this did not happen. He was going to call them but his lawyer insisted:
“Let ME call them. Perhaps I’ll be able to talk them. It seems to me that it is the right thing to do now that you are no longer a convict.”
So he called the state Capital. But they did not budge! They told him:
“We have our own medical experts, lawyers and judges to examine his case. In the next four weeks you will have our decision. It may not necessarily agree with your local Court to clear him 100%. Even if they do not find evidence to uphold the guilty conviction, they may still find some negligence enough to impose on him some sort of sanction and restrictions to his practice. For now he has no license at all.”
Dr. Lennox and his lawyer were shocked by what they were told. There it was, a real tragedy, it seemed, and there was nothing they could do at that point to influence the Medical Board one way or another. He could not bring to their attention Dr. Newman or Dr. Elan, and probably not Dr. Nora Phillips either -herself being investigated by them-. It would be all unilateral… A double whammy! First the sad, horrible loss of my daughter; now the loss of my license, of my livelihood!
Some three weeks after that, he got from The Capital the official written reply of the Medical Board to his request for the return of his license:
“The suspension of your license will remain in effect for a full six (6) months from the day of your conviction even if such has been reversed. The Board has examined all the documents the D.A. had and still finds you careless and negligent for not having taken your daughter to the ER immediately after she fell (even believing, as you claimed, that she just slipped off your hands).
“At the end of the six months, you may write to us to request the return of your license and we will go from there. It is possible that at that point the Board may impose additional restrictions, such as a limited license to practice medicine under some supervision and probation, for a given period of time.
“This decision is final. You may wish to appeal it to the Board if you wish, but understanding that with inherent formalities, paper work and the usual delays, you may not gain that much time, even if the Board agrees then to shorten the stated sanction.”
“Wow!” said his lawyer. “I guess they have you trapped. And it does not seem fair… I could appeal for you such decision to one of the State Court of Appeals. But my services will cost you, and again, you may not save that much time…”
“Let me think about it,” said Dr. Lennox. “Perhaps if we appeal it -accepting the six month sanction without fighting them, courteously- I may be able to eliminate ‘the sequel,’ the probationary license with limitations they may impose after that…”
Following that conversation with his up-to-that-point lawyer, Dr. Lennox called her friend Dr. Barbara Good, told her about his conversation with his lawyer and where he stood with the State Health Department and asked her to have a coffee with him. She was delighted to hear in person from him and quickly accepted. She told him that she would also try to bring along Dr. Nora Phillips if it was OK with him.
“Yes. Thank you very much, he said.” Tomorrow for lunch?
“OK. I’ll be there, with our also beleaguered Nora at least!”
The next day, Dr. Tony Lennox sat alone for a coffee at 11 o’clock, in a quiet booth at a corner in the nearby quiet diner The Dark Chocolate. With the two certified letters from the Medical Board in his pocket, he waited for his friends to join him at some point over the next hour. At 11:40, he was surprised to see not only the two women, but also Judge Kenneth Good who arrived on their heels. His wife Barbara had told him the previous night about the lunch meeting with Tony. The judge, without having to ask, immediately volunteered, assuring his wife that he would join the group without waiting for her to invite him – or to object to his coming. HE wanted to know first hand where things stood with the poor doctor whose deeply sad and undeserved sentence had just been magnified by the State Medical Board.
After the initial greeting and having ordered lunch, judge Good jumped into the topic before anybody else had started with pleasantries.
“So Tony, I guess the guilty verdict is definitely gone and that you are in the clear from the criminal stand point. But let’s talk now about the ramifications I hear through Barbara, with the Health Department.”
“Thanks for asking, judge. It’s a mess! They’ve taken my license even if your court has let me go free & innocent. I was going to be suspended for two full years, but since you cleared me of the guilty verdict, they have reduced it to 6 months; months then to be followed, they say, by a provisional license to practice under supervision under as yet unspecified conditions for as yet an unspecified length of time.”
“Damn!” said the judge. “I expected that much. Those wolves! If my court has not indicted you, what business do they have to ruin your life, your professional career with that nasty ‘suspension’ even if for a short time? It will stay in your file -and on their web site- and ruin your reputation… probably for ever!”
“And now you know, judge,” said Nora Phillips “what I am myself up against if they get their hand on ALL my records as they are demanding, without accepting the opinion of my impartial experts that also clear me; they have no justification for it!… For sure I will also be sacked. If they go nit picking on all my records they are bound to find something that suits their charging me with something!”
“Yes, they will do the same thing to you, Nora if you stay in this State. This is why I suggested that you get out of here as fast as you can before you are due in front of the other judge. And he is not likely to allow you more delays.”
“Why is there no impartiality?” asked Barbara to her husband. “Does it happen that way, OPC bullying ALL cases of professional conduct without impartiality?”
“I am afraid it does. They are all lawyers -or most of them- at OPC in the Capital. And they have managed to concoct all those little state laws that make all their machinations legal, 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
