The University of Michigan police applied to the Washtenaw County Prosecutor’s Office for charges of obstructing justice and witness intimidation against Captain Perry Spencer of the Hospital Security Services because of his role obstructing their investigation of the death of a patient at UM hospital under suspicious circumstances in 2008[1],[2]. First Assistant Prosecutor, Konrad Siller, denied the application but wrote the following to the University[3];
· “However, your investigation has revealed that the University of Michigan Hospital has a policy to be less than forthright or cooperative with law enforcement. Moreover, your report contains several references to suspected crimes, or other possible criminal activity, having been committed at the University of Michigan Hospital where hospital security, apparently acting on the advice of general counsel, has failed to notify law enforcement.”
This occurred 2 ½ years before the failure to report the discovery of child pornography at Mott Children’s Hospital for 6 months. At that time Ora Pescovitz, CEO of the UM Health System, called it a “painful moment in our history”[4], the UM Regent, Katherine White called it “extraordinarily disappointing”[5], Regent Bernstein said "It is shockingly bad judgment and one can only assume that there was an interest in protecting the institution ahead of other interest”, and President Coleman called it a “serious failure”[6]. What none of these spokespeople said was that the campus police and the prosecutor had warned them years before that hospital security and the Office of General Counsel had been hiding crimes at the hospital.
When security officer, Corbie Wells, was interviewed by police, he said that other investigations of doctors had been shut down at the direction of the Office of Clinical Affairs. When I submitted a FOIA request for documentation of those investigations the University claimed no such records exist and UM spokesman, Rick Fitzgerald has said “the Office of Clinical Affairs has previously looked into allegations of hospital officials telling security to stop an investigation and found nothing”. The University is still trying to cover up the true extent of their history of not reporting crimes to police.
In their report to the prosecutor, the campus police included a log of emails that was evidence that hospital security and the Office of General Counsel were covering up crimes. In the University’s response to my FOIA for these records they have redacted almost all of the entries in that log and have not given me any of the emails[7],[8]. The few entries that were not redacted referred, primarily, to drug diversions or drug thefts. It would make sense for the Office of Clinical Affairs, which grants doctors privileges to practice at the University Hospital, to be involved if a doctor is being investigated for the possible theft of drugs.
Any hospital that dispenses controlled substances must have a license from the Drug Enforcement Agency. One of the requirements of that license is that it must report drug thefts to the DEA. They should be reported on a form, DEA-106, which requires the hospital to say how the theft occurred and what they have done to prevent future thefts. I submitted a FOIA request for those documents in the David Kwiatkowski case and was told that no such records exist.
In the case of David Kwiatkowski[9], a radiologic technician who worked at University Hospital for a few months in 2006, and was the primary suspect in three thefts of narcotics, hospital security did not report the thefts to campus police until after the third theft. After he resigned the investigation was dropped. He went on to work at many hospitals in many states until he contracted Hepatitis C and was responsible for infecting at least 46 patients and contributing to the death of at least one. One of the dates of the redacted emails corresponds to one of these drug thefts. Thus, covering up drug thefts at the hospital can be a deadly crime.
The University administration is still trying to hide the true facts about the failure to report crimes at University Hospital. Much of the true facts are probably hidden in the secret report of the external investigation of the delay in reporting child pornography at Mott Children’s Hospital. The public paid $553,000 for the investigation but the Regents are claiming it is secret under attorney client privilege. Both the Michigan Daily[10] and the Ann Arbor News[11] have called for release of the report and an alumnus has filed a lawsuit seeking its release[12] but the Regents still refuse. It is about time that the public insist that the Regents release the report.
· “However, your investigation has revealed that the University of Michigan Hospital has a policy to be less than forthright or cooperative with law enforcement. Moreover, your report contains several references to suspected crimes, or other possible criminal activity, having been committed at the University of Michigan Hospital where hospital security, apparently acting on the advice of general counsel, has failed to notify law enforcement.”
This occurred 2 ½ years before the failure to report the discovery of child pornography at Mott Children’s Hospital for 6 months. At that time Ora Pescovitz, CEO of the UM Health System, called it a “painful moment in our history”[4], the UM Regent, Katherine White called it “extraordinarily disappointing”[5], Regent Bernstein said "It is shockingly bad judgment and one can only assume that there was an interest in protecting the institution ahead of other interest”, and President Coleman called it a “serious failure”[6]. What none of these spokespeople said was that the campus police and the prosecutor had warned them years before that hospital security and the Office of General Counsel had been hiding crimes at the hospital.
When security officer, Corbie Wells, was interviewed by police, he said that other investigations of doctors had been shut down at the direction of the Office of Clinical Affairs. When I submitted a FOIA request for documentation of those investigations the University claimed no such records exist and UM spokesman, Rick Fitzgerald has said “the Office of Clinical Affairs has previously looked into allegations of hospital officials telling security to stop an investigation and found nothing”. The University is still trying to cover up the true extent of their history of not reporting crimes to police.
In their report to the prosecutor, the campus police included a log of emails that was evidence that hospital security and the Office of General Counsel were covering up crimes. In the University’s response to my FOIA for these records they have redacted almost all of the entries in that log and have not given me any of the emails[7],[8]. The few entries that were not redacted referred, primarily, to drug diversions or drug thefts. It would make sense for the Office of Clinical Affairs, which grants doctors privileges to practice at the University Hospital, to be involved if a doctor is being investigated for the possible theft of drugs.
Any hospital that dispenses controlled substances must have a license from the Drug Enforcement Agency. One of the requirements of that license is that it must report drug thefts to the DEA. They should be reported on a form, DEA-106, which requires the hospital to say how the theft occurred and what they have done to prevent future thefts. I submitted a FOIA request for those documents in the David Kwiatkowski case and was told that no such records exist.
In the case of David Kwiatkowski[9], a radiologic technician who worked at University Hospital for a few months in 2006, and was the primary suspect in three thefts of narcotics, hospital security did not report the thefts to campus police until after the third theft. After he resigned the investigation was dropped. He went on to work at many hospitals in many states until he contracted Hepatitis C and was responsible for infecting at least 46 patients and contributing to the death of at least one. One of the dates of the redacted emails corresponds to one of these drug thefts. Thus, covering up drug thefts at the hospital can be a deadly crime.
The University administration is still trying to hide the true facts about the failure to report crimes at University Hospital. Much of the true facts are probably hidden in the secret report of the external investigation of the delay in reporting child pornography at Mott Children’s Hospital. The public paid $553,000 for the investigation but the Regents are claiming it is secret under attorney client privilege. Both the Michigan Daily[10] and the Ann Arbor News[11] have called for release of the report and an alumnus has filed a lawsuit seeking its release[12] but the Regents still refuse. It is about time that the public insist that the Regents release the report.
[1] Police reports Porterfield (parts 1 & 2)
| police_report_porterfield_01.pdf |
| police_report_porterfield_02.pdf |
[2]http://www.annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigan-hospital-officials-didnt-forward-report-on-suspicious-death-to-police-4-years/
[3] Prosecutor’s memo
| prosecutors_memo_denying_warrant.pdf |
[4] http://www.annarbor.com/news/crime/u-m-health-system-ceo-calls-delay-in-child-porn-reporting-painful-moment-in-our-history/
[5] http://www.annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigan-regent-katherine/
[6] http://www.annarbor.com/health/u-m-releases-report-on-internal-review-into-6-month-delay-in-reporting-child-porn-to-police/
[5] http://www.annarbor.com/news/university-of-michigan-regent-katherine/
[6] http://www.annarbor.com/health/u-m-releases-report-on-internal-review-into-6-month-delay-in-reporting-child-porn-to-police/
[7] Email log Porterfield
| email_log_porterfield.pdf |
[8] FOIA response
| foia_response_2013_11_15.pdf |
[9] http://www.washtenawwatchdogs.com/david-kwiatowski-at-um.html
[10] http://www.michigandaily.com/opinion/19-daily-without-delay-23
[11]http://www.annarbor.com/news/opinion/university-of-michigan-stephen-jenson-failure-to-report-child-pornography/
[12] http://www.michigandaily.com/article/university-denies-multiple-foia-requests-jensen-case
[10] http://www.michigandaily.com/opinion/19-daily-without-delay-23
[11]http://www.annarbor.com/news/opinion/university-of-michigan-stephen-jenson-failure-to-report-child-pornography/
[12] http://www.michigandaily.com/article/university-denies-multiple-foia-requests-jensen-case
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