Dyan Neary

The solicitors were saying, documenting really, that if Mark were to publish this report, he might be acting beyond his authority as controller, and he might get the county sued by a behemoth health network perhaps, which happens to be the region's largest employer.

or by a doctor who was named in the report, or Mark himself might get sued personally, and then he'd be on his own.

Were you scared?

It sounds antagonistic.

I would be terrified if I had an attorney, and that's what they sent me.

I confess, I can halfway see the county's argument here.

After all, Mark's report, titled The Cost of Misdiagnosis, was actually pretty mushy regarding the county's financial burden due to misdiagnosed child abuse cases.

He calculated it as anywhere from $25,000 to $30,000 a year for each kid in foster care.

to untold millions of dollars on the high end if the county were to get sued by the families.

Not exactly conclusive.

And it was true.

He was using the finances as a way to talk about a different, bigger problem.

But he saw nothing wrong with that.

He was, in his own words, a bulldog of a controller.

He firmly believed he was within his purview.

A week later, two things happened.

First, Mark heard from the county's lawyer again.

He wanted to make sure Mark understood that his staff could also be held liable.

Mark was like, noted.

And then Mark got a separate call from a member of his staff saying someone from the county's finance department had just stopped by.