Megan Banta | Lansing State Journal

Provided, Lansing State Journal

LANSING — The Virginia woman who accused Sparrow Health Chief Executive Officer Emory Tibbs, Jr. of sexual assault had her nursing license suspended because of substance use issues.

Virginia Department of Health Professions records show Stephanie Hale's nursing license was suspended in September 2018.

Hale is a former employee of Centra Health, where Tibbs was CEO before coming to Michigan to lead Sparrow Health. She filed a lawsuit Monday alleging Tibbs solicited her for sex for money and then sexually assaulted her.

Hale said in the lawsuit that she participated in a sting her ex-boyfriend, Robert Peters, to avoid harassment from him. Peters planned the sting to expose Tibbs, who had been sending Hale sexually suggestive emails using a fake name. The encounter, during which Peters confronts Hale and Tibbs in a Lynchburg, Virginia hotel room, is on video.

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Hale's attorney said she is not addicted to drugs but acknowledged she "has had issues."

"She's not a perfect person, and she never claimed to be," Paul Valois said. "I chose to represent her because, frankly, of the video."

Fired in January 2018 after series of incidents

According to records, when Hale was employed at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital in Roanoke, Virginia, she showed signs of potential drug use and was fired after a series of incidents in January 2018. That 's nearly a year after the sting Hale describes in her lawsuit.

The State Journal tried to access information about Hale's nursing license online earlier this week, but had to request a copy of a document that would not load. The document the newspaper received from Virginia is an order suspending her license.

Virginia records say on Jan. 12, 2018, Hale had one patient pulled up on the computer when she was supposed to be administering medications to another patient.

Then during a class later that day, she created distractions for other students because she left multiple times to go to the breakroom, was "restless and fidgety," was texting and digging in her purse and was falling asleep.

According to the records, she was also unable to properly count from 1 to 30 on two separate occasions during the class.

She then refused to comply with a drug test, claiming she had a "shy bladder," records say.

About a week later, she was arrested and charged with possession of a controlled substance in Amherst County, just north of Lynchburg.

Records say the arresting officer found heroin packets, syringes, and a spoon in her vehicle and that Hale admitted belonged to her.

Valois said she was in a car with Peters at the time.

Valois also represented her after that arrest and said she took an offer to resolve the issue with no jail time and a misdemeanor charge for possession of paraphernalia.

He added that though she refused the drug test in January 2018, at least one of the drug tests referenced in the legal complaint filed Monday was supervised.

Sparrow board will take new information into account

John Truscott, who is speaking for Sparrow on this issue, said he's not sure yet whether the new information about Hale will affect the decision the health system's board has to make about Tibbs, who started at Sparrow in January. He was put on paid leave Wednesday while the board investigates the situation.

"That's the type of factual information that the board will take into account," Truscott said. "But it's not anything that's been brought forward to my knowledge at this point."

Board members will "weigh all the different information" when making decisions about Tibbs' conduct, he said.

Contact reporter Megan Banta at (517) 377-1261 or mbanta@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @MeganBanta_1.

