Flushing Hospital nurse gets $15 Million award in Sexual Harassment Lawsuit:
Author:Nicole Bode
Publication: Daily News Staff Writer
Date: February 23rd, 2009, 12:18 am
A Queens jury awarded a nurse a record $15 million after finding that hospital bosses allowed a doctor with a history of sex harassment to abuse female staffers for eight years.
Nurse Janet Bianco, 55, who brought the suit, said she suffered prolonged torment at the hands of Dr. Matthew Miller, ending when he sexually assaulted her at Flushing Hospital in 2001.
“Everybody knew it was an atmosphere of dirty jokes in the hallways and at the nursing station, [but] no one did anything about it. It was tolerated,” Bianco, who left the hospital in 2005, told the Daily News.
“[Miller] was very bold, aggressive, he didn’t even try to hide it. Patient rooms, hallways, it didn’t matter. Wherever he was, it occurred. And I wasn’t the only one.”
Bianco said Miller – a 61-year-old married father who split time between the hospital and his private practice – turned Flushing Hospital into a pickup zone, rife with gratuitous sex talk and propositions to her and other nurses.
According to her lawsuit, Bianco repeatedly complained to supervisors about Miller’s come-ons and unwanted touching, which escalated from the time she joined the hospital in 1993 until a pair of violent attacks in 2001.
The Queens Supreme Court jury ordered the hospital and Miller to each pay half of the massive $15 million judgment – which Bianco’s lawyer said is New York’s largest-ever sex harassment award to an individual.
The hospital plans to appeal the decision.
In one case, Miller forcibly grabbed Bianco at a cardiac unit nursing station and tried to force his tongue down her throat, according to the lawsuit. The hospital’s medical director, Dr. Peter Barra, saw the attack but did nothing to intervene or discipline the out-of-control doctor, the lawsuit says.
Then, on Sept. 7, 2001, Miller chased Bianco through the halls until he cornered her in a room with two heavily sedated patients, where he aggressively groped her below the waist.
Miller was not sanctioned until Bianco lodged a written complaint, even though he had a history of sex-related professional violations.
In 1996, he was charged with having a two-year sexual relationship with a troubled, alcoholic female patient for whom he was prescribing anti-anxiety drugs, according to the state’s Office of Professional Medical Conduct.
Citing his “moral unfitness to practice medicine,” the board sanctioned Miller with three years’ probation, during which he was allowed to continue working at Flushing Hospital.
Following Miller’s attack on Bianco, the misconduct board suspended his license for two months and slapped him with another three years’ probation. Miller’s admitting privileges at Flushing Hospital were then yanked.
Miller did not return repeated calls for comment. Flushing Hospital issued a statement claiming administrators “acted properly.”
“People are sick of top-level officials in companies or organizations that see improper conduct and do nothing about it,” said Bianco’s lawyer Rick Ostrove, of the firm Leeds Morelli & Brown.
“I think the jury’s sending a clear message that if you’re in a position of power in our society, if you see improper conduct, we expect you to correct it or report it.”
Bianco said she was stunned Miller was allowed to keep his license – and said she just wants to warn others so the same thing won’t happen to them.
“I only hope out of this whole thing is that people become aware. I think that people take it lightly when you say sexual harassment. They don’t understand how it affects your life, not only in your job, but in your home, with your friends,” Bianco said.
“I don’t think people understand how truly horrible it is.”