Circuit Court Judge Neil Thomas has approved a protective order requested by Erlanger Health System in the lawsuit filed by former Erlanger CEO Charlsetta Woodard-Thompson against the hospital.
Plaintiff attorney Jennifer Lawrence had opposed the order, saying Erlanger is a public hospital "and they should not have any of these secrets."
She said, "We know what they're doing. They don't want the press to get ahold of any of this."
She also said Erlanger had been warned in a recent attorney general's opinion about its responsibility to fully obey the Sunshine Law.
Attorney Randy Wilson said Erlanger might mark some documents as not open to the public, but he said Ms. Lawrence would have access to them and could use them in motions or the trial if allowed by the judge.
He said Ms. Lawrence had asked for "potentially hundreds of thousands of documents. Some of those are potentially privileged."
The attorney said the order was "fair and balanced to both sides."
He said the hospital has a number of privacy obligations on such matters as HIPPA, peer review and compliance.
Attorney Wilson said under the order "either party can designate a document as confidential. This outlines who it is restricted to."
Attorney Lawrence told attorney Wilson, "Some of the higher-up Erlanger officials "are putting on Facebook some of the things ya'll are telling them. I don't know if they are dummies or what."
Judge Thomas said that sort of information obtained by the plaintiff "is fair game."
Ms. Woodard-Thompson claims in the $25 million lawsuit that her emails were hacked and documents stolen from her.
The suit says Erlanger's in-house counsel "gained access to private and personal files" on her computer and "removed or deleted some of these files." It says that was "part of a conspiracy by Erlanger in-house counsel and certain Erlanger Board members to invade plaintiff's privacy." It says the in-house counsel's alleged actions were discovered and he was terminated. Dale Hetzler served at the time as in-house counsel.
She also says she "experienced an array of strange and alarming happenings" and it caused her and others at Erlanger to become "fearful for their safety."
Ms. Woodard-Thompson said she was advised to go to a shooting range and become proficient with a gun and also have an escort on campus for safety. She said her vehicle was placed in an undisclosed location during the day.
The suit says Erlanger's former chief of staff commented that "medicine is a white man's world."
It says after the hiring of Kevin Spiegel as CEO "certain Erlanger board members have openly bragged about the undermining maneuvers they executed to thwart plaintiff's career advancement."
Ms. Woodard-Thompson was not retained by the new Erlanger administration.
After the departure of former CEO Jim Brexler, Ms. Woodard-Thompson had sought the post, but was passed over by the selection committee and full board.