Systemic Failures and Seeking Justice

Audible subscribers convente all episodes of Dor. Death, the Cowboy early and ad free Join Audible today by downloading the Audible app or by subscribing on Apple podcasts Please note, this episode contains strong language and mature themes hello there. Thanks for coming over and checking out this course I'm Dr. Schneider As twenty seventeen drew to a close, doctor Schneidder was facing five counts of bankruptcy fraud But he was still putting himself out there. In fact, he'd found a new calling. Bad conflict is a bitter distraction. It's costly and can be destructive. dor Schnneyder had launched a new career He wrote a book called The Healthcare Provider' Guide to Conflict Engagement and Dispute Rolution And he was taking that message online Hufffuck can become ugly and frightened In a series of videos, Dr. Schneider appeared as an animated cartoon version of himself coat, stethoscope and of course Mistrust Les trickery in malicious behaviors breeding suspicion and aggression. In one section, he gives an example of a confrontation between a doctor and a nurse. played by an AI Robo voice Nurse, what is wrong with you? Do my orders mean anything Get your job done The nurse pushes back, warning that the doctor is endangering a patient. Your dose was ten times what the patient should get Dr. Snneyder doesn't mention that he'd lost his license in Wyoming for his role in the death of a patient that involved over prescribing. You were wrong, doctor Not me Now it might seem a little strange for someone so steeped in conflict to suddenly become an expert in resolving medical disputes Dr. Schneyder was claiming to be a new man. Literally He was now going by the name Michael Schneider instead of Don This great transformation was coming at a critical time for Schneider. He was facing up to five years in a federal prison If he could persuade a judge or a jury that he'd truly changed He might not go to jail at all J just ride off into the sunset Leon Nef Fo. What happens when onlyly Fans becomes more than just a side hustle Only fantasy is an in depth look at the world's newest professionals the rules of human intimacy are being rewritten on Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or binge all episodes of Only Fantasy, add free, onlyly on Audible. I'm Raza Jeoffrey, and in the new season of The Spy Who, we go back in time to meet Benedict Arnold, the spy who betrayed the American Revolution As America fights for freedom from Britain, Arnold emerges as one of the rebels's greatest generals. But when his loyalty is pushed to the limit, he turns spy vises a plot to shatter the rebellion and make George Washington a prisoner. Follow the Spy who now, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can also listen to the full season of the Sy who betrayed the American Revolution early and ad free on Audible From Audible Originals, I'm Laura Ble and this is Dor. Death. The cowboy. This is episode six Curis Federal courthouse in Billings, Montana in the winter of twenty seventeen Prosecutor Colin Rubich took his seat in a small meeting room Facing him across the table was defense attorney John Smith. Rubich know him well John Smith was a pain in my butt. He would fight for his clients, quibbling over the smallest details. An any prosecutor's nightmare And now he hadd been hired by Dr. Schneyder to fight five charges of bankruptcy fraud Rubt assumed that they were there to talk about a deal But John's position was we were likely going to go to trial Ri tried to level with him The evidence was overwhelming John if I were in your position not want to go to trial You've got to know that if you go to trial, a lot of the ugly facts in this case they're going to more likely come out Rubich looked for a sign that he'd gotten through to him. give the non answer which is, I understand what you're saying and I'll talk to my client To Rubich, the exchange said everything about the man at the center of the case It all goes back to John Schneider's inability to believe that he's ever really done anything wrong. Now, when you're in a defense attorney in that position, it's complicated, right? Because they are your boss to a certain extent And so you are given marching orders Rubich had once been a defense attorney himself. The biggest complication factor is your defendant And I think Schneider was a huge complication because nothing could ever be Dr. Schneidder's fault As the weeks went on, Dr. Schneidder held firm, insisting through his attorney that he was innocent until, Dr. Schneidder had a sudden change of heart On the eighteenth of april, twenty eighteen, faced with a potentially stiff sentence Dr. Schneidder pleaded guilty to one charge of concealment of bankruptcy assets It would now be up to the judge to decide his sentence Four months later, on a warm summer's day at the courthouse in Billings, Montana, a crowd of people filed into the gallery of the Snowy Mountains courtroom families, former patients, lawyers, people who have spent years waiting for this moment. Among them were Russell Monaco's family His mom, Judy, and one of his daughters And there was bankruptcy trustee, Joe Womack, the man who'd first uncovered Schneyder's fraud All of them would be testifying at that day's hearing It made me a little nervous, but I wanted to put in my two cents worth try to make sure that he got Punished for what happened and that it wasn't minimized. I thought he had heard a lot of people And I thought he had to pay for it They had each been invited by prosecutor Colin Rubich. I viewed this as an opportunity for the greater universe of conduct for him to be held somewhat accountable for that. The crime that he committed was the lyinchpin It was important for the court to know and to understand all the things that led up to it. At the defense table, Dr. Schneider sat, smartly dressed alongside his attorney. And the balance was whether Dr. Schneidder would go to prison at all My worry was that he would ask for probation and that he might receive it if the judge was not aware of all of the sort of aggravating factors that went into the case The courourtroom came to order as judge Susan P. Waters took the bench. Mallory Monaco was the first member of the Monaco family to address the judge I still have all these amazing memories we shared as a family, and I wish we could have had the chance to make a lot more. She'd been fourteen when her dad had died under Snyder's care She was now a grown woman, twenty years old. I'm scared that since he passed away, while my sister and I were so young that I will forget the little memories I cherish the most. is one of my biggest fears in life. The courtroom listened to her words in silence As someone who has a five and a seven year old, you know, that gut punches you because you just think the one thing you want out of life, right at this stage in your life is to be able to see your kids grow And she, you know, spoke about the loss of her dad and just how devastating that was. Then Russell Monaco's mom, Judy, stood at the podium At first, she seemed to struggle to get the words out I'm going to get through this. This is the last thing I can ever do for my son She told the court that she believed doctor Schneyder had started hiding his money within days of Russell's death It is now obvious to us that Russ's life meant nothing to him. It's all about the money. Because of his actions, we've been put through hell as a family for the last five years Finally, she pleaded with the judge Please,our Honor, do not let him walk out of this courtroom without having to suffer some serious consequences for what he has done not only to my family, but for his total disregard for the laws of this court Then it was the defense's turn Dr. Schneidder and his lawyer had come up with their own plan. They'd filed a sentencing memo stuffed full of letters of support His wife, Michelle wrote about how she'd met him when she'd been working in LA as a nurse Although he was inarguably handsome, it was his commanding personality that caught my eye. He was neither boastful nor conceited in his God given talents Michelle told the judge that the man she knew was not the same as the one who had been depicted in the press Instead, Dr. Schneidder was, she said, a man of quiet integrity who goes out of his way to quote Offer the strong hand on the shoulder of a concerned cowboy. There was also a letter of support from Dr. Mike Levy, Schneider's old pal from his time in LA just wanted the judge to understand that taking him out of the practice of neurosurgery, from my understanding would not be useful in any way and would basically detract from his life and from just medical care in general because he's good at it There were letters of support and notes from patients Dr. Schneider had helped, including from his time at the VA Hospital in Iowa And the Reader's Digest article about how his skill and quick thinking had saved a woman's life after a horrible accident But there were no letters of support from doctors or nurses in Montana or Wyoming where he'd spent his entire career in private practice. The letters were one part of doctor Snyder's plea for leniency, but what really mattered was what he would say on his own behalf He rose to speak. The hearing wasn't recorded, so his words are read by a member of our production team Your honor Thank you for this opportunity to speak I am so very sorry r. Schneider described his upbringing. According to him He did not start out as a middle class kid from LA. I do not come from wealth and privilege As a young, small chubby boy in the sixties, I grew up in the rough streets of Irish Catholic South Boston at the hands of a predatory Catholic church I was severely bullied and lived through physical and emotional abuse In addition, my parents could be ruthless with punishment When we looked into this, we found a different story Far from being raised on the rough streets of South Boston, he grew up in Hingham a wealthy coastal enclave south of Boston. And in fact, in an interview for his pre sentence report, Dr. Schneyder himself described his upbringing as, quote normal. With no abuse, save his mother's occasional silent treatment But now, as he stood in front of the judge, Schneider painted a picture that was far more gritty I did hold deep seated scars and the seeds of anger and resentment toward anyone that I perceived a bully He seemed to acknowledge his feud with Dr. Biles and the anonymous letters. I let my anger and rage overwhelm my actions It did behave very badly escalating a conflict and then suffering the consequences of that unchecked fury He said he was heartbroken at Russell Monico's death and had great compassion and empathy for all his patients He apologized for the mistakes he made during the bankruptcy process for sabotaging and cheating But now he said That was all over Your honor I stand before you today, a man in transformation I've learned valuable lessons from all this conflict and this criminal act H priorities are realigned, and I am blessed by hisis grace To make amends, doctor Schneidder had brought with him a thirty five thousand dollars check for restitution. I strive daily refflecting in prayer. determined to be a good father, a good husband Your honor my life is a cautionary tale. And I share it openly. But whatever you decide, your Honor, I accept as my due punishment Schneidder sat down. All that remained now was the judge's decision prosecutor, the patients's families, and Schneider himself all waited to learn his fate I'm Raza Jaffrey, and in the new season of The Spy Who, open the file on Benedict Arnold y who betrayed the American Revolution America is fighting to free itself from the British Empire And one of its foremost generals is Benedict Ar He's a smugger turned battlefield hero admired for his aggressive tactics But when a war wound H new wife, debts and politics test his loyalty to the Max He turns spine and devises a plot to shatter the revolution and help Britain capture rebel commommander in chief, General George Washington And that plot would make him the most infamous traitor in US history Follow the Sy Who now, wherever you listen to podcasts You can also listen to the full season of the spy who betrayed the American Revolution early and ad free on Audible. While Joe Womack waited for the judge to deliver the sentence, he reflected on Schneidder's words in the courtroom I really thought that he was a pathological liar that had just done this without any regard to the harm that he caused people But he had no illusions about what usually happened in cases like this. Fancial fraud that doesn't involve violence or gun or that sort of thing. My experience is People like that don't get sentenced as harshly as somebody that uses physical violence to steal or break into property. Whether the judge would see this as more than a white collar run of the mill financial fraud case was what they were all waiting to find out And finally, the judge shared her decision. She told doror Schneidder that she believed that the events leading up to the bankruptcy provided a window into his character He had lied repeatedly, and he had done so in order to deny his patients the opportunity to try and get justice. Then she turned to the letters against Jimmy Biles It was, she said a sordid episode She told him When you take an oath to tell the truth and then you lie, That's not honorable, Dr. Snyder. Next, she came to his offer to pay back thirty five thousand dollars It was better than nothing, she said Dr. Schneidder still had access to much of his fortune It was sitting in trusts owned by his family. Judge Waters told him You could have a means by which to come in here and pay your restitution in full and really demonstrate in good faith how remorseful you are The judge said it was possible that it truly changed in the years since his crime But she did not believe that his remorse was real nor did she think that he genuinely empathized with his patients Then she came to her decision It is the judgment of the court that you be committed to the custody of the Bureau of Prisons for a term of twenty four months prosecutor's table. Colin Rubich looked over at Dr. Schneider He had this sort of rop of his head and looked down. And so I thought maybe, you know, he got through to him Joe Womack, though, remembers it differently Schyder through a temper tanfer He got mad, slammed paper down turnurn and yell at his attorney and clearly wasn't very happy There was one place Dr. Schneidder did unload his thoughts About a week after his sentencing, he posted on his blog This isn't Dr. Schneidder's voice, but this is what he wrote I've lived the life of Icarus As with every hero's journey, the Greek tradition ends in tragedy I have lived well and laughed at the lawyers beating drums and soliciting my accusers satisfied they will never find peace If their ancestors are in heaven or hell I will find them and torment them as they have tried but failed torment me You have to wonder what kind of punishment Schneider might have received if he'd have made these remarks to the judge Just days earlier, Schneider had sat in the courtroom and watched Russell Monico's mother Judy as she described the trauma of burying her son But in the blog, Schneider reserved a particular venom for the mononacos He described Judy as, quote, a caustic and pedantic woman And when he wrote about the Monaco's attempts to seek compensation for Russell's death, he questioned their motives. Since Wyoming is the wild West where politics and backroom deals are encouraged. The malevolent and sycophantic plaintiff lawyers circle like the parasites they are Monico Klan lifted enough sewer lids and found their lawyer. Next he turned his attention to Alan Kinote. Allan had been left dependent on prescription opioids after Dr. Schneidder performed two spinal fusions In the blog, Schneidder called him a drug addicted miscreant. He described Allen as a man whose tobacco and alcohol ruined his spine and I cared for for ten years He said Allen was, quote, whining because his bones did not fuse. He described Allen and the other patients pursuing claims against him as, quote, a racket of circle jerks And then the post took another turn Parking back to his time in LA, he claimed that his gangland contacts were going to take revenge on his perceived enemies He noted the street where Dr. Bob Norotsky lived Hounds are released and promised to visit my rivals. When we asked him about the blog, Dr. Schneyder's lawyer told us that doror Schneyder was maligned and attacked by competitors and former patients, and he harbored some understandable resentment anyy rational person would defend their name and career. But when we read the blog to Schneider's old friend Mike Levy, he had a very different reaction And he wrote that I mean, we all have people we dislike in scenarios we dislike It seems that he was just hanging ont to it. and just not able to let it go But it wasn't inconsistent with the man he had known I think that I have a good understanding of who he is And in understanding who he is, I can see where the things that really defined who he was and defined his success Also are things that would lead to these problems the ability to fixate absolutely and completely on a clinical scenario with a patient maximizes your positive results. and it sounds like taking the personality and the approach that really led to a great deal of success during his training. didn't work in a number of scenarios when he was no longer there For Joe Womack, the sentencing wasn't quite the end of it One day, he was sitting in his office when the fax machine began to shoot out paper Here's a really nasty picture Somebody was faxing a pornographic image, and the main actor was labeled Joe Womack the implication is that I'm fucking everybody over It wasn't long before the photo landed on the desk of Colin Rubichch Geez, I don't get paid enough for this It had been sent to him by some of the attorneys representing patients. They had received an unmarked letter Postmark from San Diego, which was where Dr. Schneider was living at the time I don't know If this was Dr. Schneider or not But I don't know who else would have been interested enough to do this We did ask Dr. Schneyidder about this, but he declined to comment. The identity of the seentnder has never been proven Joe Womack didn't spend much time thinking about it. He focused on the numbers. He felt it'd done all he could to try and claw back Schneider's assets. In the end, he recovered about two million dollars, much of which came from the sale of the Whispering Winds Ranch in Wyoming But Schneyidder's finances had been so complicated. Untangling them had taken years By the time it was over, most of the money had been eaten up by legal and administrative costs And what remained went to patients It didn't get very much. It wasn't nothing, but it certainly wasn't anything close to the damages that they had suffered Canot had a claim worth one million dollars. In the end, he received just over eighty three thousand The family of Russell Monaco had been pursuing Dr. Schneyder for two million dollars They received just over one hundred and sixty six thousand They didn't get compensate anywhere near what they owe When we asked Schneyder about this, his lawyer blamed the high cost of the bankruptcy on WomMac who's quote Controversial methods, he said, had increased costs unnecessarily. Another patient who was operated on after Schneider declared bankruptcy, received nothing at all. call him Dr. Schneider anymore to meaz Just Snyder After the USA, today's story broke Anthony French, the Marine from Iowa with a brain tumor, reached out to his senator, Joni Ernst Dr. Schneider proclaimed that he had removed all of the tumor She spotlighted Anthony's story in a veerans' Affairs commommittee hearing. It turned out that Dr. Schneyder had never removed the tumor Members of the committee, dor. Schneyder never should have been hired to treat our veterans. Anthony had hoped that all the attention might help him find someone able to remove the tumor But a lot of time had passed since his first operation He saw a neurosurgeon at the Mayo Clinic He said, if you'd have been here a year, a year and a half ago We'd have taken it out But he said, you're not going to find a neurosurgeon now that's going to touch you because he said, I guarantee You have an eighty percent chance of being blind and a fifty percent chance of just being dead Anthony hired a lawyer and tried to get compensation from the VA The legal side of everything goes slower Molasses on a cold winter day My lawyer said, I can't foot the bill on this He said, we need to get some H fllutin lawyer involved in this and we searched and we searched and we searched and they all kept saying the same thing You're going to have to hire expert witnesses, which could cost eighty to two hundred thousand dollars If you got that money in your pocket, we'll do it But we're not going to put the money up front So Anthony was left with nothing, no compensation and with the tumor still to this day in his brain His house sits in perpetual darkness to help with his intense headaches, which are made worse by light He's been warned that one day the tumor will likely cause him to go blind For Anthony, there's no way to move on I do my daily reflections and Schnyers always in on them And they're never good You know, and I'm not supposed to be that way, but I can't help it I always wish bad on him. You know, you call him doror Death. That's a pretty good name for him because it's already been It' so disappointing losing everything I've already lost that I don't think I could live with being blind. I don't want to live with being blind When we asked doctor Snneyder about Anthony, he told us via his lawyer that the accusations were quote, baseless. that he doesn't remember Anthony When we followed up with more information, his lawyer did not respond. Dr. Schneidder did everything he could to appeal his sentence After months of legal wrangling, he was forced to admit defeat He reported to the Metropolitan Correctional Center in San Diego to begin his two year sentence. The following year, he was out on supervised release He and his wife, Michelle moved to a small town in Oregon They settled into a four bedroom property on a cliff overlooking the ocean purchased for one point one million dollars prorosecutor Colin Rubich It's an outcome that's hard to stomach I've seen so many people do such horrible things seellll their souls really for what is essentially Stuff and money And Schneider is, of course, one of the ones that sticks with me because Here is a guy who to this day, I am sure. He is living a very, very comfortable life He's living a life that most people would never dream of So many of the defendants that I come in contact with really have never had an opportunity. And then I see a guy like Schneider and I just think, what haven't you been given And it's sad because I don't know of anything that could be done to get him to see the damage that he has done to people And that is just traragic to me We did approach Dr. Schnneyder to take part in this series. At first, he seemed inclined to participate We sent him a list of topic areas that we hope to discuss But after that, he withdrew He did, however, provide us with documents and other materials, including several lengthy statements from his lawyer. In Dr. Schneidder's view, he was a successful surgeon who helped thousands of people He argues that we focus disproportionately on a handful of negative outcomes He says that surgery is inherently risky and that adverse outcomes do not in themselves constitute malpractice or unethical conduct He also told us that the malpractice lawsuits that followed him throughout his career in private practice were all ultimately dismissed or settled without any admission of wrongdoing. He maintains that those who accuse him of wrongdoing are competing surgeons and disgruntled patients that are motivated by professional rivalry and marketplace disputes He describes the allegations against him as negative anecdotes and unsubstantiated claims In the end, the official record of dor. Schneidder's career amounts to one conviction for bankruptcy fraud and the loss of his medical license after the death of his patient, Russell Monaco From what we can find, nineteen of his former patients or their families brought claims implicating Schneider None ever made it to trial. They were all either settled without admission of wrongdoing or withdrawn To this day, many feel like justice has never truly been served It was about the money Back in Wyoming, Kathy Ewen, the woman who started out our story, was working out her own journey on the path to healing the illegal things about Money got him in trouble That's a strange dichotomy If you think about it should have been the opposite. to hurt so many people and not be punished for that Mistakes happen. I'm the first one to say that mistakes happen One or two mistakes people That's one thing hands of them. So slap his hands. about the money. Take his money away, whatever. How do you give back? How do you make him give back to all these people, what they've lost Kathy thought about suing Dr. Schnyder My dad always said, don't let anyone live rent free in your head But in the end, she chose not to I' had to get Dr. Schneider out of my head and out of my life We needed to get Dr. Schneyder out of our family. and So I talked with all three of the kids and said, we let go of this Gers now. Bring him in He's gone I've had intense emotion. talking about him in this interview And I almost am surprised at how well I have block him out Fally I'm not sure I'd recognize him on the street. Honestly Snyder's behavi And the mythology that developed around him throughout his turbulent career got me to thinking about something very specific Cowboy boots. Some doctors just find them comfortable. Some, especially here in my part of the world, in Texas, grew up in them But in Schneider's case, there seems to be more to the boots than comfort or fashion At some point, he chose to go through the world as a cowboy He moved out of southern California to the frontier states of Wyoming and Montana to make his fortune In Hollywood myth, The cowboy depends on no one remain steadfast and answers mostly to himself By most descriptions, Schneider was a cowboy in the most modern sense He moved quickly and boldly and sometimes recklessly The problem is an operating room or The U. S. healthcare system, for that matter, can only handle so much shoot from the hip State medical boards, which are tasked with reining in dangerous doctors move slowly and deliberately bad at calling out Pysicians in our own hospital that are colleagues. We are bad at that. for a number of reasons But there isn't really an entity that has teeth that oversees that Schneider's former colleague, Michael Copeland says that means the job of reining in unsafe doctors often falls to the patients themselves I think in the United States, we rely heavily on malpractice litigation to regulate physician behavior while that has a lot of downside to it because of the large amount of money involved and the large amount of money never makes anything better There isn't a plan B The truth is that it's not just Dr. Schneider who made money from his surgeries So did the hospitals he worked in As Dr. Noratsky told us, there could be an incentive not to look too hard More than that dor Snneyder moved between small rural hospitals and hopped from state to state No one person ever saw the whole picture And sometimes, even when the system does eventually work and strips a doctor of their license Still isn't enough to protect patients Just ask Anette Richard Hopkins sister Why would you allow him to go to another state in practice No one should have hired him. They knew. His license had been stripped I still can't get over that. I cannot P that Annette and all the other patients and families spoke with us because they're still seeking a sense of justice They're trying to heal from their trauma, even today. They don't want something like this to happen again.