By Bob Gardinier
Times Union
ALBANY, NY — A Rensselaer County corrections officer accused of using a jail computer to look at medical records of a next-door-neighbor’s daughter claims he had no reason to do so because he already had the records legally.
Officer Ron LaFountain and his wife, Christine, are among those named in a federal lawsuit filed by Dominic and Marjorie Pasinella that seeks damages for their daughter whose Samaritan Hospital medical records were accessed twice from the jail where LaFountain works. For years jail nurses could access medical records at the hospital via computer to make for easier treatment of inmates.
After the Pasinella breach and up to 50 others including employees of the jail were discovered, the link was disabled and an investigation began.
Lawyers for the LaFountains, Frost and Kavanaugh P.C., have filed opposition motions denying that the LaFountains were involved or initiated the breach. The motions also cite as a defense an unrelated lawsuit between the two families over LaFountain’s dog biting Pasinella’s then 11-year-old daughter three years ago. That suit gave the LaFountains legal access to the young girl’s records. That suit was settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.
“As part of that case, the plaintiffs were required to, and actually did, sign medical authorizations on behalf of the infant plaintiff allowing the answering defendants access to the infant plaintiff’s medical records at Samaritan Hospital,” the motion states. “These medical records are the same medical records that the plaintiffs allege some or all of the defendants accessed.”
The federal complaint alleges the health records of the girl were reviewed on a jail computer in 2010, three days after she was bitten by LaFountain’s dog. They also were viewed last July, on the same day that depositions took place in the lawsuit the couple filed against LaFountain.
Also named in the Pasinella lawsuit are Sheriff Jack Mahar, former jail head nurse Elaine Young and Rensselaer County.
The LaFountains claim in their motions that Young acted on her own to access the records.
Young, through an attorney, has alleged jail officers may have used her computer password — which was taped to her desk — without her knowledge.
Earlier this week Young filed a cross motion trying to join the LaFountains’ defense that medical records were already legally released to the LaFountains.
The LaFountains have filed a motion opposing Young’s move.
In the Pasinella lawsuit filed in April, their attorney, Elmer Robert Keach III, alleges that Mahar was aware that jail employees were accessing the confidential medical records of corrections officers who missed work due to illness or injuries. The federal complaint does not allege Mahar had any role in accessing the records of the girl.
Keach, an Amsterdam attorney, said the Pasinella lawsuit is only the beginning of a series of expected civil actions expected in the wake of the discovery. Keach said several jail officers who were notified their medical records were improperly viewed are also planning legal action.
Mahar has called the allegation “an outright lie, and I can’t go any further than that. It’s totally not true.”
Meanwhile, the Rensselaer County Legislature earlier this month passed a resolution to hire the law firm of Carter, Conboy, Case, Blackmore, Maloney & Laird, P.C. of Albany to represent the named defendants in the Pasinella lawsuit. The resolution included the payment of a $30,000 retainer to the firm.
The resolution said the county will be represented by its insurance carrier but that carrier refused to provide legal counsel for those named in the case.
County Attorney Stephen Pechenik was unavailable for comment.