CHEROKEE — A Hamlet-native was among staff who spoke up about alleged sexual misconduct that he felt had been “swept under the rug” at a U.S. Indian Health Service facility in Cherokee, which is the subject of an investigation by The Wall Street Journal and Frontline PBS published this last week.
In May 2017, Christopher Herndon called the federal Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General and brought attention to the lack of investigation regarding possible sexual misconduct relating to an incident in September 2016.
Herndon was fired in November 2017 for what was described in his termination letter as “obstructing management decisions.” He filed a whistleblower complaint claiming that he was fired in retaliation for reporting the incident, but it was rejected.
According to the WSJ, employees at Unity Health Center facility in September 2016 saw security footage of a 47-year-old maintenance worker, Nathaniel Crowe, going into a private restroom with a 16-year-old patient and they “strongly suspected he was sexually involved with her.”
Two staff members later questioned the girl, who shortly after being questioned dragged a chair into the bathroom shower and attempted to hang herself from the curtain rod.
Although this incident occurred prior to Herndon joining the Unity Health Center, but he said in an interview with the WSJ that he “didn’t know if anyone had committed a crime, but he believed he was legally obligated to report the allegations.”
Herndon’s call came after Unity planned to fire a manager, Cynthia Slee, and Crowe after Slee confronted Crowe following a new incident in which he was seen embracing another young woman not affiliated with Unity.
In February, the WSJ and Frontline reported that IGS paediatrician Stanley Patrick Weber had sexually assaulted young male patients while the agency “ignored warnings and tried to silence whistleblowers over two decades”.
Several Unity employees said in interviews that Tracey Grant, the facility’s clinical supervisor, told workers not to report the incident.
“She told me, ‘No, I will handle this. Do not contact anybody,’” said Tawna Harrison, the teenager’s counselor. “So I didn’t. I deeply regret that,” reports WSJ.
The WSJ reviewed court records that show North Carolina Psychology Board is investigating Ms. Grant to find if she didn’t report alleged sexual misconduct.
The investigation found that after two months after a new policy regarding sexual-abuse allegations had been enacted, employees of the facility say they hadn’t gotten any information about the new policy.
Previously, in the 1990s, David Bullis, a psychologist working at an IHS facility, admitted to a supervisor that he had some “exploratory sexual contact” with a teenage patient and was allowed to continue working there.
