Police Involvement
Olympic Memorial's effort to protect Turner, and
hold off the
police, succeeded for only eight days. Just after
midnight on Jan.
20, a hospital orderly came home from his late night
shift full of the
stories circulating at work. He called his neighbor,
a sheriff's deputy.
The deputy called the Port Angeles police. By 3 p.m.,
Stegbauer
was sitting in the police chief's office, the
hospital's attorney by his
side, telling everything he knew.
As at the hospital, there were those in the
Police Department
who struggled with the story Stegbauer told. Turner
is the
pediatrician for several police officers' children,
including some
assigned to his case. One had to be removed from the
inquiry.
The investigation proceeded nonetheless.
Within days, Det. Sgt. Terry Gallagher, after
filing an affidavit
saying ''there is probable cause to believe that the
crime of murder .
. . has been committed,'' served a search warrant on
Stegbauer at
the hospital. Startled, but obliged by the mandates
of criminal law,
the administrator responded quickly, handing over a
thick three-ring
binder. Gallagher returned with a second warrant,
accusing the
hospital of holding back various documents. Stegbauer
had no
choice but to provide more. Normally protected hospital
information, ranging from ER nurses' statements to
executive
board's minutes, now were in the hands of county
authorities.
On Sunday, Feb. 1, a police press release,
without providing
names, announced an ''investigation into the death of
an infant.'' The
next morning, the local Peninsula Daily News ran its
first story about
the matter, on the top of Page One. It didn't have
many details, but
it identified the doctor as Eugene Turner.
Dozens of Port Angeles citizens promptly erupted
with anger
and dismay--not at Turner or the hospital, but at the
newspaper.
How could the Daily News identify Turner when no
charges had
been filed, they demanded to know in letters to the
editor. How
could the Daily News tarnish such a man with no solid
evidence?
Rick and Tami Bradley, whose 20-month-old
daughter Turner
saved from a near fatal case of pneumococcal
meningitis, were
''terribly disturbed and saddened'' after reading the
article. ''We
cannot imagine the pain it has caused Dr. Turner. It
is the ultimate
stab in the back.''
Debbie Fredson thought it was the ''worst
example of
responsible [sic] journalism for a small-town
newspaper that I could
imagine.'' Jessica Johnson considered it
''heartbreaking to devote
your whole life to preserving the life of children
only to be accused
of taking it away.'' Susan Chadd was ''pained to see
Dr. Eugene
Turner under attack with so little real information
available.''
The next day, the Daily News ran three more
articles. One told
how the hospital had suspended the whistle-blowing
orderly for
spreading ''rumors and gossip'' and ''violating patient
confidentiality.'' Another had the dead infant's
grandmother
reporting that Turner told her he'd ''pinched Conor's
nose and
placed his hand over his mouth and suffocated him.''
Such revelations served only to stir Turner's
admirers further.
Their insistent voices fueled a story of its own--
''Turner Beloved
By Many . . . Pediatrician Investigated in Newborn's
Death Has
Strong Support''--in which Turner offered thanks.
''We are grateful
for, and in awe of, this community,'' he said. ''The
showering of
unconditional love and support has overwhelmed and
carried us
through this time.''
Someone in law enforcement apparently had heard
enough. On
the very afternoon the laudatory Turner piece ran,
the Daily News'
police reporter got ''ticklers'' about certain
subpoenaed hospital
documents sitting in the local courthouse. The
paper's editors
requested they be unsealed, and prosecutor Bruneau
found no
reason to deny them. All the documents entered the
public domain
and, on Sunday, Feb. 8, the Daily News.
Port Angeles citizens now had much more of the
story, but none
of it mattered to Turner's supporters. Their anger at
the Daily News
flared higher still.
Jessica Schreiber, a lawyer whose husband sits
on the hospital's
executive committee, called the newspaper's managing
editor to
berate him for relying on unofficial and unreviewed
minutes rather
than talking to the doctors involved. Jim Cammack,
owner of Jim's
Pharmacy--and father of a diabetic treated for years by
Turner--stormed into the newspaper office,
threatening to pull his
advertising and lead a wider citywide boycott.
Assistant pastor
Smithson confronted Daily News City Editor Steve
Powell with
mounting reports of public ire.
Smithson is a tall man with an open, earnest
expression, yet his
words sounded threatening to Powell, who is also a
member of
Trinity Lutheran. A flood of people are coming past
my door,
Smithson told the city editor. Shell-shocked people.
People full of
unqualified support for Turner. People with an
incredible amount of
anger. People are really ticked at the paper. You're
hurting the
hospital. You're hurting the newspaper.
On Feb. 17, about 70 Port Angeles citizens
showed up to
demonstrate outside the newspaper's building in
support of Turner.
They held up red heart-shaped balloons, they grilled
Publisher John
Brewer, they talked of what Turner meant to them.
Robin Cox,
whose daughter Turner nurtured during her losing
battle with brain
cancer, told how the doctor attended family
functions, wrapping
everyone in his arms. Susan Smith, whose daughter
Turner treated
for a fatal autoimmune disease, told how the doctor
cared for her
family's other children when the parents were at the
hospital.
''My daughter trusted him completely,'' said
Susan Smith. ''It
was all OK when she was with Gene. I am so thankful
for him
every day for being who he was to her.''
''Thank you, Dr. Turner,'' the crowd shouted
over and over in
unison. ''Thank you, Dr. Turner.''
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