SCOTLAND COUNTY, Missouri — On Friday, a sentence was handed down in a case that we have been following for more than two years.

In August 2022, Randall “Randy” Tobler, MD, was removed as CEO of Scotland County Hospital (SCH) in Memphis, Missouri.

In March 2023, Dr. Tobler filed a petition in Scotland County Circuit Court alleging that the hospital repeatedly violated the Sunshine Law in a conspiracy to remove him from his position.

Representatives of both sides They were in court in September this year for a trial in which both sides presented testimony.

Lowell Pearson, Tobler’s attorney, argued that the hospital board violated the Sunshine Law during a series of meetings held on August 15, 16, and 18, 2022.

On Friday, Judge Rick Roberts ruled that the defendant, Scotland County Memorial Hospital District, had willfully violated the law “by failing to timely notify all elected board members of the August 15 and 16, 2022 meetings, notified on August 15, 2022, to meet at the meeting place, as established by the Statutes of the Respondent, which was accessible to the public and by not having notified 24 hours in advance to the public from these meetings, and for not establishing an exception to the notification requirements.

For the violations, Roberts assessed a civil penalty in the amount of $5,000.

Roberts also found that “all votes, records, decisions made or actions taken at the meetings of August 15 and 16, 2022 are void and withheld in vain, while the plaintiff in his pleadings has made a demand for attorneys’ fees, “There was no evidence of any claim for attorneys’ fees made at the trial held on September 23, 2024.”

The judge gave Tobler 15 days to file a motion seeking attorneys’ fees and costs.