https://www.facebook.com/Save-Dr-Kearney-1039697039481791/
Well it has been raining on my golf game, so it must be time for another update on the Dr. Kearney Case. To begin with, the current scheduled activity for court action with regard to the Dr. Kearney lawsuit is a “Motion For Summary Judgment” filed by the “three” outside lawyers (Bryan Beauman, Joshua Salsburey, and Megan George from Sturgill, Turner, Barker & Moloney, PLLC) that the university has hired to handle this matter. In actuality, this is the 3rd attempt by these lawyers to get this case dismissed. The 26-page document (with 440 pages of exhibits), as I understand it and as you might expect, presents the university’s biased presentation/justifications of the actions taken, and why they feel justified in taking the measures they did in their attempt to destroy the career of a well respected physician and professor at the university. Dr. Kearney’s lawyer will file a response to this motion and then both parties will come before the court on March 16, 2018 to argue their case. What becomes clear to me from the above information is that the university (meaning us taxpayers) is forking out hundreds of thousand of dollars in legal fees for the sole purpose of silencing and destroying the career of a highly respected university professor and physician. Add to this the cost these legal proceedings have had on the morale, recruitment and retention of faculty and staff in the hospital, and it’s no wonder that many of the instigators of this travesty have left the scene of the crime.
I can only guess that Dr. Kearney’s lawyer’s response to this “Motion For Summary Judgment” will likewise include a basket full of appropriate documents to support their contentions that this treatment and harassment was in a number of ways unconstitutional and was implemented for reasons other than what is being claimed in the university's “Motion For Summary Judgment”. Not being a lawyer I can only guess that perhaps some of these documents might include:
- 26 years of annual performance evaluations rated excellent or better and signed off on by the individuals making these charges. Perhaps more importantly, not a one of these evaluations mentions the “pattern of unprofessional behavior” these people allege took place throughout Dr. Kearney’s career.
- Then there is the paperwork documenting Dr. Kearney’s promotions from Assistant Professor to Full Professor that took place over this same time period. Again, these documents must also be signed off on by some of these same hospital administrators claiming a “pattern of unprofessional behavior”.
- Then of course there is the documentation for the 29 teaching awards (including the highest teaching award from the Department of Surgery) Dr. Kearney received in his 30 years of service. I would think that somewhat blows out of the water the single student complaint these lawyers were able to come up with.
- Hopefully this paper trail will also include the documentation for the 15 “Best Doctors in America” and 10 “America’s Top Surgeons” Awards Dr. Kearney has received.
- Along these lines, I think there is a bit of irony in the fact that the University of Kentucky is harassing and trying to destroy the career of a College of Medicine physician/professor, Dr. Paul A. Kearney, who they at the same time have accepted and implemented an Endowed Chair position in his name. This webpage: http://www.uky.edu/CouncilEPC/endowed.php lists Dr. Andrew Bernard as the “Paul A. Kearney Endowed Chair in Trauma Surgery”. I would interpret this to mean that somebody felt that Dr. Kearney’s behavior in the trauma ward was respectable enough to donate a considerable chunk of change (2 million dollars) to this university in his name. Saving lives appears to be a hallmark of Dr. Kearney’s. I’ve already commented on his saving the life of one of my graduate students, and if you visit the “Save Dr. Kearney” Facebook page mentioned above you will find many other examples of this.
- Then there are those something like 120 letters of support for Dr. Kearney sent to President Capilouto. In spite of what the UK lawyers might wish, those letters fall under the “Open Records” laws for this public institution.
- Knowing how much these lawyers like to cherry-pick information to support their claims, perhaps Dr. Kearney’s lawyer might include cherry-picked statements from depositions that support the argument that motivations for taking these actions against Dr. Kearney go beyond this patient complaint (which by the way is the only one he has received in 30 years of service at the university and which was dismissed with prejudice by courts). Just to name a couple possible deposition items, there’s the “legal matter” controversy in the Faculty Council meeting involving the mystery KMSF/College of Medicine Practice Plan Committee, and the mystery 2-inch file that was used in part to justify the eventual actions taken by the Medical Staff Executive Committee (MSEC) that tried and sentenced Dr. Kearney.
Speaking of the MSEC trial, I have to believe that Dr. Kearney’s lawyer could also argue the case that this committee met, judged and sentenced Dr. Kearney (barred him from the university campus, changed the locks on his office door, confiscated his personal information, demeaned him as a dangerous person to department staff, and placed him under a gag order) without him even being present at the trial. In fact he wasn’t even allowed to have a representative present at this trial. Furthermore, this so called trial included a jury of people all of whom had potential conflicts of interest, and evidence that was potentially tainted in that it included unsigned documents that purportedly were a part of Dr. Kearney’s personnel file. If this isn’t absence of due process then I don’t know what is. This might work well in Russia or China, but common, this is the USA (I think), and we hopefully still respect constitutional rights.
Well that’s it for now with respect to the update. Keep monitoring the blog for further updates.