North Miss. doctor charged with cyber stalking
Dr. Paul White, the medical director of Sanctuary Hospice House in Tupelo, was arrested Thursday on two counts of cyber stalking, according Attorney General Jim Hood’s office.
White, 51, had been charged in a 33-count indictment in April that accused him of neglecting patients and aiding and abetting a nurse in the practice of medicine without a license.
The cyber stalking charges followed a month long investigation into threats e-mailed to people who posted complaints about the hospice on a Web site.
Sherrel Clark, whose grandmother and uncle died at the hospice, said it appeared White thought she was someone else when he allegedly e-mailed death threats to her.
“It was nasty. I almost died when I read it. I thought, ‘This is a psycho,'” Clark told The Associated Press on Thursday.
The profanity ridden e-mails said, among other things, “hit the road and disappear,” and threatened to “rip your head off” if the recipient failed to do so.
An e-mail sent to another person said, “You’ll never feel the bullet in the back of your head. Maybe a brief flash of light as your brain explodes,” according the affidavit.
Clark said White apparently thought she was a former hospice nurse when he allegedly sent the e-mail. Clark had accused the facility’s staff of killing her mother but used initials when posting on a blog.
The hospice case had already taken some dramatic turns. Hood allegedly fired two of his investigators during the probe for telling grand jury witnesses to call The AP. Supporters of the nonprofit hospice, a project supported financially by several prominent north Mississippians, accused of Hood botching the investigation.
“I want the public to understand that the cases we have are against two employees of the hospice. The investigations have nothing to do with the hospice house or its board members who have worked so hard to support it,” Hood said in a statement.
Sun Herald
6/20/8
