this man having been so brazen and stupid - or to have risked his entire academic legacy (an impressive one) - by inappropriately touching a child.
But given how broken our system of medical oversight is - especially in North Carolina. I know that it COULD have happened. Very easily. And it's beyond discouraging. For after nearly twenty years of practicing Pediatrics, I've seen just about every manner of beastial/irresponsible/selfish human behavior (more-often-than-not on the part of parents/people who claim to love the child in question) . . . and I can testify that, despite all of the technology and all of the money poured into social services, the practice of Pediatrics in many areas (and access to it) is getting harder, and the care being provided is really no better than it was when I came out as a bright-eyed newbie.
In some cases/situations, it's worse (and will no doubt get "worser" after Bev Perdue starts her budget-slashing). A lot of that has a lot to do with our very sick society and what it values.
In short, I had ZERO chance of saving the world way back when - even my small portion of it. Pediatricians these days - the kind who answer the call and want the best for children - are barely stoppers in the drain - Bandaids on a gaping, ugly wound.
I've digressed. Here are the things about the Melvin Levine case that I cannot reconcile:
First and foremost, the North Carolina Medical Board should NEVER have taken a dive back in 2009, when Levine was allowed to relinquish his license without any kind of public vetting of the reasons why. There should have been hearings, and Levine's accusers (now adults) cross-examined. It's 2011, not 1692. Point and run doesn't cut it with allegations like these. The public's safety and welfare is the Medical Board's job.
The Board's job is also to inform. Thom Mansfield, the Board's chief legal eagle, owed a decent investigation/explanation to ALL of Levin's patients . . . and also to Levine's colleagues - many of whom were left asking themselves, "What if I referred one of my patients to him, and that child was abused?". Or, "What if I've defended him and he was guilty?".
Even worse, if this man was INNOCENT and driven to his grave by these allegations, what does that say about the profession that did not do more to defend him?
It was the Medical Board's RESPONSIBILITY, no matter how difficult or embarrassing, to get to the TRUTH and get it to the public . . . not to mechanize a mealy-mouthed cover-up.
But this Board, being this Board, took the dive. I expect a lot of what happened had a lot to do with Levine's association with UNC-Chapel Hill. We can't be dwelling on anything that might tarnish that institution's reputation. It's like when Duke screws up the blood-types on a heart transplant (killing a little girl) . . . or uses hydraulic fluid to clean surgical instruments . . . or even when doctors in Asheboro get fired for standing up to the great name of Cone. Get out the brooms and the check-books and sweep.
Second, I never understood why, if Levine was truly innnocent of what he was accused of doing, he did not FIGHT to clear his name (as did the gastroenterologist falsely-accused of sexual abuse that I referenced in my very first post)? Why didn't he counter-sue any of his accusers for "libel"? I'm assuming he knew who they were.
I never completely bought the lame excuses put forth in the media about old age and a lack of resources.
I expect a lot of what Levine did in that regard had to do with the advice he was getting from the lawyers, ala, "Settle it. It will go away. You can move on."
Alas, "closure" never comes with a settlement and its gag clauses. In the legal system, it's the biggest lie of all.
Lastly, I just cannot abide/respect people who make accusations like these, but who will not step up & sign their name/be vetted. And that's mostly because that, for going on six years, I've signed my own name on this blog - enduring every manner of character slur and insult for my boldness in publicly accusing some very important people in my hometown of ethical lapses and multiple felonies . . . multiple felonies, I might add, that have yet to be investigated much less prosecuted . . . accusations I can back up with the black & white of sworn discovery documents and IRS returns (i.e. FACTS).
Privacy and confidentiality are fine things and noble concepts, but in the end, these men were accusing Mel Levine of a despicable crime.
And in this country, the accused has the right to face his accuser.
It's not "rhetoric". It's a basic premise outlined in the Constitution of the United States. Of course, from medical peer review to Obamacare, the Constitution doesn't seem to mean what it used to.
Unless Levine left behind a confession, it's too late to vet anything now.
Now it's just about the money.
2/19 Late Evening Update:
The New York Times reports that the N.C. Medical Examiner's office has confirmed Levine's death, at his home in Rougemont, was reported by the Orange County Sheriff's Department on Friday. No details have been released.
2/20 AM Update:
A friend of mine, just poking around, discovered that one of the writers of one of the e-mails in my Inbox is a reporter for the Boston Globe. Speaking of Pulitzers, no ulterior notives there.
See what I mean about vetting?
2/21 Update
There will be a funeral service in Brookline, MA on Wednesday. The family's obit says he died "suddenly" and offers no further comment.
Of course, there is much speculation about suicide. And if it was suicide, was Levine finally over-whelmed by guilt . . . or an innocent-drowning-in-despair because despite every concession he made, his good name would never be cleared?
Another friend of mine - also an outsider looking in - who is just as concerned about the "witch-hunt" aspects of the case as I am, commented (I'm paraphrasing), "As a physician-done-wrong-in-public-service, you have a slam-dunk case against Randolph Hospital executives for perjury and fraud - black and white evidence of your allegations, and you've not been able to get the time of day from the North Carolina justice system.
The local "journalists", up all the right butts, have ignored and/or maligned you.
But these people - this "mob" - whose accusations were not and apparently could not be proven - got "thorough" criminal investigations, and the Medical Board to bend to their will, and the opportunity to file multiple civil suits - many years after the fact, and tons of newspaper coverage."
No one told them that their allegations were "ancient history".
If this man was indeed innocent and hounded to his death by a vengeful mob, it was MURDER.
2/22 Update
Mel Levine's obit in the Raleigh News & Observer.
There is still no word on his cause-of-death.
2/22 Afternoon Update
The Raleigh N&O reports that Levine's death is under investigation. No details are provided.
2/22 Evening Update
The N&O story above has been updated to report that the Sheriff's Department has leaked that Levine's death was a suicide and he left behind a note. Very professional.
The attorney who filed the latest lawsuit (and who apparently changed his mind about public commentary pending Levine's funeral out of respect for the family-whose-estate-he-wants-to-financially-raid) is posturing that he will continue the lawsuit - and that the Court may regard a suicide as an admission of guilt.
It's just as likely that, if Levine, drowning in despair, maintained his innocence until the end, the Court/a jury might give it great weight - ala a dying declaration.
I'd like to see the note.
2/25 Update
I will continue to update this post as opposed to composing new ones. As of this afternoon, I have requested an official report from the N.C. Medical Examiner's office as to their findings in Levine's death.
The plaintiffs in the MA lawsuit are speaking publicly (i.e. signing their names) "for the first time" - to the Boston Globe.
They are now alleging far more than "inappropriate exams". Some say they repressed the memories. Oh, and they still plan to raid the estate Levine left behind for his widow.
As boys, they allegedly told parents & grandparents who did not believe them . . . and who did not come forward way back when (so Children's Hospital of Boston - and UNC-Chapel Hill - and all of the rest of us who respected Levine's work in developmental Pediatrics and read his books and maybe even referred patients to him, really didn't have any reason to suspect something was amiss). In other words, if what they're saying is true, their own parents/families condemned them to years of torment and left the door wide open for other children to be abused (!?!).
I'm sorry, but now that Levine has been chased to an early grave, I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around that - particularly the notion that the institutions involved (or Oprah for that matter - and I'm no fan of Oprah) were supposed to be psychic . . . and also in terms of pursuing a civil lawsuit (raiding institutional coffers whose money might be used to help today's children) - especially when there is insufficient evidence to pursue criminal claims.
North Carolina is, after all, the land of "Little Rascals" . . . and while there is strength in numbers, the truth cannot always be found there.
And still, in terms of Levine's suicide being an admission of guilt, I'd like to see the note he left behind - before he walked into the woods and blew his brains out with a shotgun.
2/25 Late Evening Update
The New York Times has a story up that mimics the Globe's referenced earlier today. It does state that the contents of Levine's suicide note have not been released.
2/28 Update
The Boston newspapers continue to print the same headline over and over again - with no new information - most specifically what Levine said in his suicide note.
Here is Levine's online obituary.
Final Update
In the suicide note he left for his wife before he walked into the woods and put a bullet in his head, Dr. Melvin Levine denied to his dying breath/day that he ever touched a child in an inappropriate way.
It was the dying declaration of a despondent/lost man.
And it in my book, it counts.
A flurry of activity on StatCounter today alerted me to Dr. Melvin Levine being back in the news. A civil suit has been filed in Massachusetts. The world-renowned, former-UNC-Chapel Hill behavioral Pediatrician, author of "All Kinds of Minds", stands accused of child-abuse during exams.
As I said when I first blogged the case back in 2008, this is the kind of subject matter that most physicians in the blogosphere are probably not going to touch with a ten-foot-pole (because they might find themselves subjected to the kind of online abuse I was for giving Levine the benefit of the doubt).
Mobs and witch-hunts are not just a phenomenon of the 1600's. The way some of these child "advocates" operate online is the moral equivalent of tying someone to a dunking chair. It's despicable.
If you're objective . . . if you question the veracity of the allegations at all . . . if you are the least bit skeptical of adults who hide behind anonymity as they hurl vile/career-killing/psyche-ripping accusations about things that allegedly happened 25-40 years ago . . . if guilt-by-association means there actually has to BE some association . . . why it stands to reason that you MUST support child abuse!
You probably kill puppies and rabbits too.
And all this physician has to say to anyone who tries that stunt here is STEP BACK AND GET YOUR FACTS STRAIGHT.
These things being said, this case is exactly the kind of thing that doctors should be discussing - and dissecting. Alas, most of the folks in my profession are scared-to-death of the lawyers and even-more-so of being called names.
From the story:
A former Boston pediatrician was accused in a lawsuit on Thursday of sexually abusing young male patients by giving them genital examinations that were not medically necessary.
The lawsuit, filed in Suffolk Superior Court by Boston attorney Carmen Durso, alleges Dr. Melvin Levine performed such exams on more than 40 minor patients from 1966 to 1985 while working at Children's Hospital Boston.
The lawsuit seeks class action certification, which would broaden it to represent others who claim they were inappropriately treated. The suit says Levine treated some 5,000 boys over those 20 years.
I'm sorry, but for the reasons given in my original post (most of which I will not re-hash here), this whole thing STILL smells to me of a legal shake-down-of-the-really-deep-pockets (in this case, Children's Hospital in Boston) for money.
Levine was a sub-specialist (with the reputation of being a bit of an absent-minded professor) in an age where doctors were gods-in-white coats who thought nothing of examining children without a chaperone present . . . he was evaluating already-very-troubled children referred to him by other physicians . . . working the toughest cases . . . trying to get past the medical/psychological red herrings . . . looking for zebras and rare birds.
He's one of the people who, quite literally, wrote the books that the rest of us read.
And despite the earlier claims of grand-standing attorneys (what incited me to blog about Levine in the first place), a full physical exam - including a genital exam - at least once a year - perhaps more often than that depending on the circumstances - is part of the evaluation.
It will be interesting to lean more about the specific allegations. And in a legal environment prone to sweeping ugly things under the rug, it would be refreshing to actually see some of these accusations vetted in open Court - and those pointing the finger cross-examined.
Levine still has boatloads of supporters - colleagues and ex-patients-he-helped/their parents who think the allegations are ridiculous. His attorney declares he's innocent of all the charges.
Of course, it's going to be a bit harder to argue that point since the already semi-retired-from-practice-Levine did not put up a decent fight when the North Carolina Medical Board, in typical and cowardly fashion, folded its tent and swept the best chance he had at a real investigation and exoneration under the rug . . . in that icky "no-fault" deal that allowed Levine to give up his license and walk away.
No testimony was publicly offered and no proof of the allegations given.
That spectacular act of cowardice (on the Board's part) still has me wanting to bathe.
Even if I accept the argument that, at the time, Levine was semi-retired, and too old/too demoralized, and without the fiscal resources to wage a prolonged fight (and given my own experience with litigation-as-intimidation, I can accept the premise), walking away was a huge tactical error. And I'll just bet a lawyer talked him into it.
Have I mentioned that I HATE lawyers?
But that's our Medical Board for you. If it's embarassing to the profession, the high-&-mighties in Raleigh's ivory tower are positively gifted at thowing people under the bus . . . be they patients/families-done-wrong or doctors-fired-for-doing-their duty. When it comes to diving-under-the-desk and seeming-rather-than-being, those guys are nothing if not equal-opporunity.
Well, those are my thoughts for now. I'm sure I'll have more as things evolve. There are all kinds of minds, and mine is open.
A reminder to new-comers to the blog. Comments on Housecalls are open but moderated. However, I'm done with the ill-behaved anons and the cyber-stalkers, so if you post something here keep in mind that if you get the least bit out-of-line you will be held accountable.
2/18 Evening Update: I just got in from down East, got unpacked and the cats fed/settled, logged on the computer, and discovered that the garbage-in-the-Inbox has started-up already . . . from people citing allegations in news articles as "FACTS" (never mind that the same news article also reports that police thoroughly investigated these "facts" back in 2008 and declined to prosecute for lack of evidence).
These folks-in-my-Inbox don't seem to register that, once upon a time, I got sued for "libel" for telling the truth . . . by people-charged-with-the-public-good who then turned around and swore-to-God a pack-of-lies . . . in order to save themselves some money.
Anyone with a filing fee can make allegations in civil court. And the facts behind crimes don't always get investigated.
As for the "FACTS" to be found in newspapers, these people also don't realize that I cut my teeth on Asheboro's Courier Tribune and the Greensboro News & Record . . . two newspapers where facts have NEVER interfered with the stories their Editors wanted to tell - or bury.
So I'm closing the comments on this thread. We're not going to do this again.
Oh by the way, Dr. Melvin Levine (71) died today. Details are not available. I'm stunned. But not surprised.
From his attorney:
"This entire episode is a tragedy. Throughout it, Dr. Levine never wavered that his care and treatment of all children was appropriate in all respects, and he steadfastly denied the allegations against him," Attorney Edward Mahoney said in a statement. Mahoney had no further comment on the circumstances of his client's death."
I wonder if this will make his still-anonymous accusers happy?
Will they be satisfied with his blood . . . or will they still want Boston Children's money?
2/19 Update:
As per usual, the Raleigh N&O doesn't have more. The man-whose-life-was-thrown-away-to-satisfy-the-mob gets a throw-away blurb on a Saturday morning.
2/19 Afternoon Update:
I continue to get unsolicited e-mail in the Inbox - from men alleging sexual-abuse-during-exams on the part of Mel Levine. They come in unsigned - or names with no other contact information - giving me no real way to vet them (I have no real desire to do so - that's best left to some hungry journalist looking for a Pulitzer).
One of the e-mails did have the ring of truth to it . . . because the sentiments expressed (regarding "repressed memories") mirror those of a childhood friend of mine who was sexually-abused. But drawing on my friend's experience as a resource, parts of it also felt contrived and manipulative.
To publish the content of these e-mails now would make me no better than Ethan Fiensilver/the N&R, and we're so not going there.
Since this mess became public, I've blogged my honest impressions of the case . . . both as a physician with ADD who greatly respects Mel Levine's work - and as outside observer with nothing but disdain for our legal system. Those impressions have evolved/vacilated as the case progressed.
I cannot imagine this man having been so brazen and stupid - or to have risked his entire academic legacy (an impressive one) - by inappropriately touching a child.
But given how broken our system of medical oversight is - especially in North Carolina. I know that it COULD have happened. Very easily. And it's beyond discouraging. For after nearly twenty years of practicing Pediatrics, I've seen just about every manner of beastial/irresponsible/selfish human behavior (more-often-than-not on the part of parents/people who claim to love the child in question) . . . and I can testify that, despite all of the technology and all of the money poured into social services, the practice of Pediatrics in many areas (and access to it) is getting harder, and the care being provided is really no better than it was when I came out as a bright-eyed newbie.
In some cases/situations, it's worse (and will no doubt get "worser" after Bev Perdue starts her budget-slashing). A lot of that has a lot to do with our very sick society and what it values.
In short, I had ZERO chance of saving the world way back when - even my small portion of it. Pediatricians these days - the kind who answer the call and want the best for children - are barely stoppers in the drain - Bandaids on a gaping, ugly wound.
I've digressed. Here are the things about the Melvin Levine case that I cannot reconcile:
First and foremost, the North Carolina Medical Board should NEVER have taken a dive back in 2009, when Levine was allowed to relinquish his license without any kind of public vetting of the reasons why. There should have been hearings, and Levine's accusers (now adults) cross-examined. It's 2011, not 1692. Point and run doesn't cut it with allegations like these. The public's safety and welfare is the Medical Board's job.
The Board's job is also to inform. Thom Mansfield, the Board's chief legal eagle, owed a decent investigation/explanation to ALL of Levin's patients . . . and also to Levine's colleagues - many of whom were left asking themselves, "What if I referred one of my patients to him, and that child was abused?". Or, "What if I've defended him and he was guilty?".
Even worse, if this man was INNOCENT and driven to his grave by these allegations, what does that say about the profession that did not do more to defend him?
It was the Medical Board's RESPONSIBILITY, no matter how difficult or embarrassing, to get to the TRUTH and get it to the public . . . not to mechanize a mealy-mouthed cover-up.
But this Board, being this Board, took the dive. I expect a lot of what happened had a lot to do with Levine's association with UNC-Chapel Hill. We can't be dwelling on anything that might tarnish that institution's reputation. It's like when Duke screws up the blood-types on a heart transplant (killing a little girl) . . . or uses hydraulic fluid to clean surgical instruments . . . or even when doctors in Asheboro get fired for standing up to the great name of Cone. Get out the brooms and the check-books and sweep.
Second, I never understood why, if Levine was truly innnocent of what he was accused of doing, he did not FIGHT to clear his name (as did the gastroenterologist falsely-accused of sexual abuse that I referenced in my very first post)? Why didn't he counter-sue any of his accusers for "libel"? I'm assuming he knew who they were.
I never completely bought the lame excuses put forth in the media about old age and a lack of resources.
I expect a lot of what Levine did in that regard had to do with the advice he was getting from the lawyers, ala, "Settle it. It will go away. You can move on."
Alas, "closure" never comes with a settlement and its gag clauses. In the legal system, it's the biggest lie of all.
Lastly, I just cannot abide/respect people who make accusations like these, but who will not step up & sign their name/be vetted. And that's mostly because that, for going on six years, I've signed my own name on this blog - enduring every manner of character slur and insult for my boldness in publicly accusing some very important people in my hometown of ethical lapses and multiple felonies . . . multiple felonies, I might add, that have yet to be investigated much less prosecuted . . . accusations I can back up with the black & white of sworn discovery documents and IRS returns (i.e. FACTS).
Privacy and confidentiality are fine things and noble concepts, but in the end, these men were accusing Mel Levine of a despicable crime.
And in this country, the accused has the right to face his accuser.
It's not "rhetoric". It's a basic premise outlined in the Constitution of the United States. Of course, from medical peer review to Obamacare, the Constitution doesn't seem to mean what it used to.
Unless Levine left behind a confession, it's too late to vet anything now.
Now it's just about the money.
2/19 Late Evening Update:
The New York Times reports that the N.C. Medical Examiner's office has confirmed Levine's death, at his home in Rougemont, was reported by the Orange County Sheriff's Department on Friday. No details have been released.
2/20 AM Update:
A friend of mine, just poking around, discovered that one of the writers of one of the e-mails in my Inbox is a reporter for the Boston Globe. Speaking of Pulitzers, no ulterior notives there.
See what I mean about vetting?
2/21 Update
There will be a funeral service in Brookline, MA on Wednesday. The family's obit says he died "suddenly" and offers no further comment.
Of course, there is much speculation about suicide. And if it was suicide, was Levine finally over-whelmed by guilt . . . or an innocent-drowning-in-despair because despite every concession he made, his good name would never be cleared?
Another friend of mine - also an outsider looking in - who is just as concerned about the "witch-hunt" aspects of the case as I am, commented (I'm paraphrasing), "As a physician-done-wrong-in-public-service, you have a slam-dunk case against Randolph Hospital executives for perjury and fraud - black and white evidence of your allegations, and you've not been able to get the time of day from the North Carolina justice system.
The local "journalists", up all the right butts, have ignored and/or maligned you.
But these people - this "mob" - whose accusations were not and apparently could not be proven - got "thorough" criminal investigations, and the Medical Board to bend to their will, and the opportunity to file multiple civil suits - many years after the fact, and tons of newspaper coverage."
No one told them that their allegations were "ancient history".
If this man was indeed innocent and hounded to his death by a vengeful mob, it was MURDER.
2/22 Update
Mel Levine's obit in the Raleigh News & Observer.
There is still no word on his cause-of-death.
2/22 Afternoon Update
The Raleigh N&O reports that Levine's death is under investigation. No details are provided.
2/22 Evening Update
The N&O story above has been updated to report that the Sheriff's Department has leaked that Levine's death was a suicide and he left behind a note. Very professional.
The attorney who filed the latest lawsuit (and who apparently changed his mind about public commentary pending Levine's funeral out of respect for the family-whose-estate-he-wants-to-financially-raid) is posturing that he will continue the lawsuit - and that the Court may regard a suicide as an admission of guilt.
It's just as likely that, if Levine, drowning in despair, maintained his innocence until the end, the Court/a jury might give it great weight - ala a dying declaration.
I'd like to see the note.
2/25 Update
I will continue to update this post as opposed to composing new ones. As of this afternoon, I have requested an official report from the N.C. Medical Examiner's office as to their findings in Levine's death.
The plaintiffs in the MA lawsuit are speaking publicly (i.e. signing their names) "for the first time" - to the Boston Globe.
They are now alleging far more than "inappropriate exams". Some say they repressed the memories. Oh, and they still plan to raid the estate Levine left behind for his widow.
As boys, they allegedly told parents & grandparents who did not believe them . . . and who did not come forward way back when (so Children's Hospital of Boston - and UNC-Chapel Hill - and all of the rest of us who respected Levine's work in developmental Pediatrics and read his books and maybe even referred patients to him, really didn't have any reason to suspect something was amiss). In other words, if what they're saying is true, their own parents/families condemned them to years of torment and left the door wide open for other children to be abused (!?!).
I'm sorry, but now that Levine has been chased to an early grave, I'm having a really hard time wrapping my head around that - particularly the notion that the institutions involved (or Oprah for that matter - and I'm no fan of Oprah) were supposed to be psychic . . . and also in terms of pursuing a civil lawsuit (raiding institutional coffers whose money might be used to help today's children) - especially when there is insufficient evidence to pursue criminal claims.
North Carolina is, after all, the land of "Little Rascals" . . . and while there is strength in numbers, the truth cannot always be found there.
And still, in terms of Levine's suicide being an admission of guilt, I'd like to see the note he left behind - before he walked into the woods and blew his brains out with a shotgun.
2/25 Late Evening Update
The New York Times has a story up that mimics the Globe's referenced earlier today. It does state that the contents of Levine's suicide note have not been released.
2/28 Update
The Boston newspapers continue to print the same headline over and over again - with no new information - most specifically what Levine said in his suicide note.
Here is Levine's online obituary.
Final Update
In the suicide note he left for his wife before he walked into the woods and put a bullet in his head, Dr. Melvin Levine denied to his dying breath/day that he ever touched a child in an inappropriate way.
It was the dying declaration of a despondent/lost man.
And it in my book, it counts.
The Birthday Gift: By George, I Think Cone's Got It!?!
GSO Blogfather, Ed Cone, seems to have seen the light in a post entitled "Lawless". In less-than-100-word Cone fashion, it's all in the blurb - excerpted from a Rolling Stone article entitled, "Why Isn't Wall Street In Jail?".
I post the pearl-of-wisdom-worthy-of-Edwardian-reproduction in blue because it's just so damned enlightened and "progressive":
[W]hen it comes to Wall Street, the justice system not only sucks at punishing financial criminals, it has actually evolved into a highly effective mechanism for protecting financial criminals. This institutional reality has absolutely nothing to do with politics or ideology — it takes place no matter who's in office or which party's in power.
Why happy-fricking-birthday to me!!!! And just call me "relevant"! In standing against corruption/negligence/sloth in a Federally-funded program thirteen years ago (when no one else would) . . . and by refusing to let it go after discovering that crimes were committed . . . Dr. Mary Johnson was cool and progressive before Rolling Stone said so. And praise Jesus, Edward-Cone-of-the-Moses-Cone-Healthcare-Cones-whose-asses-had-to-be-covered has seen the light (only time will tell, and I expect not really)!
I'm still in that "bitter" pseudo-bipolar February mood (never fear, there's always someone in the ether willing to insert knives into the psyche and "take me out"), so I wasn't about to let it go ("fact-checkers" like Roch Smith, Jr will note that spelling is corrected . . . I was working on the netbook this morning, and everything's so tiny):
Why yes, indeed, Wilson, reading is. Too bad so few people in this ether really want to read more than a blurb.
De-linked, banned, cyber-stalked blogger-done-financially-wrong-from-Asheboro here. You know Asheboro. It's just 30 miles south, and only the land of Bob Morrison, "non-profit" Randolph Hospital's $700,000/year man - the man who DESTROYED this doctor-blogger's life-in-her-hometown with his malevolence, perjury, contempt and fraud. It's also the land of Mike Miller - who, in his "stewardship" of FNB/CO, lost over 250 million dollars in 3 years - destroying the retirements and lives of countless ordinary residents/investors who trusted him - and who was rewarded with the President's chair at Pfeiffer College.
Oh, and on the state level, we've still yet to indict Saint Elizabeth's hubby-fighting-for-ownership-of-his-sex-tape for ripping off his campaign to fund the skank.
(OBTW, these are LOCAL examples.)
You're for DAMNED STRAIGHT the justice system SUCKS at punishing financial criminals. It works OVERTIME to protect them. And which political party has presided over North Carolina's justice system for DECADES?
And on a local level, WHAT did most of our progressive, liberal, Hunt-Sleazely-Perdue-Clinton-Edwards-Obama-loving do-gooders & journalists in this blogosphere tell this "wack-job" doctor-blogger-from-Asheboro, but to "get over it" and "move on"?
It ain't just law enforcement that SUCKS. And it ain't just Wall Street that needs to go to jail
You'll have to forgive me Ed. It's my birthday today and I'm still nursing that dark mood that begins every February 2.
Back to Ed's thread, let the indignant Mary-bashing begin!!!
They secretly wish me well;)
I post the pearl-of-wisdom-worthy-of-Edwardian-reproduction in blue because it's just so damned enlightened and "progressive":
[W]hen it comes to Wall Street, the justice system not only sucks at punishing financial criminals, it has actually evolved into a highly effective mechanism for protecting financial criminals. This institutional reality has absolutely nothing to do with politics or ideology — it takes place no matter who's in office or which party's in power.
Why happy-fricking-birthday to me!!!! And just call me "relevant"! In standing against corruption/negligence/sloth in a Federally-funded program thirteen years ago (when no one else would) . . . and by refusing to let it go after discovering that crimes were committed . . . Dr. Mary Johnson was cool and progressive before Rolling Stone said so. And praise Jesus, Edward-Cone-of-the-Moses-Cone-Healthcare-Cones-whose-asses-had-to-be-covered has seen the light (only time will tell, and I expect not really)!
I'm still in that "bitter" pseudo-bipolar February mood (never fear, there's always someone in the ether willing to insert knives into the psyche and "take me out"), so I wasn't about to let it go ("fact-checkers" like Roch Smith, Jr will note that spelling is corrected . . . I was working on the netbook this morning, and everything's so tiny):
Why yes, indeed, Wilson, reading is. Too bad so few people in this ether really want to read more than a blurb.
De-linked, banned, cyber-stalked blogger-done-financially-wrong-from-Asheboro here. You know Asheboro. It's just 30 miles south, and only the land of Bob Morrison, "non-profit" Randolph Hospital's $700,000/year man - the man who DESTROYED this doctor-blogger's life-in-her-hometown with his malevolence, perjury, contempt and fraud. It's also the land of Mike Miller - who, in his "stewardship" of FNB/CO, lost over 250 million dollars in 3 years - destroying the retirements and lives of countless ordinary residents/investors who trusted him - and who was rewarded with the President's chair at Pfeiffer College.
Oh, and on the state level, we've still yet to indict Saint Elizabeth's hubby-fighting-for-ownership-of-his-sex-tape for ripping off his campaign to fund the skank.
(OBTW, these are LOCAL examples.)
You're for DAMNED STRAIGHT the justice system SUCKS at punishing financial criminals. It works OVERTIME to protect them. And which political party has presided over North Carolina's justice system for DECADES?
And on a local level, WHAT did most of our progressive, liberal, Hunt-Sleazely-Perdue-Clinton-Edwards-Obama-loving do-gooders & journalists in this blogosphere tell this "wack-job" doctor-blogger-from-Asheboro, but to "get over it" and "move on"?
It ain't just law enforcement that SUCKS. And it ain't just Wall Street that needs to go to jail
You'll have to forgive me Ed. It's my birthday today and I'm still nursing that dark mood that begins every February 2.
Back to Ed's thread, let the indignant Mary-bashing begin!!!
They secretly wish me well;)
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
For Brenda: He'll Be Waiting, Drawing Pictures In The Sand
Fellow blogger, longtime online pal & supporter, Brenda Bowers, lost her husband of almost 37 years on Valentine's Day. Lew died in his sleep.
To quote Brenda, "Lew wasn't ill, he was just tired."
Because music often is a healing balm when everything else is just a BandAid, I'd like to share two songs that have done my aching heart good over the years. One is a cover of one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs (written for his beloved Miss June), "Flesh & Blood" . . . after that, a beautiful love-song-disguised-as-gospel-tune, "Far Side Banks of Jordan".
For Brenda:
You take care of you.
To quote Brenda, "Lew wasn't ill, he was just tired."
Because music often is a healing balm when everything else is just a BandAid, I'd like to share two songs that have done my aching heart good over the years. One is a cover of one of my favorite Johnny Cash songs (written for his beloved Miss June), "Flesh & Blood" . . . after that, a beautiful love-song-disguised-as-gospel-tune, "Far Side Banks of Jordan".
For Brenda:
You take care of you.
Monday, February 14, 2011
On The Asheboro, N.C. Rotary Club and "Equal Justice"
Earlier this month, a pal e-mailed me a story from the Courier Tribune on the premise that it begged for my commentary. I've not had the time to do it justice.
Summarizing the article, Nicki McDougald, a "program associate" for the Carolina Justice Policy Center was in Asheboro to "educate the community" (in this case, the Asheboro Rotary Club) about "equal justice within the North Carolina Justice System".
But as the article progressively progressed, the astute reader realized that, to Nicki McDougald, the term "equal justice" did not actually mean equal justice. Nope. She "teaches" it as a politically-correct, buzz term that apparently translates into abolishing the death penalty (aka "death penalty reform") for the most heinous crimes committed in North Carolina.
Which, when you get right down to it, for the victims of crimes that merit the ultimate penalty, doesn't mean "equal justice" at all.
I myself am "an eye for an eye" girl. As do a majority of Americans (according to the polls I've seen), I support the death penalty. I believe that there are instances in which the death penalty is not only just but should be demanded by a civilized society.
In my career, I've seen too many horrible things done to innocents by the monsters who walk among us.
I don't care if you're black, white, red, yellow or purple-polka-dotted. If the crime calls for the needle, then the needle should be an option for the state to use. Of course, it's vital, in matters of life and death, that prosecutors shoot straight. And we'll be getting to that shortly.
As I've blogged before, I don't think doctors should be involved in executions. In my view, it is a pansy-assed imposition placed on the "procedure" by legislators-who-have-no-concept-of-the-term-medical-ethics in order to make death appear more palatable or "clean" or (everybody's favorite buzz word), "humane".
The problem with that theory is that the state is taking a life - usually for very ugly reasons. It's not a pretty business. It does harm (as "the patient" always dies). And doctors are sworn to first do no harm.
Indeed, if you're talking about "deterrence", I actually think going back to public firing squads or hangings would be a very good idea ("Look little Johnny, look little Suzy - let this be a lesson that this is what happens to very bad people who do very bad things") . . . it certainly would be no worse than the casual-staged-murder-for-dramatic-license that our kids can see on TV - on shows like "Criminal Minds" or "Bones" - on any given day.
Keeping it real and keeping it ugly keeps society honest.
Alas, on so many levels our uber-civilized society cannot deal with ugly or honest.
I also believe that supporting the death penalty and wanting real reform of the criminal justice system are not mutually exclusive things. Abolishing the death penalty because our justice system has been unfair/corrupt/racist/whatever-the-latest-argument-is in-the-latest-convicted-murder's-appeal assumes that We-The-People cannot make it work.
And I'm sorry, I think that REAL legal reform would demand that (playing on a theme), "YES WE CAN!" make it work - for everybody . . . ESPECIALLY THE VICTIMS.
When you get right down to it, the system actually did work for Darryl Hunt. As mind-numbingly horrible and frightening and inexcusable as his situation was, he was NOT executed. The system has evolved since he was convicted, and safeguards were put into place. I would be the last person in the world to tell the man that he should "get over it", but he's been exonerated - and fiscally compensated (although whatever monetary compensation he got most certainly doesn't begin to make up for the time he he lost) - and is now free to give lectures about how corrupt the legal system in North Carolina really is.
When you've been vindicated, it makes it a whole lot easier to "move on". Indeed, that's kinda the whole point of the justice system.
Those things being said, let's be clear that I'm totally in Hunt's corner that the N.C. justice system been a racist, sexist bastion of good-ole-boyedness for far too long.
Did the system work initially for the young black man falsely accused of raping and murdering a young white woman in Forsyth County? HELL NO. Did it work fast enough when it was clear Hunt had been rail-roaded/scapegoated? HELL NO.
With regards to the argument about processing a death row inmate to execution being so much more expensive than imposing a life sentence, in this era of DNA evidence and CSI investigations, I don't think we'd have innocent people on death row . . . and could actually process the guilty ones much faster . . . if our system were not so currently fundamentally corrupt at the human level . . . in other words, if law enforcement officials (many of them elected and therefore beholden to considerations other than justice) didn't sometimes behave like criminals themselves (and when I say law enforcement, I don't just mean the cops agencies who investigate crimes on the "law" side of the equation, but the district attorneys, judges, Attorneys General, and overseers on the State Bar who are supposed to bring "order" to the proceedings).
The REAL problem (a problem that, as the victim of a series of white-collar crimes, I actually share with Mr. Hunt) seems to be that when the law-school-graduates-wearing-white-hats are caught or called on their own bad behavior, the system moves only very slowly - if at all - to hold them accountable.
And I'm sorry, ladies and gents, saying "Bygones" when someone has stolen years of your life, just doesn't cut it.
If these criminally-negligent public servants are not held accountable, what deterrent exists to stop them/others of their kind from doing it again?
That is how cases demonstrating public corruption become "ancient history" in the eyes of kept men and trust-fund babies. I find considerable irony in that the same local journalists who are writing sympathetically about Darryl Hunt now, no doubt sneered and spit on his pleas for outside eyes - and another look at the evidence - in the past.
Just like they've done me.
These high-minded, enlightened residents of "the fourth estate", who have propped up those who presided over our justice system (or sprang from it) for years . . . the Hunts, the Sleazelys, the Coopers, the Edwardes . . . would have had no problem writing poetically about the light going out of Hunt's eyes when the last of the needles got pushed.
And that brings me back to the irony of anyone bringing a presentation like Ms. McDougald's before the Asheboro Rotary Club . . . one of the last strongholds of Asheboro's "right people" (I, of course, do not qualify) . . . the same people who've determinedly looked in the other direction while some of their kind were held above the law . . . and insulated from its consequences - by others of their kind.
I think it's called "net-working" . . . or "creating connections".
And the sad fact is that whether you're talking about "equal justice" using Nicki McDougald's new-&-improved definition or Dr. Mary Johnson's more traditional notions, Asheboro's fine, upstanding leaders have NEVER been interested in "equal" anything . . . be it in the way they run their Courthouse (i.e. DA's pretending that perjury isn't perjury if the people committing it are local VIP's and prosecuting rape-cases-that-never-should have been prosecuted as rape), or in the way they allow Randolph Hospital to be run (a "non-profit" hospital that, once upon a time, was not interested in marketing their "controlled-affiliate" equally to children on Asheboro's east side - because that "business" was allocated for the Health Department).
They don't play fair.
Now, admittedly, my case is not about a prisoner falsely accused and falsely imprisoned for almost 20 years. But my case IS the "flip side" of that very bad LP . . . as the song I'm singing is about the victim of a series of white-collar crimes screaming at the top of her lungs for justice for going on 13 years . . . and getting no satisfaction from a civil justice system corrupted by perjury . . . and having her very basic civil rights of equal access to the criminal justice system denied for going on eight years (phone calls and letters ignored . . . not even allowed to swear out a criminal complaint) . . . her pleas-for-help to the the N.C. State Bar and N.C. Attorney General repeatedly blown off.
Oh, and I can talk all day long about the flip side of racism too.
Lawyers who lie to their clients, and lawyers suborning perjury - and the perjury itself - do not matter in a Randolph County/North Carolina Courtroom . . . even though North Carolina statute says perjury matters in ANY case, criminal or civil - and that EVERY person caught committing it SHALL be prosecuted as a FELON . . . and even though it is one of the few crimes in North Carolina that does not have a statute of limitations.
The bottom line: Robert Morrison (member of Rotary) and Steven Eblin, carpet-bagging members of Asheboro's new-&-improved good-ole-white-boys-rule-society, could drape themselves in the cloak of public service and steal years of my life and hundreds-of-thousands of dollars of my potential/future income with their lies under Oath (the theory apparently being that the not-so-rich girl who busted her ass for the better part of a decade to become a Pediatrician can just roll over and die) . . . but in Randolph County, as things currently stand, this home-girl has a better chance of getting justice if I were mugged on the street.
At least then, a magistrate with a RCC-high-school-equivalency-diploma would take my complaint and law enforcement would investigate.
(Of course, once past the magistrate, a competent/fair investigation & prosecution by the law grads is not a given. Regular readers know that I was thrown under the bus by the Sheriff/ADA in favor of a cyber-stalker - and not reimbursed by the perpetrator-that-my-friends-tracked down when the mailbox was murdered.)
And so here's my point (and Buzz Armfield, grandson of one of the charter members of the Asheboro Rotary says I've more-than-earned the right to make it). My case is just as relevant - if not more so - to the sad/sorry state of our justice system as Darryl Hunt's. That's because the justice system is, first and foremost, supposed to be about accountability to We-The-People who are the victims of crime.
There is a reason criminal cases are styled as THE PEOPLE of North Carolina versus (insert alleged perpetrator).
So it does kind of pisses me off when people using Darryl Hunt to further their progressive agenda get an invite to "educate" the local Rotary about that is wrong with the criminal justice system, when (1) I (as a "home-girl" and victim of malfeasance on both the civil and criminal sides of the Courthouse) cannot get past their front door, and (2) one of the unconvicted felons in my case gets his "quintuple happys" nobbing with the hobs of Asheboro.
The mill-town bullshit just gets old.
I know plenty about what is wrong with the justice system. I could tell them that the SBI is corrupt and useless too - but for different reasons.
And I can talk all day long about how the legal big guns in Raleigh would have everyone believe that the problems are minor, and that the state of the state's justice system is fine, thank you very much. The way that Roy Cooper "handled" the Nifong debacle (after Nifong was suckered into handing it to him) PROVES that things are just hunky-dory.
Move on along. Nothing more to see.
Except when there is. One of the legal players in my case . . . Randolph County Assistant District Attorney King Dozier . . . the officer-of-the-Court who (1) used me as a patsy in the aforelinked rape-case-that-wasn't, and (2) told me that my case would be referred to the SBI for proper investigation, but neglected to tell me that his boss had killed the investigation before it could start (telling the SBI he would not prosecute the case even if they found evidence of wrong-doing - IGNORING a victim of crime is totally "discretionary" you see) . . . is a prime LOCAL example of what is wrong with our system.
In a case back in 2001, Dozier (I'm quoting from a N.C. State Bar disciplinary notice) "failed to disclose to defense counsel the existence of arrangements with co-defendants to dismiss charges in exchange for their testimony against another criminal defendant. He also failed to take remedial measures when one of the co-defendants testified, in essence, that there was no arrangement".
In short, an Asheboro ADA LIED to the Court and the Judge. But his "discipline" by the N.C. State Bar amounted to barely a slap on the hand: His law license was "suspended" for two years. But the suspension was "stayed" and he kept his job as a prosecutor working for Garland Yates.
(OBTW, you cannot find that particular news story on the Courier Tribune's website anymore. The paywall went up and old embarrassing stories came down. Par for the course for Ray Criscoe & company - no matter what Annette Jordan says).
So there's really no wonder why two "non-profit" hospital executives lying their asses off in a civil case in order to save themselves and their two-bit/third-rate hospital a wad of money does not matter to good-ole-Garland. Like Harold Brubaker, he has to "live in this town". And in Rotarian terms, that means kissing the right incestuously-incestuous butts - legal (or any other kind of) ethics be damned.
With a respectable portion of the prisoners currently on North Carolina's death row hailing from Garland Yates' jurisdiction, THIS ladies and gentlemen, is the quality of justice in Randolph County.
LIARS RULE.
And/so I'm resting my case that the quality of legal oversight of the system that sent these people to walk the green mile ranks right up there with the quality of medical oversight at Randolph Hospital and in North Carolina . . . the same kind "oversight" that allows doctors to be fired for saving lives or sued for telling the truth or swindled by liars who treated the Court with contempt by lying repeatedly under Oath.
In Rotarian terms, what was done to me by the legal system to cover the lying tail of a very prominent Asheboro Rotarian . . .
. . . was not about the truth . . .
. . . it was not fair . . .
. . . it did not foster goodwill or friendship . . .
. . . and it was not, ultimately, beneficial . . . except to those who lied and cheated their way to $700,000/year salaries.
As I read the Courier's article, I really had to wonder how many of the players in the conspiracy-of-dunces that orchestrated my sad saga (Morrison, Eblin, Yates, Gregson, Dozier, Schmidly, Renfro, Criscoe, Brubaker, Howard Coble's staffers, et.al) are now or once were members of the high-minded Asheboro Rotary . . . and if they were at this particular presentation . . . and if they were not squirming in their seats?
Because they know for damned-sure know that "equal justice" does not exist in Randolph County . . .
. . . and deep down, they don't really want it to darken their clubhouse door!
I'm surprised Nicki McDougald got past it.
Summarizing the article, Nicki McDougald, a "program associate" for the Carolina Justice Policy Center was in Asheboro to "educate the community" (in this case, the Asheboro Rotary Club) about "equal justice within the North Carolina Justice System".
But as the article progressively progressed, the astute reader realized that, to Nicki McDougald, the term "equal justice" did not actually mean equal justice. Nope. She "teaches" it as a politically-correct, buzz term that apparently translates into abolishing the death penalty (aka "death penalty reform") for the most heinous crimes committed in North Carolina.
Which, when you get right down to it, for the victims of crimes that merit the ultimate penalty, doesn't mean "equal justice" at all.
I myself am "an eye for an eye" girl. As do a majority of Americans (according to the polls I've seen), I support the death penalty. I believe that there are instances in which the death penalty is not only just but should be demanded by a civilized society.
In my career, I've seen too many horrible things done to innocents by the monsters who walk among us.
I don't care if you're black, white, red, yellow or purple-polka-dotted. If the crime calls for the needle, then the needle should be an option for the state to use. Of course, it's vital, in matters of life and death, that prosecutors shoot straight. And we'll be getting to that shortly.
As I've blogged before, I don't think doctors should be involved in executions. In my view, it is a pansy-assed imposition placed on the "procedure" by legislators-who-have-no-concept-of-the-term-medical-ethics in order to make death appear more palatable or "clean" or (everybody's favorite buzz word), "humane".
The problem with that theory is that the state is taking a life - usually for very ugly reasons. It's not a pretty business. It does harm (as "the patient" always dies). And doctors are sworn to first do no harm.
Indeed, if you're talking about "deterrence", I actually think going back to public firing squads or hangings would be a very good idea ("Look little Johnny, look little Suzy - let this be a lesson that this is what happens to very bad people who do very bad things") . . . it certainly would be no worse than the casual-staged-murder-for-dramatic-license that our kids can see on TV - on shows like "Criminal Minds" or "Bones" - on any given day.
Keeping it real and keeping it ugly keeps society honest.
Alas, on so many levels our uber-civilized society cannot deal with ugly or honest.
I also believe that supporting the death penalty and wanting real reform of the criminal justice system are not mutually exclusive things. Abolishing the death penalty because our justice system has been unfair/corrupt/racist/whatever-the-latest-argument-is in-the-latest-convicted-murder's-appeal assumes that We-The-People cannot make it work.
And I'm sorry, I think that REAL legal reform would demand that (playing on a theme), "YES WE CAN!" make it work - for everybody . . . ESPECIALLY THE VICTIMS.
When you get right down to it, the system actually did work for Darryl Hunt. As mind-numbingly horrible and frightening and inexcusable as his situation was, he was NOT executed. The system has evolved since he was convicted, and safeguards were put into place. I would be the last person in the world to tell the man that he should "get over it", but he's been exonerated - and fiscally compensated (although whatever monetary compensation he got most certainly doesn't begin to make up for the time he he lost) - and is now free to give lectures about how corrupt the legal system in North Carolina really is.
When you've been vindicated, it makes it a whole lot easier to "move on". Indeed, that's kinda the whole point of the justice system.
Those things being said, let's be clear that I'm totally in Hunt's corner that the N.C. justice system been a racist, sexist bastion of good-ole-boyedness for far too long.
Did the system work initially for the young black man falsely accused of raping and murdering a young white woman in Forsyth County? HELL NO. Did it work fast enough when it was clear Hunt had been rail-roaded/scapegoated? HELL NO.
With regards to the argument about processing a death row inmate to execution being so much more expensive than imposing a life sentence, in this era of DNA evidence and CSI investigations, I don't think we'd have innocent people on death row . . . and could actually process the guilty ones much faster . . . if our system were not so currently fundamentally corrupt at the human level . . . in other words, if law enforcement officials (many of them elected and therefore beholden to considerations other than justice) didn't sometimes behave like criminals themselves (and when I say law enforcement, I don't just mean the cops agencies who investigate crimes on the "law" side of the equation, but the district attorneys, judges, Attorneys General, and overseers on the State Bar who are supposed to bring "order" to the proceedings).
The REAL problem (a problem that, as the victim of a series of white-collar crimes, I actually share with Mr. Hunt) seems to be that when the law-school-graduates-wearing-white-hats are caught or called on their own bad behavior, the system moves only very slowly - if at all - to hold them accountable.
And I'm sorry, ladies and gents, saying "Bygones" when someone has stolen years of your life, just doesn't cut it.
If these criminally-negligent public servants are not held accountable, what deterrent exists to stop them/others of their kind from doing it again?
That is how cases demonstrating public corruption become "ancient history" in the eyes of kept men and trust-fund babies. I find considerable irony in that the same local journalists who are writing sympathetically about Darryl Hunt now, no doubt sneered and spit on his pleas for outside eyes - and another look at the evidence - in the past.
Just like they've done me.
These high-minded, enlightened residents of "the fourth estate", who have propped up those who presided over our justice system (or sprang from it) for years . . . the Hunts, the Sleazelys, the Coopers, the Edwardes . . . would have had no problem writing poetically about the light going out of Hunt's eyes when the last of the needles got pushed.
And that brings me back to the irony of anyone bringing a presentation like Ms. McDougald's before the Asheboro Rotary Club . . . one of the last strongholds of Asheboro's "right people" (I, of course, do not qualify) . . . the same people who've determinedly looked in the other direction while some of their kind were held above the law . . . and insulated from its consequences - by others of their kind.
I think it's called "net-working" . . . or "creating connections".
And the sad fact is that whether you're talking about "equal justice" using Nicki McDougald's new-&-improved definition or Dr. Mary Johnson's more traditional notions, Asheboro's fine, upstanding leaders have NEVER been interested in "equal" anything . . . be it in the way they run their Courthouse (i.e. DA's pretending that perjury isn't perjury if the people committing it are local VIP's and prosecuting rape-cases-that-never-should have been prosecuted as rape), or in the way they allow Randolph Hospital to be run (a "non-profit" hospital that, once upon a time, was not interested in marketing their "controlled-affiliate" equally to children on Asheboro's east side - because that "business" was allocated for the Health Department).
They don't play fair.
Now, admittedly, my case is not about a prisoner falsely accused and falsely imprisoned for almost 20 years. But my case IS the "flip side" of that very bad LP . . . as the song I'm singing is about the victim of a series of white-collar crimes screaming at the top of her lungs for justice for going on 13 years . . . and getting no satisfaction from a civil justice system corrupted by perjury . . . and having her very basic civil rights of equal access to the criminal justice system denied for going on eight years (phone calls and letters ignored . . . not even allowed to swear out a criminal complaint) . . . her pleas-for-help to the the N.C. State Bar and N.C. Attorney General repeatedly blown off.
Oh, and I can talk all day long about the flip side of racism too.
Lawyers who lie to their clients, and lawyers suborning perjury - and the perjury itself - do not matter in a Randolph County/North Carolina Courtroom . . . even though North Carolina statute says perjury matters in ANY case, criminal or civil - and that EVERY person caught committing it SHALL be prosecuted as a FELON . . . and even though it is one of the few crimes in North Carolina that does not have a statute of limitations.
The bottom line: Robert Morrison (member of Rotary) and Steven Eblin, carpet-bagging members of Asheboro's new-&-improved good-ole-white-boys-rule-society, could drape themselves in the cloak of public service and steal years of my life and hundreds-of-thousands of dollars of my potential/future income with their lies under Oath (the theory apparently being that the not-so-rich girl who busted her ass for the better part of a decade to become a Pediatrician can just roll over and die) . . . but in Randolph County, as things currently stand, this home-girl has a better chance of getting justice if I were mugged on the street.
At least then, a magistrate with a RCC-high-school-equivalency-diploma would take my complaint and law enforcement would investigate.
(Of course, once past the magistrate, a competent/fair investigation & prosecution by the law grads is not a given. Regular readers know that I was thrown under the bus by the Sheriff/ADA in favor of a cyber-stalker - and not reimbursed by the perpetrator-that-my-friends-tracked down when the mailbox was murdered.)
And so here's my point (and Buzz Armfield, grandson of one of the charter members of the Asheboro Rotary says I've more-than-earned the right to make it). My case is just as relevant - if not more so - to the sad/sorry state of our justice system as Darryl Hunt's. That's because the justice system is, first and foremost, supposed to be about accountability to We-The-People who are the victims of crime.
There is a reason criminal cases are styled as THE PEOPLE of North Carolina versus (insert alleged perpetrator).
So it does kind of pisses me off when people using Darryl Hunt to further their progressive agenda get an invite to "educate" the local Rotary about that is wrong with the criminal justice system, when (1) I (as a "home-girl" and victim of malfeasance on both the civil and criminal sides of the Courthouse) cannot get past their front door, and (2) one of the unconvicted felons in my case gets his "quintuple happys" nobbing with the hobs of Asheboro.
The mill-town bullshit just gets old.
I know plenty about what is wrong with the justice system. I could tell them that the SBI is corrupt and useless too - but for different reasons.
And I can talk all day long about how the legal big guns in Raleigh would have everyone believe that the problems are minor, and that the state of the state's justice system is fine, thank you very much. The way that Roy Cooper "handled" the Nifong debacle (after Nifong was suckered into handing it to him) PROVES that things are just hunky-dory.
Move on along. Nothing more to see.
Except when there is. One of the legal players in my case . . . Randolph County Assistant District Attorney King Dozier . . . the officer-of-the-Court who (1) used me as a patsy in the aforelinked rape-case-that-wasn't, and (2) told me that my case would be referred to the SBI for proper investigation, but neglected to tell me that his boss had killed the investigation before it could start (telling the SBI he would not prosecute the case even if they found evidence of wrong-doing - IGNORING a victim of crime is totally "discretionary" you see) . . . is a prime LOCAL example of what is wrong with our system.
In a case back in 2001, Dozier (I'm quoting from a N.C. State Bar disciplinary notice) "failed to disclose to defense counsel the existence of arrangements with co-defendants to dismiss charges in exchange for their testimony against another criminal defendant. He also failed to take remedial measures when one of the co-defendants testified, in essence, that there was no arrangement".
In short, an Asheboro ADA LIED to the Court and the Judge. But his "discipline" by the N.C. State Bar amounted to barely a slap on the hand: His law license was "suspended" for two years. But the suspension was "stayed" and he kept his job as a prosecutor working for Garland Yates.
(OBTW, you cannot find that particular news story on the Courier Tribune's website anymore. The paywall went up and old embarrassing stories came down. Par for the course for Ray Criscoe & company - no matter what Annette Jordan says).
So there's really no wonder why two "non-profit" hospital executives lying their asses off in a civil case in order to save themselves and their two-bit/third-rate hospital a wad of money does not matter to good-ole-Garland. Like Harold Brubaker, he has to "live in this town". And in Rotarian terms, that means kissing the right incestuously-incestuous butts - legal (or any other kind of) ethics be damned.
With a respectable portion of the prisoners currently on North Carolina's death row hailing from Garland Yates' jurisdiction, THIS ladies and gentlemen, is the quality of justice in Randolph County.
LIARS RULE.
And/so I'm resting my case that the quality of legal oversight of the system that sent these people to walk the green mile ranks right up there with the quality of medical oversight at Randolph Hospital and in North Carolina . . . the same kind "oversight" that allows doctors to be fired for saving lives or sued for telling the truth or swindled by liars who treated the Court with contempt by lying repeatedly under Oath.
In Rotarian terms, what was done to me by the legal system to cover the lying tail of a very prominent Asheboro Rotarian . . .
. . . was not about the truth . . .
. . . it was not fair . . .
. . . it did not foster goodwill or friendship . . .
. . . and it was not, ultimately, beneficial . . . except to those who lied and cheated their way to $700,000/year salaries.
As I read the Courier's article, I really had to wonder how many of the players in the conspiracy-of-dunces that orchestrated my sad saga (Morrison, Eblin, Yates, Gregson, Dozier, Schmidly, Renfro, Criscoe, Brubaker, Howard Coble's staffers, et.al) are now or once were members of the high-minded Asheboro Rotary . . . and if they were at this particular presentation . . . and if they were not squirming in their seats?
Because they know for damned-sure know that "equal justice" does not exist in Randolph County . . .
. . . and deep down, they don't really want it to darken their clubhouse door!
I'm surprised Nicki McDougald got past it.
Friday, February 11, 2011
"Trickle Up Poverty"
I am reading a book by conservative radio jockey, Michael Savage, entitled, "Trickle Up Poverty". Every member of the taken-for-granted, ignored, maligned, stomped-upon, used-abused-&-swindled middle-class (particularly those who view the world though blue-tinted glasses, WATCH WAY TOO MUCH OPRAH, and thought Barack Hussein Obama was some kind of miracle-working Santa Claus) should buy this book and read it.
And in 2012, save this country and vote the socialist bum out.
And in 2012, save this country and vote the socialist bum out.
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Once upon a time, thirteen years ago in my hometown of Asheboro (land of Harold Brubaker), and while in PUBLIC SERVICE, I reported MALPRACTICE on the part of a colleague - a "colleague" who FALSELY ADVERTISED his abilities - and whose mistakes nearly cost a critically-ill newborn infant her life.
Two weeks after I intervened in the case (by ALL accounts saving the child's life) and REPORTED the incident, I was out of a job - and thrust into a medico-legal nightmare that has yet to end - a nightmare that I CAN ASSURE YOU rivals what the patients featured in this article have been through (I can also assure you that the noble lawyers in this state - shielded by the N.C. State Bar will lie and lie and lie some more to get what they want and hide the mistakes of North Carolina's hospitals).
The Medical Board is a toothless joke when it comes to overseeing the bad behavior of the executives who drive some of the doctors' decisions.
Most of my problems have been because the government couldn't oversee its way out of a wet paper bag - and laws have gone un-enforced. My pleas for help over the years - now to prosecute a cut-&-dry case of PERJURY - have fallen on deaf ears.
REFORM THAT IN YOUR TORT REFORM.