Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Grand jury indicts leaders of Broward Health system
Chairman, CEO, board members accused of violating open-meetings law
The top leaders of Broward Health have been indicted on charges of violating Florida’s public meetings law, throwing the public hospital system into the worst turmoil of its years of crises and investigations.
A grand jury indictment names Broward Health board chairman Rocky Rodriguez, interim CEO Beverly Capasso, General Counsel Lynn Barrett, board member Christopher Ure and former board member Linda Robison. The charges are second-degree misdemeanors, carrying maximum penalties of a $500 fine and 60 days in jail per count. Summonses were issued Tuesday.
Gov. Rick Scott, who appointed all of the board members, typically suspends public officials who face criminal charges. The governor made no announcement as of Tuesday evening.
Broward Health, which operates five hospitals that serve the northern two-thirds of the county, has been facing investigations and accusations for more than two years, but these are the first indictments to emerge.
The two current and former board members were charged with two counts of violating the state’s public-meetings law. Barrett was charged with solicitation to violate the
public-meetings law. All five were charged with conspiracy to violate the public-meetings law.
Lawyers for Broward Health, Barrett, Capasso and Rodriguez issued a statement calling the charges “the most misguided prosecution we have ever seen.”
They accused prosecutors of protecting the corrupt elements of Broward Health that the current leaders were trying to root out.
“Instead of protecting the new management and commissioners at the North Broward Health District, who have been intimidated and harassed while cooperating with federal and state law enforcement officers to root out corruption and violations of the federal health care laws, the State Attorney’s Office (SAO) allowed itself to be manipulated by the very same people who were replaced because of their mismanagement and corruption,” the statement said.
They said prosecutors refused to subpoena witnesses who could have provided evidence clearing their clients.
“This deeply flawed investigation was predetermined, biased, and manipulated from the start,” the defense lawyers said.
Ure said he was confident he would be exonerated and could resume his efforts to create a brighter future for Broward Health.
“I have genuinely tried to serve my community,” he said. “In all honesty and fairness, I’ve done nothing wrong. When all the facts come out, I’m confident that will be proven, and I’ll be vindicated.”
The charges, which came after a Broward grand jury heard testimony, involved the board’s vote on Dec. 1, 2016, to fire Broward Health’s interim CEO, Pauline Grant.
That meeting followed an investigation engineered by Barrett, who hired two outside law firms to look into kickback accusations against Grant. She was accused of placing orthopedic surgeons on a call list in a manner that could provide improper financial benefits to North Broward Health, the hospital where she had served as CEO before becoming interim CEO of the entire system.
The state open-meetings law requires that public boards conduct business in public, with a few narrow exceptions, and requires proper notice for public meetings, stating the items to be acted upon.
Before the Dec. 1, 2016, board meeting, Barrett arranged for board members to meet individually with the outside lawyers who looked into the accusations against Grant.
Then the board met and voted to fire Grant, at a meeting for which the agenda provided no indication that her dismissal was being considered. At that time, Capasso was serving on the board.
Grant, who denied any wrongdoing, filed suit against the board and Barrett.
The indictment states that members of the Broward Health board “did knowingly meet, through conduits or intermediaries, at the Westin Hotel, Mario’s Catalina restaurant, and/or through telephonic communications, where such defacto meetings were not noticed to the public ...”
Broward Health, legally known as the North Broward Hospital District, is partially supported by property taxes.
The Broward Health board has seven seats, although only five are filled. If the governor suspends the members under indictment, it would leave the public hospital system with a board of just three members. Three current Broward Health board members, who were not on the board at the time of Grant’s firing, were not charged.
The board planned to conduct interviews next month with six finalists for the job of CEO, which has been filled by a series of interim leaders since the suicide nearly two years ago of Dr. Nabil El Sanadi. It’s unclear how the criminal charges will affect those interviews.