Hacienda HealthCare Kept CEO Despite Sexual Harassment Complaints Against Him

Bill Timmons, the former CEO of Hacienda HealthCare, resigned Jan. 7 after a patient in a vegetative state gave birth to a baby boy at a Hacienda facility in Phoenix, Arizona. It was later reported the woman was raped by a staff. After his resignation, it came to light that several harassment complaints were made against Timmons by his colleagues in the past.

Tom Pomeroy, president of Hacienda’s board of directors, confirmed Timmons faced multiple complaints during his tenure, was ordered to go to counseling and attend training sessions. His pay was also cut but the board did not remove him.

Timmons allegedly questioned the employees about their sex lives, made explicit comments about what he wanted to do to them, groped them and insistently berated them for real and imagined issues. Several complaints were made since 2006 and according to the employees, the board did nothing to make them feel safe. They also said the board was more interested in protecting Timmons than putting a stop to his behavior.

In her complaint a former employee, Louise Jay, said Timmons harassed her at a fundraiser where he introduced himself with an inappropriate remark which she chose to ignore. Timmons pretended he hadn’t heard her and repeated himself. She walked out of the event after this but did tell her manager what had happened.

Jay said she felt disgusted and humiliated and her co-workers cautioned her against complaining as it would damage the organization's reputation and impact the donors, fundraising and its relationship with patients and their families.

After her complaint when Timmons was question, he dismissed it as a humorous banter and claimed Jay was laughing with him. When she met the board members at a law firm, “It seemed like a show of force” to her. She said she knew Timmons would get away with it. The board members, however, assured her they would take appropriate action and would not allow Timmons to contact her.

Jay wasn’t the only employee who made a formal complaint against Timmons. A former manager recently spoke about an incident from 1988 when she tried to report about a group of female nurses talking inappropriately about a nonverbal male patient to Timmons. When she took the matter to Timmons, he allegedly slammed his fist on the table and said no one would report it, despite the law requiring state health officials to do so. The manager said she was scared of being fired because of Timmons’ temper.

Rhonda Pigati, a former human resources manager at Hacienda, said everyone was constantly worried about Timmons’ temper and strange behavior.

“Just about everyone was afraid of him. His management style was to impose fear. He absolutely did yell at people. He pounded his fist on the table. His face would get beet-red,” Pigati said. Employees often called him a bully and a tyrant. Another staff complained that he had groped her butt while making inappropriate remarks to her.

Meanwhile, a nurse who raped the woman in the Phoenix facility was arrested and the staff looking after the victim was fired.