Governor Markell’s Inexplicable Veto [Updated with the Governor’s Explanation]
From the bill in question’s sponsor, Representative Kim Williams:
I found out today that Governor Markell is vetoing a bill that I sponsored, House Bill 130, Unlawful Sexual Contact. It passed the House and Senate unanimously. The Criminal Justice Council voted in support of this bill and whose members are Delaware judges, AG Denn, and other respected folks. I never heard a word from the Governor’s office until the day he decides to veto the bill that his office had an issue with it. I filed this bill early May. The only group that I heard a peep from was the Medical Society and that was after it was released from the House Judiciary Committee. I spoke to them briefly and never heard another word from them. Currently, if a healthcare worker (person of trust) has sex with a patient it is a misdemeanor, this bill would make it a felony. If a prison guard has consensual sex with an imate it is a felony but a healthcare worker who is treating a patient who has been sexually abused and the healthcare worker gains the individual’s trust and has sexual relations it is not a felony. This is unbelievable to me.
I look forward to Governor Markell’s explanation, and I do not envy his spin doctors. For the General Assembly, override.
[UPDATE]: The Governor’s explanation, which does read as reasonable. This instance points to a problem in the lack of communication between his office, himself, and Representative Kim Williams. Mike Matthews said on Facebook the following:
[A]ccording to one high-ranking source, the veto of Kim Casey Williams’s HB 130 is a lot lot lot deeper than it may appear. And it’s looking like our governor had no reason to veto it outside of a cabal of well-paid special interests and perhaps just some general pettiness on his part.
Well, the memo below provides a rational reason, but there is obviously an animus and a lack of communication between Markell and Williams. Hence, the pettiness. It is on the Governor for not communicating his problems with the bill.
mean spirited? Probably.
Inexplicable? Not so much, IMO: http://www.delawareonline.com/story/opinion/contributors/2015/04/20/best-choice-children-opt-test/26102977/
Is she saying saying that if someone is in hospital for some reason, and they have sex with an employee of that hospital, the hospital employee is guilty of a FELONY?…and to think that the Republicans are hung up on sex…or am I missing something?
I see nothing mean-spirited about this veto. His message lays it out pretty clearly, and I tend to side with him on this.
Based on his argument that (a) there are already protections, and (b) the bill fails to adequately spell out what circumstances would be included, he saw the bill as too vague to sign into law. I’m sure that a bill with more specifics would likely pass muster.
I see no sinister cabal here. (Which, of course, raises the question, what other cabals ARE there but sinister cabals? But, I digress.)
There was a time when we were passing laws willy-nilly to increase penalties, and decrease rights of the accused, on drug possession and involvement for crimes that were already illegal. Increased penalties passed like greased lightning because legislators feared being labeled soft on drugs. And now liberals are regretting it.
Do we have the same situation now with sex crimes that are already illegal?
Absolutely Puck… That’s what this is. I just read the bill. I don’t get the outrage. This would not only get that hospital employee a felony, but if I’m reading this right, they would also have to report as a sex offender…. I may be wrong, but most sex felonies make you a sex offender. So some doctor who hooks up with a willing patient who is not under duress would be a registered sex offender and would serve prison time.
This is the end of Romantic Comedies.. Doctors hooking up with willing patients is a cornerstone of that industry. lol
I dont think this is about star crossed lovers, one a doctor and one her patient… braving the evil government so their forbidden love can flourish…… I think this is about people who are giving potentially life-saving care, and leveraging that position for sex. THAT should be a felony.
And I’ve always had nurse fantasies
I will file this under “something I had no clue needed regulation” and also under “things I don’t think matter but to five maybe six people”
I like that people are tackling the big problems in this state
In the meantime, a 10 year old was shot in Killmington….
Ben.. that is already a felony.
It’s easy for Rep. Williams and her friends to blame the governor and to suggest that this is some sort of retribution for her sponsorship of the testing opt-out legislation, but it looks to me like the governor is playing traffic cop on a bit of speeding and/or reckless driving by the legislature.
From reading the governor’s message, it appears that this legislation is either redundant or vague, or both. The House attorneys who wrote the bill should have realized this, and the Medical Society (they’ve got lobbyists) should have forcefully pointed that out — all before the legislation came to a vote.
I’m with donviti on this one — why are we wasting time creating felonies that amount to piling on over existing offenses? He came close to giving the answer: it’s because “big people” in the GA get their kicks finding “solutions” to little problems.
Make it a “double felony” ™ if the victim is a veteran. They love doing shit like that in lieu of legislating.
And if you are coming to the beach, plan on sitting in traffic from the endless cancerous growth of plastic houses and no road improvements
Too many rootbeer floats for your last night, mouse?
The Gov flopped on this bill with his lack of understanding the current law, and what the bill does.
Any sexual contact between a healthcare worker and a patient they are treating is already considered non-consensual by ethical standards, by the Hippocratic Oath, and by 27 states.
The law on the books makes this a crime, but it’s too low. Offenders can easily plead down and walk away with nothing. Leaving the discipline up to the professional boards is another problem in itself which is why exploiting patients has become a pandemic across the country.
Simply allowing a professional who bill a patient or health insurance for sex acts guided as treatment to surrender their license allows them to state hop and regain a license to repeat the process all over again.
Any healthcare professional who is treating a patient is in a position of power and authority over that person which negates the ability to give consent. Sex acts without consent is a crime.
It’s a common sense bill, but for some reason the general attitude is that it’s ok for these professionals to exploit people and we will thank the Gov and call it nanny legislation.
Making this a felony is the biggest deterrent for this behavior. It also help victimized patients be able to sue accordingly as well as get justice.
This bill will pass regardless of his veto. I’m the one who asked Rep. Williams to bring this bill because I have personally met many male and female victims in the state of DE who were left without justice because of the current law.
There is no higher perversion of the state than when they allow medical professionals to avoid the criminal justice system while everyone else will face it and jury of our peers. Any coercion involved in obtaining a sex act is a crime. Any extreme imbalance of power which creates the situation in which the patient feels obligated, coerced, intimated, powerless, or decieved by the provider in order to obtain sex acts is never consensual.
The health care providers treat vulnerable people. Some of them are in there for rape kits, domestic violence, psych Evals, trafficking victims etc. It can never be consensual during the course of treatment, and in some cases, long after treatment is over and even the professional association recognize that.
Treatment never includes sexual contact. Ever.
Excellent explanation and in-depth analysis Heather.
Rep. John Kowalko
Does this cover the VA in Elmsmear? The doc ask to see my jewels last week and well I think now I should have let her….
My other question:
Who came to her and said…you know…boinking your patients isn’t really illegal in this state, we need to make it felonous, and this fine elected official decided to make it her casus belli?
honestly what was the impetus for this nonsense? How many times has this happened in the past for this to warrant this much of our elected officials time and energy? Is there some clan of medical staff in delaware running rampant fondling little children or their sedated clients because they don’t have to go to jail?
Isn’t there a Dexter episode about this? Is that where this came from?
See, DV, now you are going to be accused of being part of the grand conspiracy.
As we know already based on the failure of the Clinton Crime Bill, three strikes legislation, mandatory minimums, etc., making a crime a “higher crime” doesn’t deter anything. We really do ourselves no favours arguing both sides of an issue.
I guess I’m part of the “cabal of well-paid special interests”… someone forgot to pay me though.
Characterising something as a “pandemic across the country” would require a bit of evidence, no?
Look, I don’t think anyone is arguing that sex without consent isn’t rape. I think we’re on the same page here…
I disagree with making something a higher crime doesn’t deter it; I present to you the criminalization of drugs as my shining example (waves arm like magician finishing a stunning trick)
You assume the research and evidence isn’t there, but that’s always the assumption of people who take a side on a issue they know nothing about.
The original law was passed decades ago by a network of mental health professionals, doctors, lawyers and citizens.
They are the network that passed this legislation start from the late 70’s and on. Each state that has already passed this legislation is because of them. They also passed legislation in every state regarding sexual misconduct for all health occupations, increased patient safety, and required higher standards for medical professionals.
The people who are part of this process who have been working tirelessly to improve our nation’s healthcare and protect patients are aware of the serious issues before us.
I passed criminal background checks for all mental health professionals in the state of Maryland in 2013. I played a significant role in passing criminal checks for medical doctors in Maryland this year.
I currently have legislation for criminal background checks for doctors and mental health professionals in WV, and VA.
I will also lobby on Capital Hill to open the National Practioner’s Databank which is closed to the public. It houses all of their disciplinary records as well as healthcare related criminal histories.
I’ve seen these predators state hop all over the country, and when they sexually exploit patients they are allowed to surrender their licenses to avoid criminal prosecution.
See Maryland Doctor William Dando as a recent example. Dando, an already convicted rapist from FL, was given a medical license in Maryland. When 3 patients came forward about sexual abuse he was allowed to surrender his license to avoid criminal prosecution.
Dando, like many others do, will likely jump to a state that doesn’t require criminal checks and doesn’t have a state database for medical offenders and open up shop. Wash, rinse and repeat.
If any medical professional – patient relationship is truly consenual then why do boards discipline them for it?
Why so many state boards fine up to $10,000 for what you classify as consenual?
They do it because it’s not consenual. It never was and never will be.
Everyone loves to cry party foul about what their taxes pays for, but it seems when the tax payers are footing the medical bills for a doctor or a therapist to sexually exploit their patient then you want to cry nanny legislation.
Make up your mind, or perhaps do your homework before forming an opinion about legislation. That seems to be the biggest problem we have in this country anyway. We have too many people that read someone’s opinion and we believe it like gospel. In this case, it happens to be the Governor’s opinion, but if what he says is really true, then he would have moved to over turn the current law because the wording is the same it’s only a harsher penalty.
And please don’t bring drug legislation into this. Even the most prominent criminal defense attorneys in this country agree with this bill and they agree with flip-flopping our drug charges for our sexual abuse charges.
You can get 10 years for drugs, but trafficking a human being is still a misdemeanor in most states.
I’m willing to debate this after you’ve educated yourselves and not a minute before then.
Lol, yes I think I thought I was somewhere else. And I could use a root beer float. With salted caramel icecream
Like I said, we know that it doesn’t work like that. To be honest I’m very disappointed someone would claim that it does.
I also need to express my extreme disappointment with JK. Calling Heather’s comments an “in-depth analysis” is really ridiculous and a misuse of the English language.
One can agree or disagree with what she wrote or not – fair enough – but there’s nothing ‘in-depth’ about what she wrote.
so you’re a lobbyist?
I’m confused with your motives here, and while I’d love to debate the need for this, I don’t see much in the way of evidence from you other than one instance of a Maryland doctor. Apparently anecdotal evidence about Dr. Darko is the evidence you posit as your reason why Delaware NEEDS this law? Does Delaware have a problem we residents are unaware of? it seems like Maryland did/does? And Florida too?
I guess I can’t debate you as I’m not as privy to the statistics warranting such dogged pursuit of justice against the epidemic of sexually harassing medical professionals in delaware.
“he people who are part of this process who have been working tirelessly to improve our nation’s healthcare and protect patients are aware of the serious issues before us.
I passed criminal background checks for all mental health professionals in the state of Maryland in 2013. I played a significant role in passing criminal checks for medical doctors in Maryland this year.
I currently have legislation for criminal background checks for doctors and mental health professionals in WV, and VA.”
I really must be missing the point of this being a state law? Because the “nation” and everything but delaware are being mentioned
“Make up your mind, or perhaps do your homework before forming an opinion about legislation. That seems to be the biggest problem we have in this country anyway.”
So again…are we talking about Delaware or the Country?
The bill though well intended has some holes in it that Jack found. It is unfortunate circumstance that it was Kim’s bill which opens speculation over motive. Reading the governor’s argument, I am forced to agree I would do the same, much as I admire Kim.
The simple solutions is to fix those small problems and put it back on the governor’s desk..
As for it being any blemish on Kim, as far as she’s concerned, it did pass the House and it did pass the Senate.. That counts as a win where a win counts for a legislator…
Redo and resubmit. And lets get this law on the books in a way that has no legal ambiguity and cannot hurt innocent people.
Leave it up to the regulatory boards. We all so how well that worked in the Bradley case. If Markell had concerns he had since May to make those known. I knew this Administration had no relationship with the General Assembly but they clearly don’t even know what is being considered and passed . Now after the horse is out of the barn and two counties over he’s vetoing the legislation. If someone files a FOIA on the executive office and this bill, I’m sure you”ll find him being lobbied by the doctors and other regulated interests
Further comment on the value of professional regulation of criminal behavior, In 1993 pain management doctor Pierre LeRoy plead no contest to molesting a 23 yr old associate in office. He was sentenced to two months work release, his license was suspended for 6 months (????!!!!) and was placed on 2and a half year’s probation. In 2012 He was charged with 24 counts of unlawful sexual conductHe again pled no contest and because of his age(85) he recieved 9 years suspended for probation and 45 days in prison. He also agreed not to practice medicine.
Godfather, he received a short sentence because he was too old to serve the time, not because there is a problen with the laws on the books. What happened in 1993 is irrelevant because DE laws are much stronger now. Furthermore, in 93, that was molestation, not consensual. So wtf are you talking about.
Apparently if this is the same Heather that is commenting on Rep Williams page… you are a Maryland lobbyist pushing a bill that failed in the Maryland General Assembly repeatedly (because apparently they read the bill) and trying to force it down Delaware’s throat. Soooooo I guess we know which side all of the out of state lobbyists were on in this fight. Which explains why nobody in the General Assembly read the bill. Isn’t this a crazy turn of events. Wow!
Don’t legislators typically run their bills by the governors office ahead of time?
You’d think AQC!!… I thought the same thing. But according to Rep Williams and her follower’s posts, they feel that the Gov’s responsibility should be to monitor all 62 legislator’s every action while they draft and work their bills. Would the Gov be obligated to share his opinions on every bill introduced in the GA without being asked by the sponsor? She says she introduced it in May, not like it was a January bill. I think the only pettiness was the idea that Rep Williams probably didn’t reach out about a bill that she was working on because she doesn’t like the Governor. She probably figured that he didnt matter and if she had the General Assembly’s support, he would never veto the bill.
Then when it got vetoed she says… “Where is the communication. This is the work of lobbyists!!”…….. Now thats Petty
Kim Williams will be here long after Markell is gone from the scene.
Lol I hear you Puck,
I think you can say that about every member of the legislature when talking about a Governor. The Representative will be around a lot longer. But also, the rules of politics will be around longer than both of them.
Having out of state lobbyists defending you on local blogs and outlining their efforts in other states and basically announcing that they gave the bill to the member to run in our state without an understanding of our laws…. I don’t think that will ever look good. One thing is also for sure, Heather will be around a lot longer than Markell also. Good luck with that.
a lot lot lot deeper? That’s deep.
There’s a difference between running the intent of the bills by the Governor, and running the specific language of the bill by the governor. Unless, of course, the bill is a specific priority of the governor.
Once the bill gets to the governor’s desk, the governor’s attorney reviews the bill. Meaning that, sometimes, seemingly-innocuous bills (which this really is not) are vetoed due to legal defects in the bill. In this case, the vagueness of the bill raised a red flag.
I’m a yuge (Trump pronunciation) fan of Kim Williams, but I think the veto was the correct move. I’m pretty sure that if Rep. Williams consults with the governor and/or AG on language that would pass muster, she could likely pass a bill that more closely aligns with her intent.
BTW, not all bills passed by the General Assembly on, say, June 30/July 1 reach the governor’s desk at the same time. The bills are delivered in increments from the Chief Clerk of the House and the Secretary of the Senate precisely so that the bills can all be reviewed by legal counsel. The clock for gubernatorial action begins when the governor receives the bill, NOT when the bill passes the General Assembly. I know, boring but true.
If I read this right
Cut and paste model legislation submitted by a lobbyist via Kim Williams was shot down by lobbyists.
All this nonsense abound no one has answered the fucking question about why we needed this in Delaware to begin with.
I don’t see where Markel is in the wrong no matter how petty people are perceiving it to be. Nor do I see why Williams submitted it to begin with. I think Williams got her feelings hurt. Because I don’t see a bunch of abused patients standing in Dover shouting at how the Governor has disregarded their plight.
The Governor hurt someone’s feelings?
That should be a felony!
Hey Heather, here’s another idea for legislation!! Let’s pick a random state to introduce this!! I hear California is nice this time of year.
Yeah, DV, my issue with it was we were getting all the ridiculous lobby speak. Like being told something is a “pandemic across the country” and then given one vague example with no context.
Was the original charge against the Maryland doctor rape? If not, why? Will the proposed legislation prohibit plea deals in these cases? I know a doctor who had a professional licensing issue in Florida (who wasn’t even charged with a crime) who had a very difficult time getting a license in Delaware. It just happened. So clearly there is some mechanism that works. Are there specific holes in licensing and background checks that you proposed to address?
Aside for the political inside baseball – which I frankly couldn’t care less about – the issue is this: If you want to convince somebody some piece of legislation is necessary you need to do better than what was written here. The rant of a paid lobbyist is not going to do the trick for me.
Dorian.. it did the trick for the House and Senate
Fair enough. Although the State House and Senate are full of politicians. My standards are much, much higher
EL som; Hard to believe, you’ve turned into a Markell apologist. My understanding is that this bill passed basically as introduced. no midnight sleight of hand. The governor and attorney general have a responsibility to mionitor legislation and weigh in if there’s a problem. The system you suggest has the legal analysis when the passed bill hits his desk. If its in the 2nd year of the legislative session there is no opportunity for veto override such as will occur with the testing opt out bill. It is certainly not to much to expect the entire executive branch his lawyers ,cabinet secretaries, and executive staff to monitor legislation and take positions to improve or even oppose legislation considered by the General Assembly. But again that’s hard to do if you’re asleep at the switch. What transpired brings into focus the dysfunctional relationship between the Governor’s office and the General Assembly.
Hurt feelings…. Felony
Hurt Legislator’s Feelings. … Double Felony
Hurt Legislator’s Feelings w/Veto ….. Double Felony w/ Cheese
Godfather,
Sounds like there’s general pettiness all around. The lobbyist cabal of serial consensual sex crazed doctors seems a lot lot lot deeper than my imagination’s own depth. Maybe Williams and the Governor just don’t like each other. Williams doesn’t talk to him about the bill, the governor doesn’t talk to her about his objections. Just so happens that the bill, as it stands, sucks and the constitution gives the governor veto authority. That’s what I see. Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt it.
Godfather: I’m a Markell apologist b/c I think he was right on this one?
Ho-kay.
The governor doesn’t have scores of lawyers at his disposal. The House, the Senate, and Legislative Council have lawyers and, in fact, many bills are written by them. Or, at least, reviewed by them. All of the bills, in fact, since the lawyers may be called to the floor to address questions about the bills.
There are plenty of things upon which to criticize Markell. If this was one of them, I’d be piling on. I’m a Kim Williams fan and think she’s by far one of the best legislators and best progressives in Dover.
But I think Markell was right on this one, and, no, he shouldn’t have had his lawyers review the bill until it got to his desk. I doubt he had any plans to veto the bill until staff counsel sounded the alarm.
But a blood feud between Williams and Markell makes a juicier scenario. So, have at it.