West Texas whistleblower nurse acquitted, filing suit of her own

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Thursday February 11, 2010 · 12:16 PM PST

2010/02/11 · 12:16

You may remember the saga of Anne Mitchell, highlighted yesterday by Hester. She was a nurse in a very rural area of West Texas who was accused of "harassing" the doctor who employed her by complaining about his shoddy practices. Well, just hours ago, a jury cleared her of all charges.

A Texas jury has found veteran nurse Anne Mitchell not guilty of harassment after she wrote a confidential letter to the Texas Medical Board complaining about a doctor she believed practiced shoddy medicine.

Her lawyer, John Cook, announced the verdict today on the fourth day of the trial in Andrew, Texas.

Mitchell, 52, could have faced 10 years in prison for doing what she believed was her obligation under the law -- to report unsafe medical practices.

Mitchell is by no means done with this. She was forced to move to New Mexico as a result of the fallout from the incident, and has filed a civil suit against Arafiles, Winkler County Medical Center and Winkler County's sheriff and DA for malicious prosecution and First Amendment violations.

Had Mitchell been found guilty of complaining about Rolando Arafiles' practices, malpractice in Texas might have been considered the same thing as corruption. Yep, that's right. The law Mitchell was accused of breaking, "misuse of official information," is actually covered under an abuse-of-power statute.

Mitchell's original complaint detailed some frightening practices by Arafiles.

Mitchell alleged that Arafiles had improperly prescribed herbal medicines he sold on the side and performed unauthorized surgical procedures.

In her letter to the medical board, she cited a skin graft she said he'd botched in the emergency room, where he did not have surgical privileges. She said Arafiles sutured a rubber tip to a patient's crushed finger for protection, an unconventional remedy that was later flagged as inappropriate by the Texas Department of State Health Services.

Not surprisingly, the state medical board--which sanctioned Arafiles as late as 2006--sharply criticized the prosecution.

"Our mission at the Texas Medical Board is to protect patients through the regulation of doctors," said spokeswoman Leigh Hopper. "That said, we are a complaint-driven agency and the only way that we learn that something may be amiss with doctors is when it comes from co-workers, doctors, peers in the hospital, patients and patients' families.

"We take it very seriously, it's our job," she told ABCNews.com. "It's sort of an alarming idea that somebody reporting a doctor of concern has to be afraid of criminal charges."

As of this writing, Arafiles is still practicing family medicine. One can only hope it won't be for long.

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West Texas whistleblower nurse acquitted, filing suit of her own

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