Doctor says University of Minnesota fired him for uncovering child abuse prosecution scheme

(CN) — A former University of Minnesota pediatrician filed a federal lawsuit against the university, its associated medical groups and several doctors on Friday, claiming his June 2023 termination was retaliation for exposing a fraudulent scheme to maximize child abuse prosecutions.

Dr. Bazak Sharon accuses the defendants — including the University of Minnesota’s governing board and child abuse specialist Dr. Nancy Sanders Harper, among others — of civil rights violations and racketeering.

Sharon, who served at the university for 17 years, says the scheme was intended to maximize the identification and prosecution of child abuse cases to secure funding and increase the prestige of the university’s child abuse fellowship program.

The policies designed to increase child abuse diagnoses, according to Sharon, include forcing transfers of sick or injured babies to a forensic child abuse pediatrician — even if that pediatrician was not trained to treat the relevant illness — and encouraging the manipulation of medical evidence that might have proved the innocence of parents and caregivers.

Sharon claims his conflict with the child abuse team began in 2022 when he showed disagreement with the handling of a 3-month-old baby, suggesting other causes of the baby’s head trauma rather than abuse. He says he was told by others at the university that the differences in opinions would complicate the situation, and he was then removed from the child’s care team.

Sharon claims he attempted to report this and other activity to senior leadership under the expectation that it would put an end to the scheme. Instead, the doctor asserts that the money and prestige brought to the university by Harper and her team were so important that they chose to silence him.

Sharon highlights a $23 million child abuse grant created in 2015 where a portion of the funds distributed to Minnesota counties is based on the number of open child abuse cases. In 2016, two years after Harper arrived at the university, Sharon contends more than 5,700 children in Hennepin County were reported as victims of physical abuse, an increase of 228% over the previous eight-year average.

After Sharon refused to stop complaining about the wrongful policies, he claims the institutions’ highest-ranking officials ordered him to attend disciplinary meetings and ultimately fired him in June 2023. Sharon says he “blew the whistle” on the scheme, resulting in him facing false claims from the defendants that he had been fired for sexual misconduct. These statements were spread with the intention to prevent him from testifying in related federal lawsuits filed against some of the defendants, according to Sharon.

Sharon’s lawyer, Jerome Reinan, told Courthouse News that his client’s termination letter had no mention of the sexual misconduct, noting the only listed reason for his firing was failing to follow the university’s documentation policies.

“It appears to us that the university and Dr. Harper are continuing to retaliate against him for exercising his right to free speech, and trying to stifle him as a witness in these other federal cases,” Reinan said.

Sharon brings this lawsuit to not only receive compensation for his wrongful termination, but also with the hopes of stopping the conduct and policies purportedly leading to wrongful child abuse prosecutions and poor treatment of pediatric patients.

After Sharon was fired from his position at the University, he says he has faced challenges securing any type of reasonable employment in the Twin Cities, and has been forced to pursue temporary positions across the country, according to Reinan.

“He’s basically lost his career because he was trying to blow the whistle on what he saw was a pattern of conduct and policies at the university that are detrimental to the pediatric patients that they’re supposed to serve,” Reinan said.

This is the third federal lawsuit that has been filed on this similar issue, according to Reinan.

“The university will review the complaint, but it’s our typical practice not to provide further comment on pending or active litigation,” a University of Minnesota spokesperson told Courthouse News.