Received my open records request for Liz Morgan's police record. LINK TO POLICE REPORT  This is with regard to current Glen Rose Medical Center employee Liz Morgan, whose title is Director of Human Information Management (ie, patient records) and HIPAA Privacy Officer. She stole over $56,000 over the course of 3 years from Cottonwood Baptist Church in Glen Rose, TX, pled guilty to a felony in May of 2015, with deferred adjudication including 10 years of probation. She continues to work for Glen Rose Medical Center in apparently the same position. When the opportunity came up to fire her earlier this year, only one Somervell County Hospital District board member made the motion to do so and got no second. 

Not only did I wonder why Glen Rose Medical Center would continue to keep on Liz Morgan in this position, but why any responsible hospital would want to have a person who admitted she stole money from a church (FROM A CHURCH) in charge of patient records. Those records would be ALL who go to Glen Rose Medical Center, which would include not only Somervell County residents, but also residents in gated community Pecan Plantation in Hood County who utilize the doctors and services of the hospital via Pecan Family Medical Center. Seems to me that the person in charge of such sensitive info ought to be someone trustworthy and reliable. 

Since the Somervell County Hospital District board took no action on firing Elizabeth Morgan, I wondered if there were some extenuating circumstances that made them believe she was innocent, railroaded, or had some excellent reason to justify stealing the money. So I did an open records request asking for her police record. You can read the entirety via the link above, but here are two parts in particular that caught my attention. 

10. Morgan stated that she was responsible for paying her credit card bills online with the church's account numbers, but it was an accident and happened due to her laziness. Early in the interview Morgan continued to state that this was an accident and that she would never have intentionall stolen from her church.

11. Writer (this refers to Anders) went through the document which broke down her online payment activity. Morgan stated she was responsible for all of it except for approximately $800.00 which she said were not her charges.

12. As Writer continued the interview, Morgan finally admitted she had intentionally used the church's bank account information to pay her bills online. 

13. Writer questioned Morgan as to her motivation for stealing from her church's finances. Morgan stated the reason was she and her family didn't own a home but rented and their credit wasn't good, so Morgan used church funds to pay her bills in an attempt bolster their credit score. 

Writer asked Morgan if her plan worked and Morgan stated not really. Morgan offered a second reason for the theft, which was a trip to Florida for her daughter which cost $20,000.00. 

14. Morgan stated she was intent on paying the church back fully by the end of the month. 

So here's my first question at this point besides the obvious one that clearly there doesn't appear to be ANY extenuating circumstances that would justify her stealing over $56,000  from the church, and yet Glen Rose Medical Center has kept her in a high level position that requires trust since she handles private and sensitive patient records and also, laughably, is privacy officer (HIPAA). WHERE DID SHE GET THE MONEY TO PAY BACK COTTONWOOD? She says that her credit is bad, that she rents (so she could not have gotten a home equity loan, for example), but she believed she could pay back that large amount of money within a month? HOW? 

And really? She stole from the church so that she could, in part, send her kid to Florida on a $20,000 vacation? Now, maybe I'm living in the cheapo past, but I have NEVER been on a vacation that cost $20,000. Did she take a cruise off the Florida coast? Stay in Four Seasons Hotel and eat lobster and caviar every night?  And was it for This daughter? 

Are people in this community, which, again, includes not only Somervell County residents but also Pecan Plantation residents, and probably people from all over the country that use the hospital, comfortable with this woman being employed? Are taxpayers? If you're not, please raise a stink. Here is Somervell County Board of Directors info.