FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Dentist Files Complaint Against Washington State Department of Health, Spokane County Sheriff's Office and KREM 2 News
SPOKANE, Wash. – November 10, 2022 – Dr. Sandy Montano has filed a complaint with the Thurston County Superior Court in Washington state against the Spokane County Sheriff's Office, KREM2 News and the Washington State Department of Health.
The complaint alleges actions by the three departments damaged Dr. Montano's reputation, destroyed his business and caused him severe emotional distress and substantial financial losses. Dr. Montano is seeking financial compensation from the departments. In November 2021, Dr. Montano had concerns regarding employees embezzling funds from his
practice. According to his statement, Dr. Montano confronted the three employees at his dental office on November 2, 2021. The complaint states the workers promptly quit their jobs, stole the keys to the business and changed the passwords to all of Dr. Montano's business and social media accounts. As a result, Dr. Montano could not access his patients' electronic records and thus could not operate his dental practice. He decided to shut down the business immediately and serve only those clients with emergency appointments. Consequently, the business incurred significant financial losses.
In the following weeks, the former employees allegedly filed false complaints against Dr.Montano with the Washington State Department of Health. On December 1, 2021, an unannounced inspection of the dental office by the Washington State Department of Health resulted in no violations of any sort being found, according to the complaint. It states that Dr.Montano cooperated with the investigator and after an hour of being on premises, the investigator told Plaintiff that no violations of any sort were found. Prior to the inspection, two new employees were hired – an office manager and a laborer.
During the inspection, the office manager was asked about the laborer performing box-boy-type tasks. The complaint states that the office manager described the duties of the laborer as "dental assistant" instead of the laborer. Performing as a dental assistant without a proper license can result in fines.
On December 3, 2021, Dr. Montano discovered that the laborer was secretly filming him at work. Washington is a two-party consent state, meaning everyone must be aware of and consent to audio or video recording. The laborer also accused Dr. Montano of health violations,
as stated in the complaint. Dr. Montano denied the accusations and attempted to get the laborer to leave the premises.
Instead of leaving, the laborer began to beat Dr. Montano. The complaint states the laborer beat the Plaintiff by punching him in the head and face six times, the beginning of which is on film. Plaintiff suffered a brain injury from the beating. The video was submitted to the Department of Health. The complaint further states, "The Department of Health's position was that it was not unusual or shocking for the Department to interview Y (laborer) and for Y to immediately beat up Plaintiff while parroting the words of the Department's investigator."
According to the complaint, the Department of Health later denied that Dr. Montano allowed an inspection and suspended his license. Dr. Montano also included the Spokane County Sheriff's Office as a party to the complaint due to its response and actions related to this beating. According to the complaint, officers arrested Dr. Montano instead of the laborer for the beating and did not believe Dr. Montano was a
dentist. It should be noted that Dr. Montano is of Hispanic origin and a member of the LGBTQ community. The prosecutor's office later
dismissed the case against Dr. Montano.
KREM 2 News is cited in the complaint for publishing information related to Dr. Montano's license suspension before Dr. Montano was informed, contributing to the ruin of Dr. Montano's reputation and business and causing severe emotional distress. The complaint calls the news
reports defamatory.
For further information, please contact:
Reshauna Striggles
Communications Manager
+1 802-392-6397
press@msnewsworthy.com
