Davidson County DA: Legislators ‘Heavy-Handed” But Didn’t Break Law

Two state representatives have been cleared of breaking the law but took “questionable actions” in helping their constituents, according to a report issued today.

The state Board of Nursing suspended three nurses in spring of 2010, on charges they over-prescribed pain medication at a Johnson City clinic.

Not long afterward state Representatives Dale Ford and Tony Shipley filed legislation to take away some of the nursing board’s power, and the board quickly dropped the suspensions.

Nashville’s Attorney General Torry Johnson says the legislators were heavy handed but didn’t break the law.

“They got the attention of the Department of Health by rattling the saber, that, you know, we can file laws, or we can prevent laws from taking place, which caused, it appears, some folks in the Department of Health to feel like it was expedient to set aside the original discipline.”

Johnson said the board and the Department of Health “caved” to the political pressure and reinstated the nurses’ licenses without any proof of new evidence.

It was political hardball, Johnson said – but not political corruption.

He says because neither lawmaker personally benefited from the actions, and because as individual legislators they had no power to pass the laws they threatened, a charge of political corruption wasn’t warranted.

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The nurses had agreed to the suspensions and were to be readmitted to practice later, under supervision.

Johnson says the state Department of Health gave in too easily to the lawmakers’ blunt instrument tactics.

That goes on. I mean, you know, that’s not something, the first time that that’s ever happened, but this was a situation where it was, I think, particularly heavy-handed and resulted in some unfortunate consequences, in the fact that both the board and the department, it seemed to me, acquiesced.

In a prepared news release, the Nashville district attorney said “this is not the way government is supposed to work”:

“The Board of Nursing is responsible for protecting the public from the dangers of unfit, incompetent, or unprofessional nurses,” says Johnson. “In this case, the Board did precisely that, only to be subjected to heavy-handed tactics by two state legislators, aided and abetted by some former employees of the Department of Health. Regrettably, both the Board and the Department of Health caved to perceived political pressure and set aside the previous discipline that all parties had agreed to. This is not how government is supposed to work, but it is not a crime since these lawmakers did not personally benefit from their actions nor did they individually have the actual power to harm the Board, the Department, or its employees. In the end, this is a case of political hardball, but not political corruption.”