Nurse Whistle-Blower Charged for Reporting Doctor

Nurse Whistle-Blower Charged for Reporting Doctor
Texas Nurse Fired After Sheriff Seizes Computer and Finds Letter of Complaint
By Susan Donaldson James | ABC News

When veteran nurse Anne Mitchell wrote a confidential letter last year to the Texas Medical Board, complaining about a doctor she thought practiced shoddy medicine, she assumed it would be anonymous.

Instead, Dr. Rolando Arafiles Jr. fired her after reporting her to the local sheriff -- a former patient and admirer of the doctor -- for maliciously ruining his reputation.

Police in Kermit, Texas, searched Mitchell's computer and found the letter, then charged her with "misuse of official information" in her role at Winkler Memorial Hospital, a third-degree felony in Texas under an abuse-of-power statute.

Today, 52 and out of work, Mitchell could face 10 years in prison for doing what she believed was her obligation under the law -- to report unsafe medical practices.

"She's devastated," Mitchell's lawyer Brian Carney told "Good Morning America." "It has hurt her financially. Personally, it's hard on her family to say that she has done something wrong when, in fact, she has done nothing but do her duty." Read more.