Texas EMS Providers Lose License Under New Law

Jan. 16--Years ago, when Chad Hodnett's mother was battling cancer, the ambulances arrived regularly at his Amarillo house to take her to the hospital. He got to know some of the paramedics, and it was his appreciation of their work that led him to decide that he wanted to work in emergency medicine.

Even as he took the 140 hours of training necessary to become a state-licensed emergency medical technician, Hodnett knew he had a serious obstacle to overcome. When he was 16 years old and still in high school, he'd been alone with a 6-year-old relative "and I touched her where I shouldn't have." It happened once, he said; he was sentenced to 10 years of probation.

As the years passed, records show he stayed clean. He married a woman he'd met soon after graduating from high school and finished his probation without incident. When he applied to the Department of State Health Services for his EMT license, the agency considered his past and decided to give him a chance anyway, granting him a probationary license to practice.

After successfully completing his trial period, Hodnett was cleared as an EMT without restrictions. Danny Johnson, whose company provides stand-by ambulances for large events in the Panhandle, said he was happy to hire Hodnett, who by then was 31.

"As long as someone is honest and truthful with me, I can give them a chance until they prove me wrong," he said. "And Chad never did. I'd trust him with my life." Hodnett renewed his license again in 2011. Later, he landed a second job as a security guard and medical officer for a local manufacturer. "I was planning on retiring from there," he said.

Hundreds of miles away in Austin, however, lawmakers concerned with protecting citizens from dangerous criminals had passed a set of new laws to prohibit anyone with a serious criminal record from being an EMT. When Hodnett applied for his latest license renewal last spring, he was dismayed to learn that, two decades after his crime and more than a dozen years into an unblemished emergency medical career, a two-word change in Texas law meant the state now considered him a public safety risk and was revoking his livelihood.

Without his EMT license, Hodnett was quickly released from both of his jobs. Today he is unemployed.

"Am I guilty?" he said. "Very guilty. Do I feel sorry? There's not a day that goes by that I don't feel sorry. But you can't keep beating a dead horse for somebody who's trying to improve his life."

Citizens need "100 percent confidence"

Department of State Health Services records show that a handful of emergency medical technicians and paramedics -- a more advanced license -- have similarly lost their licenses in the past two years, despite years of honorable service.

David Boswell was forced to relinquish his credentials after 16 years as an EMT for a decade-old sexual assault. And state records show EMT-paramedic Glenn Miller had been certified for 17 years without complaint when he was stripped of his license in March 2015 for a sexual assault he'd committed in 1990. Both men had received 10 years of probation for their crimes; neither could be reached for comment.

The seeds of the license revocations were planted in a state law passed in 2009. It stated that anyone who "is" convicted of the state's most serious crimes, including murder, kidnapping, aggravated burglary and sexual assaults -- or even placed on deferred adjudication or community supervision -- could never work in an ambulance.

In the next session, lawmakers broaden the law to include anyone who "has been" adjudicated for the crimes, no matter how long ago. A legislative analysis predicted the new wording "would jeopardize the livelihoods of some EMS employees who had already paid for their crimes and have outstanding service records on the job."

Dudley Wait, who at the time represented the Texas Ambulance Association at the Legislature, said the laws weren't prompted by any specific instance of an emergency medical technician with a criminal background victimizing a patient, but rather news stories revealing the existence of several licensed EMTs on the sex offender registry. Although state regulators knew of them and had approved the licenses, "we as an industry didn't realize it," he said.

On one level, those who have lost their credentials are simply the few unlucky professionals caught in the political machinery of the Legislature, where laws designed to attack broad social problems can yield collateral damage on the margins. And each committed a serious crime unlikely to elicit much public sympathy.

Yet their reversal of fortune also raises larger questions about the potential of rehabilitation for serious felons: If a decade or longer of problem-free work under a state license is insufficient to prove a person no longer poses a risk to the public, can he ever escape his past?

State Rep. Debbie Riddle, R-Spring, who sponsored the legislation, said the answer is clear. A former EMT herself, Riddle said some professions are too important to be left to the chance, no matter how slight, that an ex-con might re-offend. "The people of Texas need to have 100 percent confidence that their EMTs are top-notch, No. 1," she said.

Riddle acknowledged, "There may be instances where EMTs paid their debt to society and could go back and be just fine." But she said that adding the profession to those that bar licensure forever for certain crimes -- police and teachers, for example -- was essential because all serve citizens at their most vulnerable: "This is a profession in which there can be no mistakes."

Not everyone agrees. Greg Glod, a policy analyst for the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative-leaning think tank that has promoted criminal justice reform including loosening occupational licensing rules, said what happened to Hodnett and the others who'd proven themselves through years of licensed work is an injustice. "This is what happens when you take away regulators' discretion," he said.

Most occupations licensed by the state don't list crimes that automatically bar applicants from consideration. (A few require convicts to wait a specified period of time between adjudication of a serious felonies and license application.) At the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, which oversees 26 professions from plumbers to boxing promoters, the only job with such a proscription is animal breeder, which prohibits anyone convicted of an animal cruelty crime from ever obtaining a state license.

"But for 99.9 percent of what we do, there are no absolute bans," said Tony Couvillon, a policy research and budget analyst for the agency. As a result, among the state's hundreds of thousands of licensed professionals can be found the occasional murderer or sex offender who convinced the agency of his successful rehabilitation. For applicants with a criminal past, Couvillon said, the agency weighs whether the person's crime is relevant to the profession, how long ago it occurred and if he or she has demonstrated sufficient effort at rehabilitation, among other factors.

He added that there have been a handful of instances in which an applicant whose criminal past could have disqualified him slipped by the agency unnoticed, but was discovered years later. Couvillon said the department had allowed the licensees to keep their credentials if they'd practiced without incident, a demonstrated track record of good behavior proof enough they presented little public risk.

"No basis" for risk

Prior to 2012, the Department of State Health Services, too, used its discretion to evaluate EMT applicants with criminal records. Many were still rejected.

But not all. In 2007, when Arturo Ollervides applied for his EMT license renewal, court records show the agency decided his crime -- he had been sentenced 10 years deferred adjudication for having a relationship with a 15-year-old when he was 21 -- didn't place patients at risk and so granted him a probationary license to make sure. He practiced without incident for four more years until November 2012, when the new law passed.

"There is no basis in the evidence to conclude that Mr. Ollervides, by being certified as an EMT, poses a threat to anyone," Administrative Law Judge Shannon Kilgore wrote after hearing from Ollervides' longtime wife and reviewing a psychological evaluation that concluded he presented no risk. "However, the state mandates that his certification be revoked."

Hodnett underwent a similar review by the agency in March 2003, when he first applied to be an emergency medical technician. "Because of his criminal history, the Department [of State Health Services] placed him under an Agreed Order for 4 years," according to court records. "I did everything they asked, and above," he said.

In fact, Judge Beth Bierman wrote in her decision in his case six weeks ago, "There is no basis in the evidence to conclude that Mr. Hodnett, by being certified as an EMT, poses a threat to anyone." She added, however, that she had no choice but to yank his license.

"I don't understand why the state is doing this," said Johnson, the former employer, who vouched to the court for Hodnett and said he would do it again. "This is someone who has had his record clean and is doing what's best."

Hodnett said while unemployed he's concentrating on spending time with this son -- "just trying to be a good dad. Unfortunately," he added, "with my record, it's hard to find a good job."

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