Judge expunges record of Memorial physician
(8/21/2007) - Times-Picayune
By Laura Maggi
The public record of Dr. Anna Pou's arrest last summer by Attorney General Charles Foti, who accused her of killing patients at Memorial Medical Center after Hurricane Katrina, was expunged Thursday by a judge in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court.
With no objection from Foti's office, Judge Calvin Johnson granted Pou's request. He also told attorneys for Lori Budo and Cheri Landry, two nurses arrested with Pou, that he would grant their requests, once filed.
Outside the courthouse at Tulane Avenue and South Broad Street, Pou said having her record cleared was an important step for her.
"Although today represents another legal victory, I would like to remind everybody that there are no winners here," she said. "It is my hope that the decisions made today will be the beginning to the end of this tragedy in some small way."
Pou was arrested last summer, accused by Foti of administering a "lethal cocktail" of morphine and Versed to patients in the desperate days after the storm. A state grand jury cleared her in July, declining to issue an indictment on murder and conspiracy to commit murder charges presented by District Attorney Eddie Jordan. The district attorney refused murder charges against Budo and Landry in early July after compelling them to testify to the grand jury in exchange for immunity.
An expungement in Louisiana removes a record from public access, but does not completely destroy it, as the arrest record remains available to law enforcement agencies.
The hearing held by Johnson mostly concerned documents handed over to Foti's office during its probe of the patients' deaths by the hospital company that owned Memorial. That company, Tenet Health Systems Memorial Medical Center Inc., wants all the documents returned, including any copies, said Shaun Clarke, its attorney.
Johnson agreed, telling both agencies to hand over the documents, although he gave them 30 days to appeal his decision to the 4th Circuit Court of Appeal. "It is their property. Give it back to them," he said.
But representatives for Attorney General Charles Foti and Orleans Parish Assistant District Attorney Michael Morales said the issue was not so clear-cut. While they had no qualms with returning any original documents, both objected to handing over every copy of Tenet's documents, saying they must keep records in their investigative files.
Tammie Holley, an attorney who has filed a civil lawsuit representing people who were injured at Memorial or family members of those who died, suggested that some of the material Tenet is seeking may actually belong to her clients. But Johnson told Holley that she didn't have standing in his courtroom.
There is also the question of more than two dozen public records requests filed by various news media, including The Times-Picayune, and other people asking to look at documents accumulated by the attorney general's office during the investigation.
That issue will likely be resolved in Baton Rouge, as the attorney general has filed a petition asking a 19th Judicial District Court judge to provide guidance on what records can be released. Attorneys for many Memorial employees have filed their own request to shield the documents from the public, saying that releasing them would violate the employees' privacy, as well as break the secrecy of the grand jury.
An attorney for The Times-Picayune and CNN intervened in the matter, asking that the documents in the investigative file be released to the public.
