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Winkler County Atty Tidwell Criminal Trial Testimony Begins
Former felony indicted Winkler County Memorial Hospital Administrator-turned state’s evidence in exchange for a misdemeanor conviction, Stan Wiley, was the first to take the stand today in the first day of testimony in the felony criminal trial of Scott Tidwell. Tidwell is the county attorney and is being tried in a Howard county courtroom.
He faces six charges, two 3rd degree felonies each of misuse of official information, oppression and retaliation against two Winkler County nurses Anne Mitchell and Vicki Lynn Galle after they reported Dr. Rolando Arafiles to the state medical board over concerns of his practice of medicine at the hospital. Gayle and Mitchell were employed in the administration of the hospital and their duties included Quality Assurance, Risk Management and Medical Staff Credentialing. In other words, they were responsible for ensuring the treatment of patients by the medical staff met the standard of care.
Prosecutor David Glickler from the state attorney’s office got Wiley to admit on the stand that he asked Dr. Arafiles to quit 5 months after he started treating patients due to concerns over his medical practice. Arafiles did not quit and after that Wiley ignored the nurse’s concerns, even cancelling meetings to discuss the issue. Gayle and Mitchell went to the state medical board as a last resort, giving their names with the board agreeing to treat the complaint as anonymous due to their concerns ofer retalitation. And their concerns were valid
Dr. Arafiles was informed a complaint had been filed against him and that the name of the complainant was confidential, he went to his friend, patient and business partner Sheriff Roberts to get to the bottom of it, which he did with gusto complete with search warrants, subpoenas and a grand jury.
Roberts, through lies, deception and violations of law, uncovered the names of the nurses and told Stan Wiley. Wiley in-trun, fired the nurses who had been employed there for 2 decades. Under questioning from the prosecution, Wiley admitted to firing Anne Mitchell based on advice from Tidwell stating, “If I believed that she did not do that in good faith, then I could fire her,” referencing the complaint she and Galle co-authored and sent to the Texas Medical Board.
Glickler asked Wiley if he fired Anne Mitchell based on information from Scott Tidwell, to which Wiley replied yes.
Glickler asked Wiley, “Did Tidwell tell you Mitchell had filed a complaint with the Texas Medical Board citing 10 patients… and that they had also reported him (Wiley) to the Texas Medical Board?” Wiley replied yes.
Glicker asked Wiley if that information later proved to be false, and Wiley answered yes.
At times Wiley appeared to have lost his memory of the events saying he could not recall them or his testimony from the Roberts’ trial earlier this year.
In the same fashion seen during the trial of Winkler Sheriff Robert Roberts, the defense questioned Wiley about the character of nurse Anne Mitchell, and whether she got along with physicians and staff, implying that she is ‘difficult’ and apparently a person who would seek to vindictively file a complaint against a physician purely to harm him…which is the only defense they can offer for having criminally charged the nurses. This tact was a dismal failure during the trail of Roberts, who was found guilty on all counts and sent to jail.
The trial resumes in the morning.
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