Combining the obnoxious trend of dancing healthcare workers, black sexual immodesty, dick pics and media gullibility in one tawdry tale:
He’s been featured on “Good Morning America” and other national news shows, dancing in his medical scrubs. He’s garnered millions of social media views for making people smile with his viral dance videos and has been dubbed the TikTok Doc.
Now Jason Campbell is named as a defendant in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, accused of sexually abusing a former co-worker at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Portland, where he sometimes worked as an anesthesia resident.
As someone who uses this VA hospital this story heightens my existing dread of medical malpractice.
A lawsuit filed late Friday in federal court in Portland alleges Campbell harassed a woman social worker from January through March last year, sending a pornographic photo of himself through social media and sexually charged text messages.
Then on March 12, the suit alleges, Campbell went into the woman’s office area at the medical center, crept up behind her and forcibly pressed against her so she could feel his erection.
“Plaintiff was terrified and yelled at Dr. Campbell to leave,” the suit says. “Plaintiff followed up with a written message, ‘Don’t EVER surprise me by getting in my physical space.’”
Campbell responded by text message, “I should’ve asked. I’m sorry,” according to the suit and a screenshot of the text exchange.
The woman complained to Oregon Health & Science University in early April about the alleged sexual harassment and nonconsensual touching.
The suit also names OHSU, where Campbell worked as a second-year resident and was given a pass to access the premises of the VA center, located next to OHSU on Marquam Hill.
An OHSU investigation concluded in August that Campbell had violated its harassment policy and code of conduct with unwanted touching and sending inappropriate electronic and text messages, including an unsolicited picture of his erection through his scrub pants.
Campbell and his scrub-shrouded chub have beat a retreat to Florida, but he leaves in his wake a me-too reckoning for the VA hospital that does nothing to reassure my fears of medical incompetence.
The suit also claims that OHSU leaders “bury” sexual misconduct complaints by shaming and retaliating against people who report harassment while protecting those accused.
The university doctors, faculty and supervisors haven’t routinely reported sexual misconduct allegations to the OHSU human resources office, equal employment office or Title IX coordinator, as required by its policy, the suit says.
Knowing as we do the me-too process is as often as not about snatching desirable positions away from capable men to replace them with women and minorities like Campbell and that this may soon be in effect at my local VA hospital as a result of the lawsuit, my dread is not assuaged. I may just take my chances out here. No thank you for your service, VA.
In other news in black ineptitude and impunity:
A judge who questioned the competence of the top doctor at the Oregon Department of Corrections now faces a state effort to remove her from a series of prison cases over alleged bias.
It is unclear what prompted the Oregon Department of Justice to file motions this week seeking to disqualify Senior Marion County Circuit Judge Claudia Burton.
But the move follows a scathing rebuke by Rep. Janelle Bynum, who said the judge owes an apology to Corrections Chief Medical Officer Warren Roberts for calling him unreliable and questioning his credibility in a ruling earlier this year.
Ironically Burton’s rebuke came in support of the prisoner’s rights campaign that is part of the broader progressive “racial reckoning” movement presently using the coronavirus pandemic to demand early release of prisoners, bar arrests for many and stump for prioritization of inmates’ access to vaccines because of the close quarters in which prisoners live.
The controversy began five weeks ago after Burton found the prison system had provided substandard medical care to Richard Weaver, a 46-year-old inmate at the Oregon State Correctional Institution in Salem. Weaver suffers from asthma, pulmonary disease and chronic pain, according to court filings. Weaver also had an untreated dislocated wrist and contracted COVID-19 in prison, according to court records.
Weaver filed a habeas corpus case, a challenge under the constitutional prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment. Inmates commonly seek legal relief, including release from prison, for what they see as problems with their conviction or their treatment in prison.
The judge no doubt knows ignorance of the law is no defense. Likewise for the higher law, that black incompetence must not be noticed:
The judge was unaware of Roberts’ race when she presided over a January trial that involved the medical chief, said a state official briefed on the matter but not authorized to speak about pending cases. The trial transcript shows Roberts testified by phone.
Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty denied Thursday that she was involved in a minor hit-and-run accident in Southeast Portland that another motorist reported to police.
A driver reported that she was rear-ended Wednesday afternoon while stopped at a traffic light, according to sources familiar with the allegations but unauthorized to speak publicly.
The driver reported the collision after returning home. She told police she had been side-by-side earlier on the road with the car that struck her and saw the other driver on the phone or looking down in her lap before the accident.
Hardesty leads the police abolition movement. She’s rather distinct-looking, so it will be hard to refute eyewitness testimony. Nonetheless I’m confident she will escape consequences. It’s the driver I’m worried about.
Hardesty was involved in an embarrassing encounter with an Uber driver last year when she availed herself of police assistance over a petty squabble despite leading the campaign to essentially deny others of that help in cases of black violence:
The Lyft went bad from the beginning once Portland City Commissioner Jo Ann Hardesty ordered a pickup at Washington’s ilani Casino Resort last week.
Hardesty became upset over a mixup about where she was waiting for the car, then she didn’t want the windows open for ventilation because she was cold, then she wouldn’t get out when the driver cut the ride short and tried to drop her off at a gas station miles from home.
The Nov. 1 trip ended with dueling calls to 911 and a request from Hardesty for police to respond, even though a dispatcher repeatedly told her that no crime had been committed.
No doubt the driver (race unknown) didn’t consider black people are biologically acclimated to higher temperatures. Wait, that’s racist.
Update: Jo Ann is no longer a suspect in the hit-and-run case.
untethered 