By Maria Tor Cavalier Daily News Editor
Six former Medical Center employees filed a lawsuit against the University yesterday claiming their rights of due process were violated when they were abruptly fired May 29.
The firings came after a patient care assistant in the psychiatric ward, Rudolph T. Johnson Jr., was arrested May 15 for allegedly raping a patient the night before.
Johnson had been hired with a known criminal record of drug use. It was later discovered that the May 15 arrest came two weeks after University police began investigating Johnson in connection with a late April rape complaint that came from the same ward.
The hospital has since decided to fire all employees who had been working six months or less and had been convicted of felonies in the past. Johnson has since been charged with the April rape.
The six workers who were fired are now filing suit because the hospital had no official rules concerning hiring employees with felony convictions. The suit claims that the University changed the conditions of employment after hiring the six plaintiffs, a violation of due process rights. The plaintiffs are demanding to be reinstated at their old jobs with back pay.
Mary Smith, one of the former employees who filed the suit, said her supervisor told her she was getting fired from her position as a receptionist because of Johnson's arrest.
"I don't think it was right, especially when [the rape allegations] had nothing to do with us," Smith said.
Smith was convicted of forgery and writing bad checks in 1996.
"I loved my job and I enjoyed the people I worked with," she said.
The Labor Action Group, an organization of University staff, students and faculty and Charlottesville residents, has become involved with the plaintiffs' fight for reinstatement and helped stage a protest in front of the hospital Friday.
Originally, the Medical Center fired nine employees because of prior felony convictions. But it then rehired three based on the nature of the individual convictions and whether the convictions were disclosed on their job applications.
The fired employees were all "probationary" because they had been hired in the last six months. Non-probationary employees who had felony convictions were not fired.
As of yesterday, the lawsuit had not yet been served to University officials, so they had no comment on the allegations made by the six plaintiffs.
In addition to being sued, the hospital has also been placed on "double-jeopardy" status by the Health Care Financing Administration, the federal agency that administers the Medicare program. The sexual assault allegations prompted this action, as well as the August discovery by the Virginia Department of Health of improper use of restraints in the psychiatric ward.
"We are deeply disturbed by the situations that have occurred," Leonard W. Sandridge, University executive vice president and chief operating officer said.
University police would not comment if the rape victims were restrained during the alleged attacks. University officials took a number of actions last week to improve their status with HCFA, including adding a policy that any employee accused of serious misconduct will immediatly be reassigned or suspended. Officials are confident that when HCFA re-inspects the hospital in three to six weeks, the double jeopardy status will be lifted.
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