An attorney representing the former chief executive officer and the former chief nursing officer at Eureka Springs Hospital — both fired by the Eureka Springs Hospital Commission within a four-day span in early November — has filed wrongful termination lawsuits against the hospital and the six remaining members of the commission.

Attorney Gregory F. Payne filed the complaints Friday, Dec. 6, in Carroll County Circuit Court on behalf of former hospital CEO Angie Shaw and former nursing director Jessica Petrino.

Defendants in the suits are the hospital, commission chair Kent Turner and commissioners David Carlisle, Sharon Deramus, Kate Dryer, Sandy Martin and Brian Beyler in their official capacities.

Shaw was fired by the commission at the conclusion of a special meeting on Friday, Nov. 1. Three days later, on Monday, Nov. 4, the commission fired Petrino at the end of another special meeting — the first of three held that day by the commission.

In both complaints, Payne cites the city of Eureka Springs’ Personnel Policy Handbook’s policies on unlawful harassment and violence in the workplace and also refers to the hospital’s policy on protected patient information in compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA).

Sometime in August 2024, Payne writes in both complaints, Shaw and Petrino began receiving reports from staff regarding employee harassment by Cynthia Asbury, the hospital’s chief financial officer.

Employee complaints On Oct. 25, both complaints say, Petrino emailed Shaw “detailing employee complaints against the CFO regarding behaviors that were reasonably construed as violations of both the Hospital’s Unlawful Harassment Policy and Violence in Workplace policies.”

Among the behaviors attributed to Asbury, the complaints say, were “confronting the dietary director while chastising her in an inappropriate manner in a loud voice while slamming one fist into an open palm in intimidating fashion; yelling at several staff members in such a manner that they were driven to tears, after one such event being heard to tell commission chair Kent Turner that she ‘made someone cry and didn’t care at all;’ bullying several employees not just [by] words, but by her actions;” and “instilling fear in other employees including (Petrino).”

In the same Oct. 25 email to Shaw, Petrino “maintained that reports of behavior that apparently violated the Hospital’s Violence in the Workplace Policy were ignored,” by the hospital’s human resources director, Jodi Edmondson, whom the commission appointed as acting CEO at a separate special meeting on Nov. 4.

According to the complaints in both lawsuits, Edmondson “aggressively defended (Asbury) without further investigation, a pattern of conduct by which the hospital staff concluded reports of misconduct would be ignored and feared to be the basis of retaliation.”

Petrino’s email to Shaw also noted complaints against Turner and then-commissioner Barbara Dicks, both complaints filed by Payne say.

“During a meeting with Hospital staff, including Plaintiff, Mr. Turner, in anger ‘slammed his fists into the table, became red-faced, and yelled at Joy and I during a Wednesday finance meeting,’ prohibited conduct under the Violence in Workplace policy,” says the complaint in Petrino’s lawsuit. “Plaintiff learned from the HR Director, Jodi Edmondson, that Barbara Dicks watched security footage of the hospital from her home, a clear violation of protected patient health information HIPAA that required self-reporting under federal law.”

EMPLOYEES MET WITH TURNER

Four days after Petrino’s email to Shaw, complaints in both lawsuits say, a group of hospital employees from various departments met with Turner in the cafeteria to present him with a list of grievances including violations of hospital policy “as well as another direct violation of HIPAA by the CFO who had taken to using a recording device hidden inside her eyeglasses when interacting with staff which necessarily disclosed protected private health information, attributable to the hostile work environment created by the CFO, Cynthia Asbury, and HR Director, Jodi Edmondson.”

ESCORTED OUT BY POLICE

According to the complaint in Shaw’s lawsuit, Shaw was notified by Edmondson on Nov. 1 that the hospital commission had voted to terminate her employment as CEO.

“Plaintiff was escorted from Hospital property by two uniformed Eureka Springs police officers,” the complaint in Shaw’s lawsuit says.

On Nov. 3, according to the complaint in Petrino’s lawsuit, she consolidated staff complaints into a three-page letter signed or acknowledged by hospital staff members, and the letter was emailed to the hospital commission.

The following day, Nov. 4, Petrino called a morning “huddle,” the lawsuit says. During that meeting, commissioner Kate Dryer “interjected herself into the meeting, introducing herself to Plaintiff and told a member of the staff, Joy, to report her duties to Cynthia Asbury, the CFO, though Joy reported directly to Plaintiff.”

That afternoon, Petrino’s complaint says, police officers showed up at her office to escort her from the building after the commissioners voted during a special meeting to terminate her employment.

“While the officers waited, Jodi Edmondson, the HR director came to Plaintiff’s Office, told her the Commission had just voted to terminate her, and asked Plaintiff for her Hospital Id. badge and her keys,” the complaint says. “Plaintiff was escorted from Hospital property, to her embarrasment, by two uniformed Eureka Springs police officers.”

Petrino’s complaint alleges that Dryer knew that Petrino would be terminated before the commission voted on that decision.

“The fact that Hospital Commissioner Kate Dryer told one of Plaintiff’s direct reports to report further activity to the CFO evidences foreknowledge and previous discussion of hospital business by members of the Hospital Commission outside of public meetings in violation of the Arkansas Freedom Information Act that requires such business to be conducted in public,” the complaint says.

Neither Shaw nor Petrino had ever been the subject of any disciplinary action during their employment at the hospital before they were fired, the complaints say. Both complaints allege that the terminations were retaliatory in nature for reporting hospital commissioners for violating HIPAA and the hospital’s policy on violence in the workplace.

DAMAGES SOUGHT

Petrino’s suit asks that she be paid her $95,000 annual salary in addition to benefits, sick leave, vacation pay and attorneys’ fees, or that she be reinstated to her position as chief nursing officer and compensated for her lost wages and benefits as well as attorneys’ fees.

Shaw’s suit seeks similar damages. Her annual salary was $145,800, the complaint says.