Whistle Blower!

In the early morning stillness, Janel made the decision to notify the FBI.  They met early the following week at her home. Just before ten in the morning, the shiny dark sedan pulled up in her driveway and then backed out.  Janel peered from behind the vertical drapes in her living room.  Janel remembered Hawaii Five-O and wondered if these men would resemble Jack Lord. 

Janel watched as the FBI agent drove down the long cul-de-sac again.  “What’s he waiting for?” she thought.  After a few minutes another car arrived.  “It must be the investigator from the United States Department of Health and Human Services,” she mused as the men disembarked and headed for her door. 

She wasn’t sure what to expect.  Tony was blond and slight. Not at all what she expected. 

Jimmy reminded her of J. Edgar Hoover.  He had that bulldog kind of look.  Under his arm he had about five pounds of computer printouts.

“Hi, I’m Janel.  You know I left several messages at your office and no one returned my call.  Are you all that busy investigating criminal behavior?” she said.

The men sighed and said nothing.

“So tell us about why you’re doing this?”

“Dr. Tinson seems to be running some kind of scam. He also talks about some kind of doomsday fire in his writings.  I knew this was beyond me – I didn’t want to be involved any longer. I just quit,” Janel said.  

The FBI agents and Janel spoke about the same diagnoses and procedures which were used on nearly all of Dr. Tinson’s clients. 

Tony reached for his glass case and put on his non-descript reading glasses.  Jimmy pulled out his five-year printout of Medicare billings from Dr. Tinson.

“God, Tony, we have about a half-million here,” he said.

“So what does that mean?  Will you prosecute him?”  Janel said with a determined stare.

The agents did not respond to her question, simply talked on and on for two more hours about Dr. Tinson’s operation.

As time went by, Janel felt a lump growing in her throat.  She wondered what she had gotten herself into.

George had told her he was uncomfortable that she was doing this but she had decided to do it anyway.  Not one to live in fear for not doing the right thing,  Janel knew she had to go through with this. 

Janel had always thought that things happen for a reason.  Well, she was tired of the reasons. She wanted an explanation now.

Two weeks passed before she received a call from Jimmy at the United States Department of Health and Human Services.

“We have to review the Tinson documents and see if we can build a case.  Either way, can we keep your copy of his Accounts Receivables and analyze them further?” he asked.

“Sure, I have another copy,” Janel said.

“Most likely, we can’t do a thing about him. He is just too bizarre to prosecute,” Jimmy said. 

Bizarre, she thought. Our justice system is based upon bizarre? He commited a crime and I lost my job defending the integrity of this country.  And all the FBI can say is that he is too bizarre to prosecute?

“Thank you for calling,” Janel muttered in confusion.

But she was not about to let this go. She reached for the telephone book and found the phone number for the Office of the Attorney General.  Janel sighed and dialed his number.

“Hi, can I speak to whomever is handling the case against Dr. Tinson? I think this office is investigating him.  I was his administrator,” Janel said.

“Yes, I am handling this case.  My name is Barbara Goldman.”  Janel heard her take a deep breath.  “Thanks so much for calling.  How soon can we meet?” Goldman asked.

Janel couldn’t believe she was going through another bout with the Attorney General’s Office.  She laughed as she thought, “this is like old home week.”

Sitting across from each other, the conversation immediately focused. 

“Can I ask you a question, Janel?” Barbara said. “What made you do this?  You know, our line of work is like a taffy pull trying to get citizens to come forward.  You seemed so matter of fact about this,” she said.

“Well, it is just wrong.  I went into health care because I wanted to help people,” Janel said.

Barbara and Janel talked for hours. After their meeting, Janel went home…home to four walls where she had no children,no partner, no job, no purpose.  This is the home where no one lives – just actors on a stage, she thought.  Her agony grew within her chest, rising to catch in her throat.

Finding her journal, she allowed her grief to pour out onto page after page.    Before she realized, she had a journal in book form.

Eric came home for a long weekend and suggested they buy a puppy.  “You know Mom, Annie is getting older now.  Why don’t we get another dog? It would keep you and her company,” he said.

Eric always warmed her heart.  Now she had a puppy to keep her busy. 

Janel continued to send out resumes.  She noticed an advertisement in a local paper and applied for the position of Physician Recruiter.

Two weeks later she received a call from Human Resources to set up an interview.  After a brief visit with her prospective boss, she told George about the job.

“Well, I am hired,” she said.

“Congratulations.  You are back in business,” he laughed.

But Janel wasn’t especially happy.  She had trained as an administrator and this was the job for which she wanted to be hired.  However, she knew working even as a Physician Recruiter would be good for her.

The company allowed her to work at her home and meet physicians as needed in order to recruit them for the HMO for whom she was working.

She continued to meet with the Attorney General’s office regarding the respective cases against her former employers.

It was the summer of 1996 when Janel received the call from Barbara Goldman.

“I just wanted to tell you that you will be receiving a subpoena to testify in the State’s case against Dr. Tinson.  Now that we have garnered enough signed affadavit’s against him, we can present our case in court. We are seeking to revoke his license to practice medicine,” Barbara Goldman said. 

Stunned, Janel asked about the charges against him.

“For starters, he isn’t board certified in any discipline but holds himself out as ‘being a specialist in preventive medicine, family medicine and psychiatry’, he says on his letterhead after his signature, Department of Psychiatry, indicating he is on staff there when he is not even part of the admitting or consulting staff. It also says he has a ‘research foundation’,  but the organization is not recognized by any of the science foundations’ that he does not maintain complete medical records which is necessary for financial compensation, is ‘significant from an ethical perspective’ overuses medical equipment for unnecessary testing, uses medication for clients inappropriately as well as psychological testing administration, interpretation and reporting instruments are generally done with individuals with appropriate training,” she said.

“Okay,” Janel said.  She was told her testimony was scheduled to be heard on the first day of the hearing. 

It was a cold and rainy day when the hearing began.  After scouring the parking lot for a safe, visible place to leave her car, she locked the doors.  Just outside the Administrative Law Court building, she could see a dozen of Dr. Tinson’s sympathizers carrying placards attesting to his innocence. 

“Sir, is it safe to leave my car on the lot?” she asked of the police officer at the security check point. 

“Sure.  It should be fine,” he assured Janel.

Janel had a knot in the pit in her stomach as she handed the officer her purse and proceeded through.  She paused at the door when she heard a commotion behind her.

Dr. Tinson’s shiny light gray limousine had just pulled up alongside the building.  His scratchy beard had been removed to reveal a smooth and angular face.  He looked much younger than his years.  A large and rotund man with a tattered suit appeared behind him carrying legal briefs.  Both men stuggled to maintain control of their voluminous legal papers.  The chauffeur opened the trunk and loaded the rest of the boxes into the dolly waiting nearby.

Dr. Tinson was wearing a high end dark suit, looking very professional as he smiled for the cameras. 

Janel knew he staged this as he had staged many of the celebrity events in his life.

Newspapers reporters cornered Janel as she made her way down the long haul.

“Can’t you tell us something… anything?” they asked.

“No comment,” Janel said.

Inside the court room, cameramen scurried,  adjusting their equipment.  They wanted to be live when the sensational trial commenced.

Janel was the first called.  She was just sworn in when the round sloppily-dressed prosecutor dug into her.

“What does the staff think of Dr. Tinson?” he asked.

“I just started working there when one employee after another came into my office.  Each one asked me to promise I would not reveal what they were about to say,” she said.

“Well then, don’t” the prosecutor shouted. “Next witness!” he said. He turned away from the stunned Janel.  Her mouth dropped open.

“That is hearsay,  your honor,” he said. The judge agreed.

With that, Janel’s brief testimony was over. She was asked to return the following day in case her testimony could be reinstated.

Feeling cut off at the knees, Janel walked through the parking lot.  Uneasy, she got into the car anyway.  She dropped the keys in her lap and placed her hands evenly on the steering wheel hesitant to put the key into the ignition.  Thoughts about the car exploding raced through her mind. 

            Then with a stiff upper lip and a pounding heart, Janel pulled her hands from the wheel, reached for the keys, and put the key in the ignition, hoping the car would not hesitate to start.  The engine turned over and Janel slowly left.

The following morning  Janel picked up a local tabloid and discovered her name was mentioned in the story they were covering.  She had worked hard to stay out of print.  She wondered if Dr. Tinson was behind the publicity for this story.

She drove to the Administrative Law Court for another hearing the following day.  Again, the Deputy Attorney General was unsuccessful in getting her testimony reinstated.

She left the court and got into her car for the drive home.  As she turned the corner, she passed the local police department.  Just then Janel heard an ear piercing scraping sound coming from the right passenger side of her vehicle. Simultaneously, she could not accelerate.  Unsure of what had happened to her car, she got out and walked around it.  Inside the wheel base she discovered an eight inch L-shaped heavy metal wire which had been shoved up into the wheel housing aimed at the front tire.

Janel was scared.  She left her car alongside the road and walked a quarter mile to the Police Department.  A detective followed her back to her car, took pictures and removed the device. 

“I was just at an Administrative Law Court hearing against my former employer.  There was a motley assortment of his cult membership protesting this hearing. They could have done this,” Janel said.  Both Janel and the detective were baffled.

Later that day, George returned home from work.

“What a day I had,” Janel said.  She told George what had occurred. 

He looked at her.  “My workout is really improving,” he said.

By this time, Janel was used to his indifference.  She needed a husband. Oh, how she needed a husband! 

It was nearly February when the trial ended.  The State lost its case against Dr. Tinson. 

Janel decided to go out for coffee that morning.   When she read the heading on the newspaper, she quickly purchased a copy.

“ Physician Sues Legal Trio.”  The physician was accusing the state of slandering him.  He was asking three million dollars in damages. 

She was grateful she had nothing at all to do with this anymore, and happier still that this case was over.  She was glad to continue her work without focusing another minute on the case. 

She heard later the physician was unsuccessful in his suit.

Her company closed its offices later that year and Janel was out of a job.

She waited for George to come home.  She heard the garage doors open and looked out to see George’s car pulling in.

“George, I never expected this to happen to me.  You hear about everyone else losing a job.  My company is closing,” she said.

Surprisingly, the look on George’s face was profound and sympathetic.

“Look at what you have done with your life, look at your family.  When it is all said and done, money doesn’t go with you. But, just look at those beautiful kids you raised! How many people can make a contribution to society like that?  You gave it all and it shows,” he said to the shocked Janel. 

“I worked so hard and wanted to contribute to our finances, I wanted something to do, to make a contribution…for me…something apart from our family.”

But the moment was gone.  With a blank face, her husband reached once more for his gym bag, got into his car and drove away.

Once again, she was alone.