In 2009, Vickilyn Galle and Anne Mitchell were nurses at Winkler County Memorial Hospital in West Texas. According to an Associated Press story, they made an anonymous complaint to the Texas Medical Board alleging that a physician there had misappropriated supplies and committed other treatment irregularities. In what can only be termed an investigations travesty, being whistleblowers got them fired, arrested, and prosecuted. Proving that everything is bigger in Texas, you are brought this tale of sloppiness and woe.
The Austin Statesman-American reported that after Galle and Mitchell filed their anonymous complaint about Dr. Rolando Arafiles, Jr. with state regulators, the physician got wind of the complaint. He, in turn, contacted his personal friend, Winkler County Sheriff Robert Roberts for help with this problem. Roberts started his own parallel investigation that culminated in him seizing the nurses' computers, finding their letter to the Board, and figuring out their identities.
Once identified, the women were arrested and charged with felonious misuse of information, at which point another friend of the good doctor, County Attorney Scott Tidwell, entered the fray. Tidwell commenced the prosecution of the then not-so-anonymous whistleblowers that surely did not end up as he, Roberts, and Arafiles had anticipated: the charges against Galle were dropped and Mitchell was found not guilty at her trial.
Like an old Quinn Martin television production, this story has a can’t-miss epilogue.
Vickilyn Galle and Anne Mitchell subsequently sued Winkler County, its hospital, Sheriff Roberts, County Attorney Tidwell, and other officials, alleging that their First Amendment rights had been violated and that the prosecutions had been vindictive. In August 2010, they agreed to $750,000 settlement. They have presumably returned to nursing, although no doubt a lot less confident in the proverbial “system”.
Robert Roberts was convicted of retaliation and other charges. As a result, he lost his job, permanently surrendered his peace officer's license, and was sentenced to serve 100 days in jail.
Scott Tidwell was similarly convicted of retaliation. He was sentenced to 120 days in jail, fined $6,000, and placed on probation for 10 years.
Dr. Rolando Arafiles, Jr. was reprimanded and put him on probation by the Texas Medical Board for his role in retaliating against the nurses, for improperly treating several patients with thyroid problems and other conditions, and for mishandling patients in the hospital's emergency department. He must take classes, be monitored by another doctor, and pay a $5,000 fine, per the board's order.
And last, but not least, the Texas legislature enacted a statute that took effect this month barring the state’s Medical Board from considering complaints against doctors if they come from anonymous sources like the one from Vickilyn Galle and Anne Mitchell.
Because that was the problem.
