Eileen+O'Neill

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.

=Eileen O'Neill=

false doctor hired by Gosnell[[image:http://operationrescue.org/images/ONEILL.jpg width="269" height="234" align="right"]]
Illegality was so integral to the operation of the Women’s Medical Society that the business itself was a corrupt organization. We charge Gosnell, Lynda Williams, Sherry West, Adrienne Moton, Maddline Joe, Tina Baldwin, Pearl Gosnell, Steven Massof, and Eileen O’Neill with running that organization or conspiring to do so. We charge Massof and O’Neill, in conspiracy with Gosnell, with theft by deception for pretending to be doctors, and billing for their services as if they were licensed physicians.

Gosnell hired unlicensed medical school graduates Steve Massof and Eileen O’Neill to practice as doctors at his clinic. They were presented to patients and staff as “Dr. Steve” and “Dr. O’Neill, ” and Massof was listed on a sign inside the office door as “Dr. Steve Massof, Medical Intern.” Both saw, diagnosed, and treated patients when Gosnell was not at the clinic. And both prescribed medicine to patients who never saw Gosnell – even though their prescriptions bore Gosnell’s signature. (Massof admitted writing on pre-signed prescription pads; O’Neill insisted that Gosnell signed the prescriptions after she wrote them.)

Eileen O’Neill testified that she graduated in 1995 from a medical school in Texas. She described an odd course of residency in which she seemingly worked simultaneously in Texas and at a Louisiana abortion clinic and then spent a month at Gosnell’s clinic, where she said she “just stood around and did nothing pretty much.”

Louisiana Board of Medicine records show that O’Neill was licensed to practice medicine in Louisiana from 1996 to 2000 (she testified, incorrectly, that she was licensed from 1995 to 1998). She testified that she worked at the Delta abortion clinic in Baton Rouge from 1998 to 2000, even though she also testified that she moved to Texas in 1998. She said that she worked at the Louisiana abortion clinic as a “side job.” During that same time period, in 1998 or 1999, she said she was licensed to practice in Texas, but obtained “special dispensation” to finish her residency at Reading Hospital in Pennsylvania. She spent one month of her residency at Gosnell’s clinic.

O’Neill briefly held a “graduate medical training license” in Pennsylvania, but let it expire in 2001. After her residency stints, she never held a medical license in Pennsylvania. (She asserted that she has a license application pending now.)

O’Neill relinquished her Louisiana medical license in 2000 – she claimed because of “post traumatic stress syndrome” – and has not been licensed to practice medicine in any capacity since 2001. Despite being fully aware that she was not licensed, Gosnell hired her to work at his clinic in 2002. O’Neill testified that she met Gosnell through Leroy Brinkley, the owner of both the Baton Rouge abortion clinic and Atlantic Women’s Services, the Delaware abortion clinic where Gosnell worked one day a week. In her testimony, O’Neill tried to minimize her hours, her pay, and her responsibilities at Gosnell’s clinic. She said that she commuted from Phoenixville to work four hours a night (8:00 p.m. to midnight), three nights a week (Mondays, Thursdays, and Fridays). She testified, under oath, that she was really a volunteer, and that Gosnell just provided her with gas money. She testified:

 A: He gave me travel money every now and then, just whenever he had cash. He always said he never had any money.

 Q: So how much did you make?

 A: For 15 hours a week, sometimes he give me 200 every couple of weeks and sometimes 200 a month. Sometimes 400 every two months.

Gosnell, she said, paid her in cash.

O’Neill acknowledged that she saw patients and that they called her Dr. O’Neill. But she claimed that her responsibilities were mainly paperwork, tasks such as composing hardship letters, doing referrals, and filling out forms for disability and family medical leave. She insisted that she saw patients only when Gosnell was at the clinic, a claim refuted by her co-workers and disproved by her own files. Steve Massof testified that every day she worked, O’Neill saw patients before Gosnell arrived for the night. And Kareema Cross confirmed that O’Neill was regularly at the clinic before Gosnell came in.

O’Neill tried to assert that she did not treat patients, based on a fiction that the doctor was always there supervising her. But her own testimony belied this sham:

 Q: What do you mean that you didn’t treat patients?

 A: Well, I never decide what the treatment is. That’s up to him.

 Q: What would you do –

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;"> A: Because I’m there with him all night. So I can talk to him about patients.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;"> Q: Okay. So your testimony is that he was with – that every time you saw patients, where was he, the doctor?

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;"> A: Well, it depends, he would be in and out sometimes. I mean the deal was, he was supposed to be seeing them with me, but I’m sure there’s times when he didn’t. Sometimes he just stuck his head in, you know.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Later, she qualified her claim further:

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;"> Q: … you’re saying all the services that you provided to the patient was in the company of Dr. Gosnell.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;"> A: No. I didn’t say that. I said I would like it to be. He was always on the premises. Sometimes he’d just poke his head in. Whatever he tells me to do, I would do.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Massof testified that O’Neill worked alone and unsupervised, that she treated patients, and that she prescribed drugs. Latosha Lewis described O’Neill as “basically the doctor that saw family practice patients.” Files found at the clinic show O’Neill signing post-procedure pelvic exams as the “clinician.” Gosnell introduced O’Neill to an evaluator from the National Abortion Federation (NAF), an association of abortion providers, as the doctor who performed the first-trimester medical abortions (performed with pills, not surgery) – and O’Neill confirmed to the NAF evaluator that she did treat these patients.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Gosnell also introduced O’Neill to another one-time clinic worker, Randy Hutchins, as a physician. Hutchins believed O’Neill was a licensed doctor because he saw her treat patients at the clinic. Hutchins personally knew one of the patients – Della Mann, a registered nurse who had worked at the clinic years earlier (and, again, for four days in December 2009, when the NAF evaluator was present).

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Mann told the Grand Jury that she had been a “patient” of O’Neill’s for several years and a patient of Gosnell’s for over 20 years before O’Neill joined his practice. She explained that she started seeing O’Neill when she arrived for an appointment with Gosnell one night and was told by the person at the front desk that she would be seen by “Dr. O’Neill” instead. Mann testified that for approximately seven years, until 2009, she saw “Dr. O’Neill” for “each and every one of my visits.” She said that she saw Gosnell only four or five times during that period. Mann listed a number of conditions for which she had seen O’Neill. O’Neill had diagnosed her conditions, prescribed medication, and signed her charts. Mann could not say whose signature was on the prescriptions, but she saw O’Neill write them.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Mann never saw or talked to Gosnell about these conditions. He did not pop his head in, and he did not consult with O’Neill. As far as Mann knew, O’Neill was her doctor. And she always assumed that O’Neill was licensed. She certainly never suspected that Gosnell allowed her to be treated by a “volunteer” at his clinic. Mann told the Grand Jurors: “If I knew that she was not licensed, I wouldn’t have let her touch me.”

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Mann did eventually stop seeing O’Neill, but it was not because she was not licensed. Mann said that in 2008, she decided to stop going to Gosnell’s office because of its reckless handling of patient files. She said that the files were left all over the place and that anyone, including other patients, could have access to them.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">O’Neill was in the clinic on February 18, 2010, when law enforcement conducted the raid. She fled, however, before being interviewed – even though she had been told not to leave.

~*~

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Gosnell committed a variety of frauds. He defrauded his patients by charging them for appointments with Steve Massof and Eileen O’Neill under the pretense that they were real doctors. Kareema Cross testified that this sometimes caused confusion with patients and hospitals. She said that the clinic would receive calls when patients reported to a hospital that they had been treated or sent to the hospital by “Dr. O’Neill.” When no one at the hospital could find a record of a Dr. O’Neill, the patient would call to find out her first name. Cross said that the staff were instructed to say that O’Neill was a student and that Massof was a resident. The patients were told to use Gosnell’s name even if they thought they were patients of “Dr. O’Neill” and “Dr.” Steve. By defrauding patients, Gosnell, O’Neill, and Massof could charge for doctors’ appointments even when no licensed physician was present.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Gosnell also defrauded insurance companies. For example, although Gosnell was not an approved provider for Keystone East Health Insurance subscribers, this did not stop him and O’Neill from treating Keystone East subscribers and charging the insurer for their services....

~*~ On Kermit Gosnell's choice of medication for his patients: <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">But Eileen O’Neill testified that Gosnell would substitute Demerol because it was “very cheap versus the Nalbuphine.”

~*~ On Karnamaya Mongar's death: <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Although Hampton could not remember if Gosnell was in the procedure room when Williams came out, West said that when she subsequently entered the procedure room, Gosnell was there performing what she thought was CPR on Mrs. Mongar. Eileen O’Neill eventually came in to assist Gosnell, according to West.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">O’Neill testified that Lynda Williams summoned her from her second-floor office. The unlicensed “doctor” told the Grand Jury that she thought Mrs. Mongar was already dead by the time she got to the procedure room. Nevertheless, she took over administering CPR to the lifeless body because, she said, Gosnell was not doing the CPR correctly....

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">After returning several minutes later with the medicine case, however, Gosnell did not use any of the drugs in it to try to save Mrs. Mongar’s life. O’Neill said that she tried to use the defibrillator “paddles” to revive Mrs. Mongar, but that they did not work. Still no one called 911.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Even though an overdose was immediately suspected as the cause of Mrs. Mongar’s cardiac arrest, O’Neill testified that Gosnell instructed her not to administer Narcan, a drug that could have reversed the effects of the Demerol. She said that Gosnell told her it would not work on Demerol – which is not true according to the toxicology expert who appeared before the Grand Jury. O’Neill testified that Gosnell took the time to look through the case of medicines and that he was “thrilled” to find it was up-to-date. This is puzzling, since he seemed to have no intent of actually using the drugs to try to save Mrs. Mongar.

....<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Eileen O’Neill and Ashley Baldwin both testified that they remembered clearly that the patient’s legs were dangling off the table when they saw her lifeless body before the paramedics were called. Yet, when the paramedics arrived, her feet were in the stirrups, as if she had just undergone the abortion procedure.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Ashley Baldwin also testified that, after she called 911, she went back into the procedure room where Gosnell was with Mrs. Mongar. O’Neill was back upstairs by then, and Ashley never even knew she had been in the room for nearly 10 minutes performing CPR and discussing the crash cart with Gosnell. It was only then, a good 10 minutes after O’Neill thought Mrs. Mongar was dead, that Gosnell asked Ashley to plug in the pulse oximeter – the machine that, had it worked, should have been used to monitor Mrs. Mongar’s blood oxygen level during the procedure.

~*~ O'Neill's part in health department inspections that could have but did not shut down the clinic

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Health department employees who visited the clinic between 2001 and 2007 recorded that they dealt with “Drs.” O’Neill and Massof, but never Gosnell....

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">On October 7, 2009, Matijkiw returned to the clinic. Again she wrote a scathing report, addressed, again, to her supervisor, Lisa Morgan. In it Matijkiw described a two-hour meeting with “(Dr.) O’Neill” (the parentheses were in her original email). During the visit, Matijkiw learned that O’Neill had no understanding of the vaccine program. O’Neill reportedly believed that the free children’s vaccines could be given to adult patients and to those with private insurance. Matijkiw noticed that one of the free vaccines was given to Gosnell’s daughter.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">.... She also said that O’Neill was improperly trying to count abortion patients as vaccination patients.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">In response to questioning by Matijkiw, O’Neill admitted that she was not licensed in Pennsylvania. She falsely claimed to have had a Delaware license, which she said she let lapse. When Matijkiw asked who in the practice treated children, O’Neill replied: “They don’t come in.” Yet Gosnell and O’Neill claimed to be providers of children’s vaccines.

[Matijkiw's supervisors] <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">should also have reported Gosnell and O’Neill to the Department of State’s Board of Medicine, based on the evidence apparent to Matijkiw that patients were being treated in Gosnell’s absence and that O’Neill was practicing without a license. Yet the city health department did nothing.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">~*~ Specific charges the Grand Jury recommended be brought against Eileen O'Neill: <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">**• Theft by deception** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Gosnell hired unqualified staff because he could pay them low wages, often in cash, “under the table.” These staff members included two medical school graduates, Steven Massof and Eileen O’Neill, who testified that they never had valid Pennsylvania medical licenses while working for Gosnell.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">According to the testimony of other workers, “Dr. O’Neill” and “Dr. Steve” held themselves out to be doctors. Gosnell hired them knowing that they were not licensed to provide medical care and, as Massof and O’Neill testified, paid them a pittance to treat patients in his absence. Kareema Cross told us that both acted and practiced like doctors, and that she and other workers believed them to be doctors.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Patients were duped as well. Massof testified that he wrote prescriptions for patients on pads pre-signed by Gosnell. Della Mann, a registered nurse and former clinic employee, was a long-time patient of O’Neill’s who said she was shocked to discover recently she was not a licensed physician.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">We reviewed Della Mann’s file. It contains 14 faxes sent by Ms. Mann addressed to “Dr. Gosnell, Dr. O’Neill” and 3 addressed solely to “Dr. O’Neill.” A fax dated June 18, 2007 reads: “Dear Dr. Please call Rite-Aid Coreg problem Metforman needed Rite-Aid 215-438-5167.” There is a handwritten note, “Done” on this fax, signed “E” and dated 6/18/07. A fax addressed only to Dr. O’Neill and sent on 2/17/08 with the subject line “Carvedilol 6.25mg bid,” reads: “out of medication please call in Rite aid 215-438-5167.” This fax also contains a handwritten notation, “done – need BP ✓<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">,” followed by a signature “E” and the date, 2/18/08.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">We found forms in Ms. Mann’s file showing that on 1/30/07, 3/8/07, 6/4/07, and 6/7/07, Dr. O’Neill signed as the clinician for office visits. On each date she observed and treated symptoms and made diagnoses. We also found prescriptions that were written for Ms. Mann on 3/8/07, 6/7/07, 8/10/07, and 12/1/07; these appear to be in the same handwriting as on the patient visit information and the handwritten notes on the faxes signed “E.” Two of these prescriptions are for “Coreg” and one is for “metformin.” Our examination of Ms. Mann’s file shows that two $80 claims were submitted to Independence Blue Cross for Ms. Mann’s March and June 2007 visits.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Della Mann was not the only patient who was deceived. We found 10 other examples of patients who paid Gosnell’s clinic for examination and treatment by a doctor, but were instead treated by “Dr. O’Neill” or “Dr. Steve.” **We recommend that Kermit Gosnell, Eileen O’Neill, and Steven Massof be charged with theft by deception and conspiracy to commit theft by deception.** Based on patient dates within the past five years in the cases listed above, and the testimony and evidence provided by Della Mann, summarized above, we recommend nine counts of theft against O’Neill, one count against Massof, and 10 against Gosnell.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">**• Perjury in relation to the unauthorized practice of medicine** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Eileen O’Neill testified before the Grand Jury under oath that she did not treat patients at Gosnell’s clinic. She testified that she would “see” patients if Gosnell asked and when he was present, but “I never decide what treatment is.” She claimed she did not see patients alone, that Gosnell would at least “st[i]ck his head in,” and that everyone knew she was not a licensed doctor.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">But Della Mann testified that she had no idea that her long-time “doctor,” O’Neill, was not a licensed doctor. Employees testified that they believed she was a legitimate doctor. And the patient files we reviewed showed that, contrary to her sworn testimony, O’Neill examined and treated patients. She performed medical abortions. She wrote out prescriptions.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">O’Neill also testified that she did not work on Wednesdays. But our review of patient files shows that she did see patients on Wednesdays. The Wednesday patient visits are significant because Gosnell was not present at the clinic to treat patients on Wednesdays; O’Neill thus would have treated these patients without supervision, notwithstanding her testimony that Gosnell was always present when she saw patients. Randy Hutchins testified that on Wednesdays, O’Neill was at the clinic by herself. He also told us that other days she came in “an hour or two before [Gosnell] did” and upon her arrival there were “patients waiting to see her.”

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Based on this evidence **we recommend charging Eileen O’Neill with false swearing and perjury.**

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">**• Corrupt organization**

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">**We recommend charging Kermit Gosnell, Lynda Williams, Sherry West, Eileen O’Neill, Steven Massof, and Tina Baldwin with violating the corrupt organization statute,** 18 Pa.C.S. § 911, based on a pattern of racketeering activity. **We recommend that these same six individuals as well as Pearl Gosnell and Maddline Joe be charged with conspiring to commit racketeering activity.** <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">.... <span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">Gosnell ran a corrupt organization. He performed illegal late-term abortions that resulted in babies born alive, whom he killed, or had others kill; he directed his workers to sedate patients with narcotics in violation of the controlled substances act; and he employed bogus doctors to treat unsuspecting, paying patients. Maddline Joe, his office administrator, collected the money that came in from these criminal activities. Williams, West, O’Neill, Massof, Tina Baldwin, and Pearl Gosnell all actively participated in various aspects of Gosnell’s corrupt organization.

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">....Gosnell employed bogus doctors, deceiving patients who thought they were being treated by, and paying for treatment by, bona fide physicians. O’Neill and Massof each conspired with Gosnell to commit thefts by deception, as we explained above. These thefts were integral to Gosnell’s corrupt enterprise. As numerous witnesses testified, he largely ran his practice in absentia and hired the fake doctors to treat patients in his absence..... we saw that non-doctors Massof and O’Neill treated and examined many patients....

<span style="font-family: 'Courier New',Courier,monospace;">We have concluded there is probable cause to believe that each of these persons knowingly agreed with Gosnell to participate in his corrupt organization. **We recommend that charges of conspiracy to violate the corrupt organizations statute be brought against Kermit Gosnell, Pearl Gosnell, Lynda Williams, Sherry West, Adrienne Moton, Steven Massof, Eileen O’Neill, Tina Baldwin, and Maddline Joe.**