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WINKLER COUNTY OFFICIALS INDICTED AS WE PREDICTED
You read it here in December: “Winkler County Texas has come FULL CIRCLE. Dr. Arafiles has been charged and the sheriff and prosecutor should be next.” County Attorney Scott Tidwell and Sheriff Robert Roberts have been indicted by a grand jury on two counts each of third degree felonies. Former Winkler County Memorial Hospital administrator Stan Wiley, who quietly resigned and suck out of town, has also been indicted. All three face up to ten years in prison for their shameful abuses of power and reprehensible persecution of Winkler County nurses Vicki Galle and Anne Mitchell. See our Winkler County page for the whole story.
One county official deserving of the full weight of the law remains unindicted as yet: County district attorney Mike Fostel. Law Med can’t see how he will escape charges.
Here are the charges:
Tidwell:
3rd degree felony for retaliation x 2 counts
3rd degree felony for misuse of official information x 2 counts
Class A misdemeanor for official oppression x 2 counts
Sheriff Roberts:
3rd degree felony for retaliation x 2 counts
3rd degree felony for misuse of official information x 2 counts
Class A misdemeanor for official oppression x 2 counts
Wiley: 3rd degree felony for retaliation x 2 counts
KERMIT Two Winkler County officials and the former hospital board administrator were indicted Thursday on charges related to the 2009-’10 case of the two whistle-blowing Winkler County nurses, according to court documents obtained by CBS 7.
County Attorney Scott Tidwell and Sheriff Robert Roberts were indicted by a grand jury on two counts each of third-degree felony misuse of official information and retaliation, and two counts of official oppression, a class A misdemeanor.
Stan Wiley, who resigned from Winkler County Hospital in October, was indicted on two counts of retaliation.
The indictments, which come from the Texas attorney general’s office, result from the criminal investigation of nurses Anne Mitchell and Vicki Galle. They were fired from Winkler County Memorial Hospital and were indicted and arrested by local authorities in 2009 in connection with misuse of official information after sending a letter to state medical regulators. The letter outlined concerns including Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles’ supposed attempt to use hospital supplies for at-home procedures.
A representative with the Winkler County Jail said Thursday evening that due to circumstances he’d “been informed of,” all questions about inmates would have to go through the front office in the morning. He did not know if Roberts would be in this morning.
In December, Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles turned himself in to jail and quickly bonded out on charges of misuse of official information and retaliation. He was also indicted on two counts each Thursday.
Both nurses were charged after Arafiles asked the sheriff, a friend, to investigate who sent the letter.
In an arrest affidavit, investigators said Arafiles believed the charges would thwart the board’s investigation. But prosecutors dismissed the case against Galle, and Mitchell was acquitted by jury in February 2010. In August, the pair received $750,000 after Winkler County settled a federal civil suit against many of the officials involved.
In relation to misuse of official information, Arafiles is accused of giving information from the Winkler County hospital to Roberts in order to identify the letter’s anonymous authors. Roberts is accused of getting non-public complaints filed to the Texas Medical Board in order to identify the authors, and giving them to Tidwell.
Wiley’s retaliation charges are related to the termination of Mitchell’s and Galle’s employment due to their whistle-blowing; the others retaliation charges are related to the misuse of information charge.
Charges of official oppression against Tidwell and Roberts are related to the accusations they put Galle and Mitchell through “mistreatment, arrest and detention” that the two officials knew was unlawful.
From KWES Newswest 9
http://lawmedconsultant.com/indicted.flv
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[...] Glickler seeking to change the venue of the trial of county Sheriff Robert Roberts. Roberts is charged with a number of felonies and misdemeanors for his role in the arrest and prosecution of two Winkler [...]