It is truly disappointing to see what Sen. Tyler Johnson is up to now.
After stepping directly into the fire in his freshman term by authoring legislation banning gender-affirming care for Indiana youth that brewed one of the top culture battles of this session, Johnson, who represents most of DeKalb County, is now making new waves by attempting to use his position of power to try to block information in a civil lawsuit from being seen by the public. And he wants to dispose of the case based on his position in the Senate.
A little background: Johnson is an emergency room physician in Fort Wayne. He is currently facing a medical malpractice suit stemming from an incident that occurred in the ER at Parkview Regional Medical Center in 2018.
Remember the year, 2018, four years before Johnson was elected to office in 2022.
Johnson’s lawsuit has come to light this year and has been widely reported on by media throughout Indiana. Details of the case and the care provided to a 20-year-old woman, Esperanza Umana, who died after receiving treatment from Johnson have been reported on thoroughly by Indiana media outlets.
Now Johnson would rather keep you in the dark. Lawyers working on his behalf have filed motions to seal the case from public view.
Indiana Capital Chronicle reported on Wednesday that Johnson moved to temporarily halt the case and related deadlines, based on the “privileges and immunities afforded to Dr. Johnson as an Indiana state senator.”
Because he is now an Indiana senator, Johnson believes — or his attorneys believe — he can hide behind his position to shield him from actions that took place well before he was ever sworn in as an elected official.
Indiana’s constitution bars civil proceedings against sitting members of the General Assembly during session, with a few exceptions.
Indiana law allows a court to shield records if doing so is in the public interest, if access would create significant risk or substantial harm to a party, or if having them publicized would influence judgment.
Rarely does a court take such an extraordinary measure. It is usually used to protect the rights of children, protect the identity of informants or shield those in the federal witness protection program. Not a civil medical malpractice lawsuit.
Johnson’s malpractice suit does not rise to the level of needing protection. His filing claims that information in the suit will be “manipulated or misused” by interested parties.
The most interested party in this suit is the family of the late Esperanza Umana. The family has the right to all documents in the discovery process of the suit.
When it comes to the public in general, well, the toothpaste is already out of the tube, so to speak, thanks to dedicated reporting by media outlets such as Indiana Capital Chronicle, The Associated Press and the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.
Johnson wants to save himself from further public scrutiny. He wants to use his position as a state senator to protect himself from negative publicity.
Is that additional scrutiny there because he now serves as a state senator? Almost certainly.
But public officials don’t and shouldn’t have the power to restrict public documents from the public they serve.
We intentionally repeat the word three times above to stress and remind our senator of the public service role he voluntarily sought.
This is clearly an attempted abuse of power.
Sen. Johnson should drop this gag effort immediately and refresh himself on the laws of this state he took an oath to uphold.
OUR VIEW is written on a rotating basis by Jeff Jones, Michael Marturello and Steve Garbacz. We welcome readers’ comments.
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