[CO2emission]

In our journal, in Nursing news around the world, it states that 10 Filipino nurses in Suffolk County contracted by Sentosa Care are facing charges of conspiracy and endangering the welfare of the children and disabled residents. Is anyone familiar with the circumstances of these allegations?

[KathleenC]

Originally Posted by CO2emission

In our journal, in Nursing news around the world, it states that 10 Filipino nurses in Suffolk County contracted by Sentosa Care are facing charges of conspiracy and endangering the welfare of the children and disabled residents. Is anyone familiar with the circumstances of these allegations?

Do a thread search for Sentosa and you will find a lot of information about the case. New York State cleared the nurses of abandonment charges.

[CO2emission]

Originally Posted by KathleenC

Do a thread search for Sentosa and you will find a lot of information about the case. New York State cleared the nurses of abandonment charges.

I Googled it and.....
September 28, 2007: The Supreme Court Justice hearing the criminal cases denied the 10 nurses and Vinluan's motions to dismiss the indictments.

October 29, 2007: The Justice in the criminal cases reset the hearing to December 17, when he would inquire if the 10 nurses understood that they had the right to have individual counsels, and if they had decided to continue being represented by just one counsel (Atty. James Drucker). Trial is tentatively scheduled to begin on January 28, 2008.

http://www.pnanewyork.org/articles/sentosa.html

[anonymurse]

So far all the foofooraw has been about whether the nurses will be allowed to be represented by a single lawyer. The substance of the controversy remains to be resolved:

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/su...,6733065.story

A trial date of Jan. 28 has been set for the 10 Filipino nurses indicted on a charge of quitting their jobs at a Smithtown nursing home.

Judge Robert W. Doyle also reserved decision yesterday until Jan. 15 on whether he would require each of the nurses to consult with a court-appointed attorney to ensure they understand any potential conflicts of interest arising from being represented by one lawyer, James Druker of Garden City.

[anonymurse]

'A state Department of Health inquiry has found that residents at a Smithtown nursing home "were not placed in jeopardy" by the mass resignation of 10 nurses in 2006, a spokesman said.

'The health department's findings come less than two weeks before the nurses - all Filipino immigrants - are scheduled for a Jan. 28 trial in Suffolk County on charges of conspiracy and endangering patients in a pediatric ventilation unit at Avalon Gardens Rehabilitation and Health Care Center.

'The Suffolk County district attorney's office questioned the thoroughness of the inquiry and defended the grand jury probe that led to the nurses' indictment in March.




'Still, the health department is the second major state government agency to support the nurses' claims that patients were not endangered. The state Education Department, which licenses nurses, found in 2006 that the nurses did not abandon patients.'

Complete article including timeline at:

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/cr...,3065290.story

The trial begins January 28th.

[KathleenC]

Originally Posted by CO2emission

In our journal, in Nursing news around the world, it states that 10 Filipino nurses in Suffolk County contracted by Sentosa Care are facing charges of conspiracy and endangering the welfare of the children and disabled residents. Is anyone familiar with the circumstances of these allegations?

The latest news story

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/lo...letter_subject

[vashtee]

For months, the nurses complained that they were subject to demeaning and unfair working conditions - not what they were promised when they came to America from the Philippines in search of a better life. So they abruptly quit.

But in doing so, they put more than their careers at risk: Prosecutors hit them with criminal charges for allegedly jeopardizing the lives of terminally ill children they were in charge of watching.

The 10 nurses and the attorney who advised them were charged with conspiracy and child endangerment in what defense lawyers say is an unprecedented use of criminal law in a labor dispute. If convicted of the misdemeanor offenses, they face up to a year in jail on each of 13 counts, and could lose their nursing licenses and be deported.

http://my.earthlink.net/article/nat?...117-2130705873

[sirI]

Post #5 and post #7 merged with existing thread.

[Julia RN]

The latest story in Newsday says the trail will most likely be postponed. The judge is starting a homicide case this week.
The Philippine Nurses Association of New York has a letter writing campaign to governor Spitzer asking for a special prosecutor for this case. Newsday reported that the current District Attorney who charged these nurses had received campaign contributions from the owners of Avalon Gardens.
The campaign and more info are here: http://s27plus.com/appntmnt_spcl_prosecutor.html

[pinoy_guy]

ANATOMY OF INDICTMENT OF THE FILIPINO NURSES

I found the complete article here:

Attorney Faces Criminal Charges After Clients Quit Their Nursing Jobs

Vesselin Mitev
New York Law Journal
02-27-2008

Assistant District Attorney Leonard Lato said in an interview that Vinluan was indicted along with his clients because he did more than just advise his clients of their rights.

"Mr. Vinluan was an active participant in soliciting [the nurses] to do what they did," Lato said in an interview. "If all Mr. Vinluan did was advise, rather than 'encourage,' he wouldn't have been charged."

"I advised them they could resign if they wanted to as their contracts were already breached," said Vinluan. "I told them 'you are at-will employees and you can be terminated at any time, [so] in the same way you can terminate your employment.'"

the problem was the nurses were not "at will" employees--they had contracts which specified a financial penalty if they resigned prior to finishing their 3-year contracts.

Lato said that the nurses "had every right to quit their jobs, but when you are a nurse or a doctor you owe the patients just a little bit more," he said.

He acknowledged no one was injured as a result of the resignations. But he said that the abrupt resignations set off a four-hour period of "panic and scrambling" as administrators tried to find replacements to cover the shifts of the 10 nurses.

. . .

Simply giving more notice would have avoided charges altogether, he said.
"Twenty-four-hour notice would have been more than sufficient -- even 9 a.m, that morning," he said. "Whatever the dispute was there was a collateral consequence to what they did."

SentosaCare is also seeking damages of at least $25,000 each from the 37 nurses who quit their jobs, including the 10 indicted defendants, who left their jobs with SentosaCare.

"The reason why the civil suit was brought is because the nurses abruptly walked out without notice placing all of these patients in danger -- they all breached their contracts," said Fensterman. "It was all orchestrated by the attorney Felix Vinluan; we believe his intention was to cripple the nursing home[s] by doing this in a 24-hour period."

Fensterman charged that Vinuluan is "politically connected" in the Philippines and owns his own employment agency there. After the resignations, he said that Mr. Vinluan used his influence to orchestrate an investigation of his competitor, SentosaCare, which led to the suspension of its recruiting activities.

Vinluan said that he has an immigration consulting business in Manila but does not own any employment agencies in the Philippines.

However, he said that he "might have incorporated companies in the Philippines where I might have been made a nominal owner/initial corporate secretary," and those companies "might have done recruitment business without my knowledge."

interesting way for Vinluan to "deny" that he was in the recruitment business.

even "Da Donald"--with his many businesses--is aware of what they are doing.

I doubt Vinluan's companies are so numerous that he lost track of what they were doing.

I would like to know what the courts finally decide.