By Jessica Langdon
Times Record News
WICHITA COUNTY, Texas — Two women, nurses who worked in the Wichita County Jail, have been terminated from their positions by the company that employed them, and both face charges claiming they tampered with governmental records.
The Wichita County Sheriff’s Office and defense attorney Rick Bunch agree on those points but differ on the factors that weigh into this situation.
Bunch speaks of retaliation by some within the office for reporting to an outside board what the women believed to be an improperly performed medical procedure, and he also points to politics within the jail.
Wichita County Sheriff David Duke pointed out misplaced files within the facility and documents found at the home of one of the women, and points to a need to protect personal information and the civil rights of an inmate whose records were removed from the facility.
“The sheriff’s office is responsible for these records,” Duke said. “We don’t allow for these records to be stored at home.”
This week, two women, Tessa Martinez, 31, and Sheryl Ware, 58, were charged with tampering with a governmental record. They turned themselves in Monday and were released on personal recognizance bonds. Duke said further charges were possible.
Duke and WCSO Deputy Chief Derek Meador described an investigation that began with a report of missing documentation. The women’s stories changed multiple times during the investigation, Meador said. The investigation led to a confession that one of the women handed copies to the other at a restaurant. They discovered 28 pieces of documentation at Martinez’s home, Duke said.
The nurses had been working in the jail for several years: Martinez for four years and Ware for 10, Bunch said.
“That’s quite an achievement,” he said.
They had worked there under the previous administration and after Duke took office in 2009, the sheriff said. About a year into Duke’s term, Correctional Healthcare Management took over responsibility for medical care of the inmates in the facility, and the women continued their employment under the new arrangement. Medical care under the newsystem is better than ever, Duke said. Meador pointed to recent jail inspections, which include medical components, and
noted this was the first time in three years the county passed at both facilities.
This case dates back to early February, Bunch said. That’s when an inmate came in; that inmate had a medical problem, Bunch said, adding that HIPAA regulations kept him from revealing specific information about the situation. A registered nurse who was a supervisor of all the nurses decided to perform a medical procedure that was prohibited by law for someone in that capacity to perform; a doctor wasn’t there, Bunch said.
A licensed vocational nurse was there and left the area, not wanting to have anything to do with the procedure, Bunchsaid. However, a nurse has an “absolute duty” to report to the Board of Nursing anything he or she believes to be wrong or unlawful, and in this case the LVN sent a message to Martinez, the second in command, he said.
“When Tessa gets this message, she shows it to another nurse at the annex,” Bunch said. They didn’t take it to the company but to the nursing board, he said.
“They took it upon themselves to make copies of the file to turn over to the nursing board,” to maintain the materials’ integrity and to ensure they would have the materials, he said, noting that’s not a rare occurrence. A receipt card showed the board received the materials, he said. “Then headsstart to roll,” he said.
The LVN who sent the original message was not among those charged this week. She was terminated from her position because, she was told, it was a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act violation to relay medical information about an inmate to another nurse who is also in the jail system, Bunch said. “It’s not a violation of HIPAA,” Bunch said.
He claimed the Sheriff’s Office is not happy the nurses went outside the office with the information they reported.
The WCSO, however, described violations of the law stemming from private information turning up outside the facility. The nurses were not Sheriff’s Office employees; they were working for CHM, Duke said.
When CHM got word of a complaint and went to review materials, the discovery was made that things weren’t where they were supposed to be, according t oW SCOo fficials. Both the health services administrator and a doctor reported making entries on a page that was nowhere tobe found. That is where the investigation began, ultimately leading to the discovery of copies at Martinez’s home when investigators got consent to search, Duke said.
There were also documents stored in the wrong places to make them harder for others to find, he said. He gave an example of documentation stored under a letter that did not match the first letter of an inmate’s last name.
The public should expect its information to be safe, Meador said.
This is something the office has to safeguard on a daily basis, Duke said.
“We don’t take paperwork home,” Duke said of materials that include sensitive information including medical and criminal histories.
“If you got a ticket and came to jail, you would expect your information would be safeguarded,” Meador said.
Duke posed questions about who might have seen this information once it left the facility.
“These two ladies, I personally believe, have violated the civil rights of the inmate whose medical files were removed,” Duke said. This is a case of tampering with governmental documents, hesaid. “That’s where we got involved.”
“All these nurses did is what they’re professionally trained to do, and now they’re being punished for it,” Bunch said.
He called this case a “overreach” and said he was shocked by it. He believes these nurses are heroes, not criminals.
This situation could have a devastating impact on careers for some, he said. Therewas “no illwill here at all,” he said. “They were just doing what they were required to do.”
Meador said it would have been different had the allegations been made to the nursing board and left there for the situation to be handled.
“I would challenge them tofindone nursing school that would tell them to make photocopies and take them to their house,” he said.
Bunch also expressed concerns about others in the jail being afraid, seeing this situation, to report allegations of abuse or wrongdoing.
“That’s not the way it’s supposed to be,” he said.
Duke and Meador said the same type of investigation would have happened had the employees at its heart been detention officers or other members of theoffice. Investigations involving employees have resulted in terminations or arrests in the past, and there are occasions when people are called to answer some hard questions and return to work at the end of investigations.
“If there’s a problem, we need to know about it so we can correct it,” Duke said.
Martinez is charged with the same. Both women turned themselves in on Monday. Ware is charged with tampering with a governmental record. She worked at the Wichita County Jail.
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