The Dallas Express referred the Texas Medical Board to the Attorney General’s office amid a statewide battle over records related to the Board’s case against COVID-19 crusader Dr. Mary Talley Bowden.
The report, filed around 5 PM on January 10, 2025, came just days after the Board’s counsel had asked the State Office of Administrative Hearings to exclude information obtained by third parties from official proceedings on the case. Toward the end of the motion for Sanctions and Protection previously covered by The Dallas Express, Texas Medical Board lawyers made another ask, “Board Staff also requests that, should Respondent attempt to use third parties to obtain information pursuant to the Public Information Act, this information likewise be excluded from consideration in this proceeding.”
As a news agency, The Dallas Express does help with legal discovery in any proceedings; it only requests documents in cases where the outlet believes there could be a matter of public concern. This motion comes on the eve of DX obtaining records related to Bowden’s audit.
“During my deposition on 10/8/24, the lawyer for TMB asked me if I was up to date on my CME (continuing medical education) hours. I said I was as far as I knew. Nine days later, on 10/17/24, I received an audit notice from TMB for my CME. I’ve never been audited before, and it’s hard for me to believe this happened randomly,” Dr. Mary Talley Bowden told The Dallas Express in mid-October 2024.
Using PIA records from the Board, DX calculated that there was less than a .25% chance that Bowden or any doctor would be audited in 2024.
The president of the Board previously insisted that the audit was proper.
“TMB staff runs an internal report from our licensee database that pulls a random selection of physicians based only on their license expiration date and no other criteria is considered. … Please note that in the past we have audited our own Board members and staff when they came up on the list,” President Dr. Sherif Zaafran said.
He later added, “A licensee’s current or previous history with TMB Enforcement is not something that is reviewed as part of the selection process. Our staff does not check to see if an individual selected has an active investigation or Board order.”
The Dallas Express filed a Public Information Act (PIA) request to verify these claims. The request was to obtain the audit manager’s communications with various members of the Board and a handful of characters who have been at odds with Bowden, noting terms such as the following: Mary Talley Bowden, Mary Bowden, Dr. Bowden, Jason Jones, Ivermectin, Mama Jones, Danielle Jones, Dr. Bowden’s audit, as well “Any manual entry into the Texas Medical Board’s randomized audit process for physicians” made around the time the ENT’s audit would have had to be initiated.
Danielle “Mama” Jones is a social media influencer and physician who publicly criticized Bowden during the government mandates associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jason Jones, who is not related to Danielle Jones, was an ailing Tarrant County sheriff’s deputy whom Bowden attempted to treat with Ivermectin at his wife’s pleadings in 2021. Ivermectin was a point of contention among pandemic-era physicians, but Bowden says she found the anti-parasitic drug effective when used early in several thousand COVID-19 cases she treated.
Bowden never treated Jason Jones, and he eventually died after failing to recover from COVID-19. The Board brought a case against her in 2023 for attempting to treat him.
The Board’s Open Records Division told DX on December 19 that it found responsive documents related to the outlet’s request about the audit. The Public Records Officer did not specify what responsive documents were found but said they could be released for approximately $150. The Dallas Express paid the fees to obtain the documents, with the Board receiving the check on December 26 and cashing it at some point shortly thereafter.
However, in the roughly three weeks since the Board received the money, the Board has repeatedly refused to offer to answer questions from DX about why the documents have not been turned over. Waiting for weeks after payment is atypical of the experience DX has had with state agencies, including the Texas Medical Board, in the past.
DX digitally transmitted a notice to the Open Records Division and General Counsel on January 9 that the Board would be reported to the Texas Attorney General if the organization did not surrender the requested files by the end of the following day.
The Open Records Division responded with a brief message that implied the documents they charged DX for may not exist. “We continue to work diligently on your request and will release public responsive information, if any, as promptly as possible,” per an unsigned response.
The Open Records Division officer also claimed that the Board’s Finance Department did not receive the check until January 6, which contradicts DX‘s delivery records.
Earlier PIA records obtained by DX have raised questions about the Board members’ conduct.
DX previously obtained text messages that showed one Board member cutting off another member, who presided over the early stages of Bowden’s case, as she appeared ready to share negative personal sentiments about the doctor.
DX obtained emails showing that numerous figures inside the organization had been watching Bowden since she first rose to national prominence in 2021 for criticizing COVID-19 policy, including COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Most of the Board members and staff who were emailing each other about Bowden did not respond to requests for comment, while one said that his emails were “purely an FYI,” DX reported at the time.
Although the Board’s case against Bowden has escalated since the Board’s lawyers asked for sanctions against the doctor, other elements of the case have fallen apart.
The Board’s former Medical Director, Robert Bredt, who was set to be used as an expert witness against Bowden, departed the organization following outrage from state legislators about his connections to Planned Parenthood, the Texas Tribune reported.
“Days before his deposition, the sole expert witness for the Texas Medical Board just dropped out. Without his testimony, they are forced to drop the charge I prescribed a dangerous drug without establishing a physician-patient relationship,” Bowden posted to X on January 10.