CEOs Behaving Badly
Weird story out of California involving a Health System CEO hiring a “scary guy” to frame a doctor to get back at him:
A jury has ordered a California hospital chain to pay physician Michael Fitzgibbons $5.7 million after its former CEO allegedly framed him by planting a gun in his car.
In 2006, Fitzgibbons—an infectious disease specialist and former chief of staff at Western Medical Center—was arrested in the hospital parking lot after police found a pair of black gloves and a handgun in his car. Police questioned Fitzgibbons and searched his car after an anonymous 9-1-1 call claimed that the doctor had brandished the gun in traffic.
DNA evidence from the gloves and gun exonerated Fitzgibbons, and he was never charged.
However, the arrest followed a series of disagreements between Fitzgibbons and the leadership of Integrated Healthcare Holdings Incorporated (IHHI), which owned the Santa Ana hospital. Fitzgibbons and his attorney—Ted Mathews—alleged that IHHI’s then-CEO, Bruce Mogel, had framed Fitzgibbons in an effort to silence him.
Specifically, Mathews said that the frame was part of Mogel’s attempt to “humble” Fitzgibbons after the doctor won a legal victory over IHHI in June 2006.