Director to stay away from hospitals for 6 months
The clinical director of Maryland’s Clifton T. Perkins psychiatric hospital agreed in court Wednesday to a peace order requiring him to stay away from it and other hospitals in the state system.
Dr. Scott Moran gave voluntary consent to the peace order, which will run for six months through Aug. 28. Consenting to the peace order means the judge entered it without Moran admitting that the underlying allegations were true and without a judicial finding of fact.
Moran is on leave, health department spokesman Chase Cook confirmed again Wednesday after the hearing. He declined to elaborate, including to say whether Moran was being paid.
The peace order stems from a petition earlier this month by Dwain Shaw, who Cook said is both the deputy director of Maryland Health Care Systems and currently running the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center, a state-run, maximum-security mental health hospital in Jessup. Shaw’s petition alleged Moran was harassing health department employees over the internet.
Few details about the underlying issue were provided at Wednesday’s hearing in Baltimore County District Court in Catonsville.
James Rubin, Moran’s attorney, told the judge it stemmed from an “employment law dispute.” He declined to comment further after the hearing.
Shaw’s petition was filed jointly with a state health department employee named Nisha Madhaven, who Cook said is the director of nursing at Clifton T. Perkins. It alleged that Moran intimidated, bullied and publicly humiliated employees. It quoted messages he allegedly sent, including “you don’t know what I used to do in the military” and “you’re going to be in trouble and you’re gonna get Moran’d,” among others, including graphic and racially charged statements.
Both Shaw and Madhaven will be protected by the peace order. It bars Moran from contacting either of them or from visiting staterun psychiatric hospitals. It also bars him from visiting the State Center Complex, where Maryland Department of Health offices are located in Baltimore.
The order also bars Moran from possessing a firearm; he said in court he doesn’t “own a gun anymore.”
Rubin and Shaw’s attorney, Eleanor Dayhoff-Brannigan from the Attorney General’s Office, said they had discussed that if the employment dispute is resolved, they would return to modify the order.
Cook said the state agency would “respectfully decline” to comment further on the court proceedings.
The Baltimore Sun previously reported that documents bearing Moran’s headshot and telling state employees he isn’t permitted in government buildings were circulated while he was under a temporary peace order.
A delay in serving Moran with the peace order was attributed previously in court documents to Moran being at a hospital in Olney. He was present in court Wednesday.
According to his LinkedIn, Moran began serving as the Clifton T. Perkins clinical director under former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan. The forensic psychiatrist formerly served as a command psychiatrist for the U.S. Army’s Special Operations Command, it said.