In June of 2023, I received a number of calls from Dave Labriola, a “constable” or para-police from ChristianaCare (CCHS), the mega-hospital that dominates Upper Delaware. Labriola made false accusations, clearly didn’t understand the Code of Delaware to which he referred, and didn’t even seem to know that he was guilty of harassment himself.
I refused to be intimidated by Labriola’s bully tactics, which flustered him. He cut short the conversation and apparently went and told on me to his daddy, Major Hill, the head of the para-police.
Major Hill called me a day or two later to tell me that ChristianaCare had “discharged” me from the system with no further notice; I was no longer able to receive care from my 3 best providers, pow! I told the head constable that his dude, Labriola, needed some retraining, as he harassed me. Major Hill came back with a 4th-grade bully’s response, “No he didn’t!” Um, yeah, I can read the Code of Delaware. It’s not neuroscience.
My encounters with CCHS constables were disturbing, mostly because since then I discovered that they count on intimidation, bullying, and sometimes kicking and beating downed patients to “keep the peace.” Manly threats likely take care of most aggrieved patients. Sorry, fella’s doesn’t work with me. That’ll get you a letter on official stationery. This is what I sent:
Major Hill
Public Safety
Christiana Hospital
4755 Ogletown-Stanton Road
Newark, DE 19718
June 23, 2022
Dear Major Hill,
As I noted during our brief phone conversation this morning, your constable, Dave Labriola, is actually guilty of harassing me.
My phone log clearly shows Constable Labriola called multiple times and did not identify himself until the 3rd. That is harassment under this section of the code: “(5) Makes repeated or anonymous telephone calls to another person whether or not conversation ensues, knowing that person is thereby likely to cause annoyance or alarm.”
Your constable’s legitimate complaint was that I put up the cards. It was legitimate for him to tell me to stop. The rest was out of bounds, clearly intended to intimidate.
“(1) That person insults, taunts or challenges another person or engages in any other course of alarming or distressing conduct which serves no legitimate purpose and is in a manner which the person knows is likely to provoke a violent or disorderly response or cause a reasonable person to suffer fear, alarm, or distress;”
It was obvious the constable was attempting to scare me into believing his false accusation. He also harassed me about what letters I might have received from the hospital, specifically the legal department. A constable’s legitimate work does not entail abusing harmed patients by making false accusations and harassing them. He should have gathered his facts in advance and shouldn’t have tried to scare me into believing his BS.
If your Constables want to accuse a person, they need to first be very clear about how the person’s behavior meets the criteria. Otherwise, they are fabricating BS, which is intended to cause distress, to harass; it is not legitimate behavior. I’ll let Patient and Family Relations know, for whatever good it would do. At least it’ll be on the record in case somebody else has the guts to stand up to out-of-bounds behavior from your department. I know I’m not the first.
Sincerely,
Shay Seaborne, CPTSD