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SALT LAKE CITY — A former data registry director and assistant psychiatry professor at the University of Utah has been awarded damages in a whistleblower protection case she brought against the school, her attorney says.
Judith Zimmerman first filed a federal lawsuit against the U. in December 2013, claiming her contract of employment there was not renewed as retaliation for concerns she had raised about the possibility that researchers at the university had improperly accessed data from the Utah Registry of Autism and Developmental Disabilities.
At the time she raised her concerns, Zimmerman was the director of that registry, consisting of data on children throughout the state who have autism.
On Wednesday, jurors in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City ruled in favor of Zimmerman's claim that the U. had violated her legal whistleblower protections, and awarded $119,640 in lost wages plus lawyer's fees, according to her attorney, April Hollingsworth.
Hollingsworth said jurors ruled against a separate claim by Zimmerman in the lawsuit that she had made against Dr. William McMahon, who formerly chaired the U.'s Department of Psychiatry.
Zimmerman's lawsuit alleges McMahon infringed on her "liberty interest in her good name and reputation" and did so "by terminating her employment based on false allegations of unsatisfactory job performance and failure to meet the university's criteria," but at least part of the jury seemed to disagree.
The verdict form filled out by the jury had not been included in online federal court records as of Friday afternoon.
Hollingsworth said in a statement that the awarded damages represent a significant victory for her client.
"Whistleblower claims are notoriously difficult to win so I am pleased the jury saw that the university retaliated against Dr. Zimmerman for making valid complaints of possible research misconduct,” Hollingsworth said.
Zimmerman said in a prepared statement that "after such a lengthy legal battle, I am just relieved to be done and to have my claim validated by a jury."
University of Utah Health spokeswoman Suzanne Winchester said in an email to the Deseret News that the university "is disappointed in this verdict and is considering a variety of options in the matter, including appeal."
Winchester added that "we have robust policies in place to protect whistleblowers, and will continue to stand by these policies."
In 2012, Zimmerman became "concerned that researchers at the university had accessed the data contained within (the autism registry) without the proper authorizations," Hollingsworth said in a release. After Zimmerman shared those complaints with "multiple different offices" at the U., she was told "her yearly contract would not be renewed," Hollingsworth said.
Zimmerman's lawsuit contends she had good reason to be "concerned that university employees were obtaining unauthorized access to highly sensitive health and education data." She has said she became worried that such access could violate ethical and potentially legal boundaries regarding the privacy of thousands of Utah children's medical and educational records.
But "enormous efforts" to resolve those concerns were met with resistance and retaliation, and Zimmerman's ability to actively protect the data from improper usage slipped away, the lawsuit claims.
"By August 2012, Dr. Zimmerman had no idea about the chain of custody of the research data she had collected for her grants, yet her name was on the contractual agreements promising confidentiality," the lawsuit says.
Zimmerman's lawsuit also says she was stopped from correcting "major data errors" that presented themselves in the autism statistical registry.
Zimmerman would go on to tell the Deseret News in 2016 that "to the best of my knowledge the errors have never been fully corrected."
Winchester defended the U.'s handling of autism research in her statement Friday.
"We believe in our research, including methods to diagnose autism, and are committed to the continued study and treatment of autism in our community,” Winchester said.
Zimmerman also filed a related lawsuit against the U. in state court in November 2017, alleging a breach of contract. That case is ongoing.
