Nurse Whistle-Blower Facing Felony Charge for Reporting Doctor

Anne Mitchell, a 52 year old nurse from Kermit, Texas was found not guilty in state court on February 11 for “misuse of official information,” a third-degree felony in Texas. Mitchell wrote a letter to state regulators reporting Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles Jr. for practicing unsafe medicine. The prosecutor states that Mitchell had a history of making “inflammatory” statements about Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles Jr. and intended to damage his reputation when she reported him last April to the Texas Medical Board.

Mrs. Mitchell claims that Dr. Arafiles was performing improper medical procedures, such as a failed skin graft performed in the emergency room without surgical privileges and suturing a rubber tip to a patient’s crushed finger for protection. When the medical board notified Dr. Arafiles of the anonymous complaint, he claimed to the Winkler County sheriff that he was being harassed. The sheriff, who credits the doctor with saving him after a heart attack, obtained a search warrant to seize Mitchell’s work computer and found the letter.

Mitchell was fired without explanation on June 1 from Winkler County Memorial Hospital, where she had worked as a compliance and quality improvement officer for over 20 years. If convicted, Mitchell could have faced 10 years in prison for doing what she believed was her obligation under the law -- to report unsafe medical practices.

Mitchell’s lawyers, John H. Cook IV and Brian Carney, have filed a civil lawsuit in federal court charging the county, hospital, sheriff, doctor and prosecutor with vindictive prosecution and denial of the nurses’ First Amendment rights.