Darlene+Augustine

I am using the  Grand Jury Report on the crimes of Philadelphia abortionist Kermit Gosnell as the basis of this Wiki. I will add material to support my contention that though Gosnell is beyond the pale, this is mainly in the way he combined and refined aspects of the ghoulish and callous disregard for humanity often seen in abortionists. He was hardly a pioneer.

In order to distinguish between my own writings, and those of the Grand Jury, I will use a different font that makes the Grand Jury Report appear to be typed.

= = Darlene Augustine, a registered nurse and health quality administrator in the department’s Division of Home Health, received the fax [from Gosnell concerning Mrs. Mongar's death]. Augustine, who supervises surveyors who respond to and investigate complaints at health care facilities, testified that she immediately notified her boss, Cynthia Boyne. (Boyne had become director of DOH’s Division of Home Health in 2007, when Staloski was promoted to head the Bureau of Community Licensure and Certification.) Augustine said that she told Boyne on November 25 that DOH should immediately go out to the clinic and initiate an investigation. Augustine acknowledged that she generally had the authority to send surveyors out to investigate – and she often did so within an hour of receiving a notice of a serious event such as a death. She testified, however, that she felt she needed Director Boyne’s approval because Gosnell’s notice involved an abortion clinic.

Boyne did not give her approval. Instead, she went to the bureau director, Staloski, to discuss the matter. Augustine explained that abortion clinics were treated differently from other medical facilities because Staloski had for years overseen the department’s handling of complaints and inspections – or lack of inspections – relating to abortion clinics. Staloski, according to Augustine, was “the ultimate decision-maker” with respect to whether DOH would conduct an inspection or investigation. Augustine testified that neither Boyne nor Staloski ever gave her approval to conduct the investigation that she thought was appropriate.

 Darlene Augustine testified that she was instructed by senior attorneys for DOH, Kenneth Brody and James Steele, that she should not reveal anything about Karnamaya Mongar’s death to law enforcement when she accompanied them on the raid in February 2010. The lawyers told her that if she were asked about it, she should refer the agents to legal counsel. The reason the attorneys gave for their instruction was that information received by the department pursuant to the MCARE law is strictly confidential.

 The act does not, however, preclude disclosures of information necessary for criminal prosecutions. There are several reasons that this provision should not have prevented Darlene Augustine from sharing information about Karnamaya Mongar’s death with law enforcement....