Sunshine Law Bench Trial Held, Hospital Argues Board Chair Had No Knowledge of Sunshine Law Requirements

By Echo Menges

SCOTLAND COUNTY, Mo. – Big-city attorneys Lowell Pearson and Eric Packel went to work in Scotland County Circuit Court on Monday morning, Sept. 23, 2024. Pearson represented the interests of ousted former Scotland County Hospital CEO Dr. Randall Tobler and Packel represented the Scotland County Memorial Hospital District at the high-profile Sunshine Law bench trial before First Circuit Presiding Judge Rick Roberts.

The trial began promptly at 9 a.m. and concluded at approximately 11:35 a.m., with roughly two hours and 15 minutes of open-to-the-public court battle—broken up by short recesses and opportunities for Pearson to confer with his client.

On Tobler’s side, Pearson set out to prove the SCH board knowingly and purposefully violated the Missouri Sunshine Law during a series of secret meetings held on Aug. 15, 16, and 18, 2022.

On the hospital’s side, Packel set out to prove the SCH Board Chair Lori Fulk didn’t know they were violating the Sunshine Law at the time of the secret meetings—an important detail—because the Sunshine Law violations were not denied during the hospital’s defense at trial.

The details of events leading up to the first secret meeting were put on public display in open court, which have been thoroughly documented by the NEMOnews Media Group newspapers The Edina Sentinel and Memphis Democrat, with a video of the full trial to be made available to the public for inspection.

Now, Judge Roberts is tasked with having the last word in this case, No. 23SE-CC00015. He could hand down his decision as soon as the attorneys file their final briefs in the case. Pearson has until Oct. 11. Packel has until Oct. 25. Those post-trial briefs could be filed sooner. Judge Roberts has promised to issue a swift decision once all of the supporting documents are in hand and can be considered.

What happened?

Through her testimony, SCH Board Chair Lori Fulk contends she was too hysterical and swept up in a perceived emergency to perform her duties within the guidelines of the Sunshine Law when faced with intense suspicion of assumed financial wrongdoing. She said she had no previous knowledge of the Sunshine Law prior to the secret meeting she called, purposefully excluded two publicly elected members of the board from, did not provide public notice of, obscurely hosted at her home, and executed a damning vote to fire both Tobler and ousted CFO Michael Brandon, along with board members Travis Trueblood, Nic Hatfield, and former board member Joni Lloyd.

On the witness stand, Fulk took responsibility for being the sole person to decide to exclude two members of the publicly elected SCH board of directors, Robert Neese and Joe Doubet, and implicated current CEO Meagan Weber in the botched notification process of former board member Joni Lloyd ahead of the first secret meeting held on Aug. 15, 2022.

Fulk told the court she had not received any Sunshine Law training by the hospital since joining the board six years before the secret meetings, in 2016, outside of a Sunshine Law booklet and a Sunshine Law section in a training manual. She interpreted the SCH board bylaws to mean it was within her scope to call a quorum to order, and not the full board, relying on her suspicions that Neese and Doubet were somehow involved in her unproven financial wrongdoing narrative before she helped make the decisions to oust both Tobler and Brandon from their administrative roles at the hospital.

Fulk’s testimony accounted for the majority of the trial proceedings. She spent roughly one hour and 43 minutes answering questions from Pearson, Packel, and Judge Roberts on the record. Her testimony concluded at the end of some pointed questions directly from Judge Roberts.

The final questions were delivered by the judge, leading to Fulk’s admissions that she was really “dealing with the shock of looking at the financial records after the board had not been taking care of their financial business” and that she had no proof any financial wrongdoing occurred.

The final questions for Fulk were: “Did they do anything that caused this hospital to lose funds? Did they take any funds out of this hospital?”

Fulk answered, “No, Your Honor.”

Judge Roberts gave both lawyers the chance to redirect the witness, but both declined to ask her any further questions before moving on to hear the testimony of the two other witnesses in the case.

Lloyd testified she was called to the Aug. 15, 2022, secret meeting at the last minute by Fulk without knowing she was going to a meeting. Then Co-COO Weber was in attendance along with then Co-COO Brent Peirick and Achim Hoyal. Notably, those parties were not members of the elected board.

Lloyd also testified that during the Aug. 15 secret meeting, the meeting was not called to order, no meeting agenda was presented, and ledgers from the hospital and pharmacy were shown to her by Hoyal. Lloyd told the court Fulk alleged Neese and Doubet were not at the secret meeting because they were involved in the so-called financial wrongdoing narrative.

Neese testified he began serving on the SCH board after being appointed in the 1990s and was elected three or four times afterward. He served as both secretary and treasurer on the executive board during his tenure, was authorized to sign checks in 2014 after becoming treasurer, resigned from the board in September 2022, and, importantly, had never stolen any money from the hospital, nor had ousted CFO Michael Brandon, to the best of his knowledge.

A Quiet Courtroom

The courtroom spectator gallery was notably devoid of any current hospital administrators, managers, staff or board members. The only spectators at the trial included a family member of Fulk, past board members Lloyd, Neese, and Doubet, two of their family members, along with Brandon, two members of the Tobler family, Tobler family friends, Stanton Foundation Legal Fellow in the First Amendment Clinic Ben Wilson, and this reporter. Only about a dozen spectators attended the public trial—a stark contrast to the large crowds that attended the public SCH board meetings held immediately following the secret meetings in August of 2022.

What’s at stake?

Should the court decide in favor of Tobler—that the board knowingly and purposefully violated the Missouri Sunshine Law—a myriad of options opens up to the judge. These include the option to reverse the board’s decisions and reinstate the plaintiff as CEO of the Scotland County Hospital, possibly order back pay, require the hospital to cover the plaintiff’s legal fees, and levy a financial fine.

Judge Roberts has made it clear he is ensuring due diligence is performed with any appeals process in mind.

You can watch the trial for yourself

Thanks in large part to the efforts of the Washington University in St. Louis Law School First Amendment Clinic’s support for the public’s right to know, anyone can watch this trial. This reporter’s request to video record the bench trial went unchallenged during the trial. The video will be released to the public on edinasentinel.com and memphisdemocrat.com, along with still photos taken during the trial. The trial video and photos are also being made available to any news outlet with interest.

The First Amendment Clinic’s final brief submitted to the court ahead of the trial will also be available for public inspection, along with the supporting court documents filed just before the trial.

(Scroll down for photos and link to court documents and trial video.)

Click here to see the trial video and supporting court documents.

Media: Please attribute photos and video to Echo Menges/The Edina Sentinel