Citing news reports, Foz said that Suffolk County District Attorney Spota privately met with lawyer Howard Fensterman and the operators of the Avalon Gardens nursing home in May 31, 2006. Foz said that during the said meeting, Fensterman, a political campaign contributor of Spota and a top fundraiser for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, and the nursing home management asked Spota to investigate the 10 Filipino nurses. An investigation followed immediately, and the nurses and their lawyer were eventually indicted on the charge of endangering the welfare of their patients. This indictment, Foz said, is apparently the first of its kind in the state.

NAFCON also belied Assistant District Attorney Leonard Lato’s press statement on March 22, 2007 that the nurses walked out from their duty, saying that nine of the ten nurses were not on duty at the time they submitted their letters of resignation while one finished her shift and even extended it for four more hours before resigning. NAFCON suspected that Lato gave a misleading picture to the jury by using the term “walk out” to get the indictment.

NAFCON added that important details were not included in the District Attorney’s report to the grand jury. In November 2006, Vinluan informed Lato and two investigators that the New York State Education Department cleared the nurses of improper conduct and that the administrative complaints filed by the Sentosa facilities against the nurses for alleged patient abandonment had been closed.

But these facts were not included in the report prepared by Investigator Walter Warkenthien, to the grand jury, said Vinluan. He said the report was “maliciously inaccurate.” But worse than the omission of facts, Vinluan said, the report submitted to the grand jury even contained falsehoods. Vinluan belied some statements that were being attributed to him in the report. He denied telling the investigators that the nurses “wanted to get out of their contract and avoid paying Avalon and Sentosa $25,000” and that “he didn’t know where to mail” the discrimination complaints he prepared on behalf of the nurses.

NAFCON said that the Sentosa nurses’ case “involves the same key District Attorney characters and involve the same issues of ethical impropriety, improper investigations and reports, as well as malicious prosecutions (or the failure to prosecute) on account of special interests or relationships involving the District Attorney himself.”

United

Although they are confident that they will be acquitted in a full-blown trial, Vinluan said they would rather have the charges dismissed now.

“There really was no case in the first place,” he insisted. “The nurses have remained steadfast and solid as a rock in their stance that there was no conspiracy to endanger the welfare of their patients, that I did not advise them or solicit them to resign, and that they all knew that even if they resigned, Avalon Gardens would be able to look for replacements to continue the care of their patients.”

Vinluan added that the Assistant District Attorney tried to “break the nurses apart” and “create a wedge among them,” by giving them separate counsels. Although having separate lawyers was their right, the nurses also have the right to have the same counsel as well, which they preferred, said Vinluan.

“As I was not privy to his (Assistant District Attorney’s) discussions with the nurses’ defense counsel, I can only say that I have sufficient reason to believe that he offered deals to a couple of my co-defendants to plead guilty to a lesser offense. But the nurses did not budge a bit. They knew they did nothing wrong. Pleading guilty to disorderly conduct – a violation, or even to taking an ACD (adjournment in contemplation of dismissal) was out of the question,” he said.

At present, all of the 10 nurses are employed¾ three in Long Island, and seven in the city. Vinluan, meanwhile, has taken a leave of absence from law practice since April 2007 for health and personal reasons. “(I) am busy making myself physically strong and helping in the trial preparation as well as in the Justice for Sentosa 27+ (J4S27+) Campaign initiatives.”

The nurses, fortunately, are not alone in this fight. There are three major fronts in the campaign to defend the rights of the nurses, said Foz.

Two are in the United States, which are led by two steering committees under NAFCON: the East Coast composed of the nurses, Vinluan, Philippine Nurses Association (PNA)-NY, New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), Anakbayan New York/New Jersey, Filipinas for Rights and Empowerment (FIRE), NY Committee on Human Rights (NYCHRP), and the West Coast composed of the Filipino Community Center and FOCUS, some nurses who moved there, Filipino Ministry of the Diocese of San Bernardino and California Nurses Association. The third major front is in the Philippines headed by Migrante International together with the Alliance of Health Workers (AHW), Health Alliance for Democracy (HEAD) and the Philippine Nurses Association.

Among the primary activities of these groups are the signature campaign to urge Spitzer to appoint a Special Prosecutor and fund raising for the Sentosa 27+ Legal Defense Fund.

The American Nurses Association which supports the Filipino nurses said, “The real patient endangerment lies in the deplorable conditions that led the nurses to leave.” (Bulatlat.com)

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