Invoking the specter of criminal charges against officials of the State University of New York for obstructing the delivery of emergency room services at Long Island College Hospital, a State Supreme Court judge warned lawyers for SUNY and the state on Wednesday that he might require a week of daylong hearings before deciding whether to dismiss the latest civil actions seeking to keep the hospital open.
Justice Johnny L. Baynes in Brooklyn, who has issued three temporary restraining orders in the case since March, all forbidding SUNY to take steps to close the hospital, asked a lawyer representing Bill de Blasio, the public advocate and a Democratic candidate for mayor, whether he had reported allegations of criminal interference with emergency room services to the Brooklyn district attorney.
Murmurs of approval rose from the room, packed with longtime patients, doctors, nurses and residents of northern Brooklyn where the fate of the 150-year-old hospital has become a rallying cry.
“Yes,” replied the lawyer, James Walden, who had accused SUNY officials of illegally diverting ambulances from the hospital. He also said SUNY officials had surrounded the hospital with “a virtual army of armed guards” who falsely tell patients that the hospital is closed, and that the hospital’s chief medical officer had berated patients who chose to be treated there.
Justice Baynes noted that both the district attorney’s office and the state attorney general were represented in the courtroom. Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for the Brooklyn district attorney, later confirmed that an assistant district attorney, Kevin Richardson, was present in court and had been assigned to investigate. The judge first referred the matter to the district attorney on July 22, Mr. Schmetterer said.
Later, Steven Greenberg, a SUNY spokesman, said of the allegations, “Every decision that has been made has been made in the interest of safety and patient health.”
At midday, when 12 lawyers gathered around the judge’s bench for an off-the-record conference, Justice Baynes could be heard pressing them to come to a settlement.
But there was no sign of rapprochement. A lawyer for the New York State Nurses Association argued that the Department of Health regulation on closing a hospital, which requires 90 days’ notice, was unconstitutionally vague. The lawyers for SUNY argued that none of the plaintiffs had legal standing to challenge the regulation or its application because they had not been injured by it, notwithstanding the anticipated loss of more than 900 union jobs.
“For a 14-year period, LICH has been unprofitable,” said Anthony Genovese, one of the SUNY-Downstate lawyers. “Having a job is not a constitutional right.”
Mr. Walden argued that SUNY had willfully flouted the court’s orders to maintain the status quo, and had ignored the criminal statute requiring a hospital to provide emergency services unless it was authorized by the state to stop. The Department of Health still considers the hospital open.
Date: August 7, 2013