even if secretive, monolithic, despotic, especially prosecutorial laws, against the 14th Amendment, our Right to Due Process. The professional disciplinary process as it exists in so many states, especially here, reminds me of the capricious, murderous ways of the Inquisition, the Tudors, the Puritans, the Nazis, Stalin, and so many others through the centuries. OPC obliterates so many professionals without due process, as total despots, ruining lives, just as wickedly, pure murder!”
“Wow! What a political speech! The British wouldn’t like to hear that of their own rulers! They call the Inquisition -even theirs- ‘the Spanish Inquisition!’ Said Nora.
“Yes! Even if my roots are British!” said chuckling the infuriated judge Good. And he went on: “Those damn state lawyers in the Capital at the Medical Board, at the Education Department and at all other departments including the State Attorney General’s Office have created an unassailable system of professional discipline that is like an unescapable net encircling a school of tuna fish. Once they get you in -often targeted from inside OPC, from a colleague that despises you, a clinic’s nurse, or after an unfair, silly complaint- it is impossible to untangle yourself, alone OR even with high power expensive lawyers… as you go broke!
“Lawyers who specialize in medical misconduct (just to help doctors, they claim) take your money – and then often bill you for much more than what your insurance company allows ‘for misconduct issues.’ But they often ‘play along’ -two cards- with you and with the corrupt, inquisitorial system of OPC. The State Health Department’s ‘Administrative Law Judges’ (nearly a blasphemy) with unilateral and incontestable power. They judge cases internally -a mockery- where the victim’s evidence doesn’t count; it is all one sided and never with impartial jurors. No wonder so many accused doctors refuse to attend their phony ‘Hearings’… and they are sacked no matter what!
“This is why, Nora, I told YOU to leave the State and don’t waste your money and go broke with lawyers trying to keep your license 100% clean. If you stay here, you have no chance. The lawyers at OPC will never let you go scot free without placing at the a dark stain on your reputation for ever; for all to see in their web site!”
“Let’s talk now about Tony, Ken. They have already taken his license. Is there anything at all he can do? Can WE help him?” Asked Barbara.
“I don’t know. Perhaps at this point just go along without protests and without raising too much dust. And don’t go to the media. They’ll only print the Hospital and OPC’s versions…. I can make a couple of phone calls to the Capital, perhaps even to a judge there in the State Court of Appeals, but I doubt the Medical Board will change their mind no matter who tries to twist their arm; even if the judge -that brokered your release and removed your guilty verdict- is myself the one who contacts them; they won’t care. They know I don’t have any authority over them.”
“If you try to intervene on my behalf, could THAT raise eyebrows inside the Capital with all those lawyers, including the State Attorney General, so one-sided for State’s OPC, and affect your own career as a state judge negatively?” Asked Dr. Lennox.
“Probably, but I don’t care. I am so fed up with our whole legal and judicial system… I am so sick to be part of it… With so many monolithic, unassailable state agencies with absolute power, I should retire right now! And I don’t mind if I am stuck without any promotions in my judicial ladder. It won’t bother me… but the whole thing stinks; I am part of the law, the lawyers, I am a lawyer too, one of them, of the system that manufactures more and more of them.”
There was a long silence as they were finishing their food and having their last sips of coffee. Judge Good still had more than half of his hot turkey sandwich on his plate, pretty cold already…
Judge Good did make those calls to the State Capital. He spoke to a lawyer at OPC, not very nice; this guy reminded the judge that even if he was a state judge that he didn’t have anything to do with another State office like the Health Department and had no authority over them or their policies. That they had their own ‘Administrative Law Judges’ administering their perfectly legal rules, real ‘laws.’ The effective, modern, XX and XXI Centuries (American) Inquisition.
“Screw you!” judge Good said actually aloud with the phone still on his hand, so his law clerk heard him, though he had hung up by then. He felt strongly that they (OPC), their ‘judges’ and unassailable laws were the epitome of what is wrong with the American legal system, so corrupt and politicized with so many lawyers everywhere making and passing unfair, often unneeded, so often even cruel new laws!…
His call to the State Medical Board did not go much better though the person he talked to was not talking with an offensive attitude as the first lawyer had. He just said that in view of the State Supreme Court reversal of the Guilty verdict for Dr. Lennox, that they would convene again on that matter at the earliest possible time. The doctor’s lawyer would be notified then after the Board listened to their own in-house experts.
Last, Judge Good called his old colleague at the State Court of Appeals, Judge Scott Albert. He succinctly explained the situation but his friend told him that he could not intervene to reverse the OPC decision in spite of Dr. Lennox having been cleared by Ken’s State Supreme Court:
“You know that well, Ken. His lawyer will have to file a proper appeal to my court, serving a copy of course to the State Attorney General who I am sure will defend vigorously the independence of judgment of another state office, especially of the Health Department, with its exclusive jurisdiction on matters of professional discipline. They will try to block the Appeal, to dismiss it. As you know, by the time our decision is out, it will be just about the six months of his present suspension, all for nothing, and it will have cost the poor doctor an arm and a leg in legal fees.
“And with the issue of ‘executive, or eminent domain’ giving so much untouchable power in the State to those ‘Administrative Law Judges” internally, my colleague judges will insist that I stay out of it… At the most, I may be able to spare your poor doc of the subsequent restrictions to his license after the initial six months…”
“It stinks, Scott. It stinks.” Said judge Good. “If he is innocent, and even the prosecutor, the D.A. says so -even if it is just because of ‘sufficient doubt’ in the evidence against him-, why the hell can’t OPC leave him alone and erase this case from his record and avoid a for ever horrible reputation? What’s the matter with our legal system? Why should YOU have your hands so tied against those nasty wolves?”
“I don’t know, Kenneth. I don’t know. Some times -as in other cases where the judgement of another state office is appealed- I see too that I lack the power sufficient to overrule them; but other times it works the other way around and I feel that I have too much power in my hands, as if I were better than them or knew better; that humbles me and it makes me uncomfortable.”
“Yes, I often feel that way too. I understand, Scott, Thanks for your words,” said judge Good. And he hung up.
Kenneth Good was going to transmit all that information over the phone to the just suspended by OPC Tony Lennox, but then he thought that it would be better said and discussed in another lunch meeting with him plus the other two doctors, one his wife Barbara, the other Nora Phillips. So he called his wife Barbara to her orthopedic office to have her set it up.
Our good judge Good met again all three doctors for lunch in the same quiet diner that Saturday. Purposely, he had not called Dr. Lennox’ lawyer. Barbara had already told Dr. Lennox before hand that his lawyer did not need to be present and that with whatever information her husband had for him that he might choose to call him afterwards, or seek a different lawyer.
The luncheon was again pretty informative for all three doctors, especially for the two besieged by the State. In Dr. Lennox’s case, “the stain on your curriculum vitae,” said the judge, “is already done and probably OPC will never remove it. That’s what they do, happy about it. As for the return of your license sooner than in the 6 months suspension, you can appeal it to the State Court of Appeals or to the 3rd Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court. But any of those two channels to reverse or finish quicker OPC’s unilateral decision