Ex-Suffolk County jail nurse testifies in civil trial
Says she worried about inmate
Sheila Porter, who had been a longtime nurse practitioner at the Suffolk County House of Correction, testified yesterday in federal court that she was very concerned about the safety of an inmate who was returned to the facility in May 2003 after he had cooperated with the FBI in a probe of prison guards.
The inmate, according to Porter, called her over to his cell in the infirmary, revealed bruises on his arm and chest, and urged her to alert the FBI that he'd been beaten by a correctional officer.
''I was concerned about what could happen as much as what did happen," said Porter, who told jurors she immediately notified a supervisor about the inmate's allegations, then reported them to an FBI agent the next day.
Though convinced she did nothing wrong, Porter said three weeks later one of Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea J. Cabral's staff told her ''because you spoke to an outside agency, at the end of this business day you will no longer be able to enter the Suffolk County House of Correction."
Porter's 80 minutes on the stand yesterday came during the third day of testimony in a civil trial in US District Court in Boston in her $2 million civil rights suit against Cabral and the sheriff's department. The trial, over whether Porter was illegally barred for talking to the FBI, will resume today with Porter on the stand.
Cabral's chief of staff testified earlier that Porter violated a department code of conduct by talking to the FBI before filing a written report about the inmate's injuries with the department. She said it was Porter's failure to immediately document the inmate's medical file or to file a written report until nine days after she observed bruising on the inmate that led to her barring.
Porter described her barring as life-changing and traumatic. The 63-year-old nurse practitioner, who worked for a private company that was under contract with the county to provide health services to inmates, was immediately fired from her $71,000-a-year job.
The nurse, who had received two commendations for saving lives at the House of Correction and had never been disciplined during her 34-year career, said she was humiliated by having to report the barring on applications as she hunted for a new job.
Porter acknowledged yesterday that she did not immediately submit her written report about the inmate's injuries.
Porter said she wrote the report the same day, then took it home because her supervisor had already left the office. She said she turned the report in to her supervisor on May 23, 2003, but it was the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend, and internal affairs investigators later said they didn't receive it until five days later.
But she said Cabral's staff gave her only one reason for the barring when they ordered her out of the building: talking to the FBI.
Porter also testified that after calling her to a meeting that she believed was to discuss the inmate's assault allegation, sheriff's investigators instead grilled her about whether she had talked to the FBI and what she told them.
''I felt as though people in law enforcement were setting me up to find out if I was talking to the FBI," Porter told jurors.
In fact, Porter said yesterday she had been cooperating with the FBI since late 1999, when an agent enlisted her help in an investigation into allegations that guards sexually and physically assaulted inmates and were involved in drug dealing during the administration of Cabral's predecessor, Richard
Members of prior administrations were aware of her cooperation with the FBI, she said.
Cabral took over as sheriff in December 2002.
Porter said she had been concerned about the inmate who said he was assaulted in May 2003 because she had direct knowledge of his cooperation. She had fitted him with a recording device at the FBI's request a year earlier.
The barring of Porter caused some dissension between Cabral's office and officials at the FBI and the US Attorney's office, according to several witnesses.
Testifying yesterday, former First Assistant US Attorney Gerard T. Leone Jr., who left the office last year to run for Middlesex district attorney, recounted a meeting in June 2003 in which Cabral and her chief of staff defended the decision to bar Porter.
According to Leone, Cabral and her chief offered four reasons: Porter's disclosure of confidential inmate information to the FBI; her failure to immediately file a written report; a violation of department regulations governing reports and the release of information; and concerns about Porter's safety at the facility since it was known she had cooperated with the FBI.
Yesterday, Porter's daughter and husband told jurors of the difficulty she had coping and trying to find a new job. 