My day in court: Oral arguments for my appeal of the Board’s decisions and punishments were heard yesterday

Things were a little dicey getting to court. Because I had missed the oral arguments for my federal case against the Board last January 2024 in Portland, as an unexpected blizzard prevented me from driving the 165 miles to the courtroom, I was bound and determined not to miss today.

My car was making some distressing new noises and I need to wait another week for my appointment at the shop, so I rented a car to drive the 100 miles to state court in Augusta, Maine. The rental agency did not have the sedan I ordered so put me in a minivan, and I had never driven one. Hard to see all the new buttons at night.

When I got to the Hampton Inn in Augusta last night, they did not have my reservation. It turned out I had booked into the Hampton Inn in Augusta, Georgia with Hotels.com. I had definitely asked for Maine, but this what the app sent. The desk clerk said it happens about 3 times a week! Luckily I was able to change the reservation. Everyone was very nice.

Then my GPS had me driving in circles although it was only 2-3 miles to the Courthouse from the hotel. I don’t think the address of the new Court building was in the GPS’ library. Arrived later than I should have.

I had been pretty disturbed by the Appeal brief written by the assistant Attorney General, and I did not think we had effectively challenged her arguments, which included many misrepresentations and some outright fabrications. But I discussed this with my attorney, and he submitted a supplemental brief a day late. Naturally the AAG motioned to suppress it, and going into the courtroom we did not know whether the judge would accept it or not. Same for a supplemental article on the success of Dr. Aaron Day in Queensland, Australia in his appeal (he prevailed several days ago) for losing his license for misinformation. But the judge took notice of each new document.

I have to say that being in the courtroom today was like going back in time and place, to a dream of how legal disagreements should be conducted. The judge was polite, acknowledged the importance of the case, and asked appropriate questions of the two attorneys, indicating he was familiar with the material. He gave my attorney 90 minutes to lay out the entire history of my case. He gave each side adequate time for rebuttal.

Unlike my hearing days before the Board of Medicine, it had nothing of the feel of the hearings, in which Board members and AAGs appeared to query the witnesses and me simply to dig up dirt in order to pin a preordained judgement of guilt on me, while carefully avoiding questions that might reveal my innocence. Instead of a hostile hearing officer there appeared to be a very evenhanded judge.

My attorney did an excellent job, making all the salient points that had had to be spread out over hearings conducted over more than a year, with the BOLIM members forgetting the details as the case dragged on. My attorney handily disputed claims of what the AAG wrongly asserted the witnesses had said with a notebook of exhibits, including the witnesses’ quotations.

He hammered the fact that while the Board bent over backwards to insist their only interest was my incompetent patient care, and not my public speech—well, had that been true, why had the Board never interviewed any of the 3 patients whose care was in dispute, or their relatives? Clearly the Board was trying to avoid generating evidence that would throw their claims into question. When we called the 3 patients as witnesses, each said I had done an exemplary job caring for them.

The claim that I had delayed care for one patient, risking his life, had to again be rebutted. I had told the patient and his wife to go to the ER when he worsened, even though he did not want to go. He finally went to the ER the following morning. I did not know he was going to delay. He then was admitted, received remdesivir (despite bringing written instructions not to receive it) and was put on a ventilator. Finally he forcibly extubated himself, which may be why he lived through the experience. Anyway, after being repeatedly accused of things I had not done, it was very gratifying to have the air cleared, finally.

I got a very fair hearing today. The judge is aiming for a decision by April. For the first time I am hopeful there will be a fair decision.