Saturday, December 24, 2016

Dr. Mark Hayden, the Alabama physician who was arrested on a shaky civil-contempt charge, has regained his freedom after habeas corpus hearing


Dr. Mark Hayden
Dr. Mark Hayden, an Alabama physician, who was arrested in late November on a dubious civil-contempt charge, has regained his freedom. Hayden was released from the Jefferson County Jail on Friday after a habeas corpus hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge John England. (Order related to habeas corpus is embedded at the end of this post.)

Details about Hayden's release are murky at this time. It appears that England released him, although an order dated December 21, 2016 (two days before Hayden's release) does not specifically mention release. Did Jefferson County Circuit Judge Mike Graffeo, who signed the writ of arrest, order the release? It's possible, but we do not have access to the full case files -- and they involve both state and federal jurisdiction -- so many questions remain unanswered.

The main point is this: Dr. Mark Hayden is a free man, and we will have more details in the coming days.




5 comments:

Anonymous said...

England is a United States Magistrate Judge, not a United States District Judge. He signed as US Magistrate Judge in the order you posted.

legalschnauzer said...

@11:00 -- Thanks for catching that mistake and for letting me know. I've made the correction. Always good to have readers with sharp eyes.

e.a.f. said...

Glad he is out. It never does make sense to lock up Doctors when they could be out providing medical care to the public. (that is if they're not killing them) and there is nothing about this case which indicates that was the case. So glad to hear the doctor is home again.

You do have to wonder why some one would waste tax dollars locking up a doctor if he wasn't out killing people hand over fist or a danger to the public safety.

legalschnauzer said...

An interesting side note to the Dr. Hayden story, e.a.f.: He was working the ER at a small, rural hospital in Union Springs, AL (Bullock County). I think he was arrested at about 5:30 in the morning, and he was the only doc on duty in the hospital at the time, and a number of patients were waiting to be seen. Hayden made this known to the arresting sheriff, but they carted him off anyway.

e.a.f. said...

lets hope that arresting sheriff never needs the services of a doctor who is "unavailable". You think the "arrested" development sheriff might have waited until another doctor could be brought in........