HOUSTON - U.S. District Judge Susan Hightower has granted the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services’ (TDFPS) unopposed motion to stay discovery in litigation involving a physician executive who alleges the state agency violated her equal protection and due process rights under the U.S. Constitution.
Dr. Sheila Owens Collins sued her niece, Aisha Ross, Adult Protective Services (APS) Director Jamie Masters, and APS Supervisor Lydia Bias in the Austin Division of the Western District of Texas, alleging defamation, retaliation as well as unconstitutional policies, procedures, and practices, according to a press release.
“On December 21, 2020, [APS Director Jamie] Masters filed a motion to dismiss based on sovereign immunity, the Younger abstention doctrine, and qualified immunity,” Judge Hightower wrote in her Jan. 5 decision. “TDFPS now asks the Court to stay discovery until threshold immunity issues raised in the motions to dismiss are decided.”
Immunity prevents public officials, such as judges, police officers, and prosecutors, from being sued frivolously for acting on their jobs as authorized by law, according to the Institute of Justice in Arlington, Virginia.
President-elect Joe Biden believes qualified immunity needs to be significantly reined in and that abuses of power should not be covered by qualified immunity, according to media reports.
Judge Hightower further ruled that the Supreme Court described immunity as a threshold question to be resolved early in proceedings.
“The agency defendants contend that the Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over Plaintiff’s claims and that they are barred by sovereign and qualified immunity, and that discovery should be stayed until these threshold issues are decided,” Judge Hightower stated.
As previously reported in Southeast Texas Record, Dr. Owens Collins is a neonatologist on staff at a Clearlake hospital and other hospitals nationwide. She filed the lawsuit against TDFPS last year after her niece [Aisha] Ross allegedly filed several false reports with APS, including the accusation of financially exploiting her mother Mrs. Hattie Owens who died while in state custody under court-appointed guardianship in 2019.
“Aisha Ross took advantage of the obvious lack of experience of the investigator and totally contaminated the process,” Owens Collins attorney Martin J. Cirkiel wrote in a pleading. “Not surprisingly, the first investigatory report from APS came back with a finding that Dr. Collins had financially exploited her mother. It totally polluted the guardianship proceeding with the guardian, attorney ad litem and Judge turning against Dr. Collins.”
The Owens-Collins federal lawsuit is one of many filed across the country that is exposing the unexpected downsides of court-appointed adult guardianships of the elderly and people with disabilities, which are designed to help them manage their lives. Those downsides include accusations of neglect, physical abuse, starvation, human trafficking, financial exploitation, isolation from loved ones, denial of medical care, and violation of Constitutional rights.
“APS has a system in place to assure more experienced investigators get appointed for difficult cases, especially where there are forensic accounting issues,” Attorney Cirkiel stated on behalf of Owens Collins. “But Defendant [Lydia] Bias did not sufficiently supervise staff to assure this occurred and rather appointed an inexperienced investigator.”
The District Court granted the TDFPS motion to stay discovery until a decision has been made about whether or not to dismiss Owens-Collins’ complaint at the request of TDFPS.
“The undersigned finds that TDFPS has established good cause for a stay of discovery of limited duration by demonstrating the existence of the threshold question whether Plaintiff’s claims are barred by immunity,” Judge Hightower ruled.