A federal appeals court has upheld the firing of a former St. Elizabeth doctor over leaked internal emails related to the health care system’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate. She claims ex-attorney Eric Deters broke confidentiality when his firm published the emails in a lawsuit.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals found in a July 13 opinion that Dr. Amy DiChiara’s termination did not violate state or federal law.
Court records show that DiChiara sued St. Elizabeth Healthcare and St. Elizabeth Physicians in 2022, alleging that high-ranking hospital officials retaliated against her for sharing documents with a law firm. In April 2025, U.S. District Judge David Bunning sided with the hospital by finding that the doctor’s claims failed as a matter of law.
“The decision was disappointing for us,” Christopher Wiest, her attorney, said of the appeals court’s ruling. “The entire ordeal for her has been challenging and unfortunate.”
Wiest added that DiChiara is exploring her options, including petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to take up the case.
DiChiara, a gastroenterologist, began working for St. Elizabeth in January 2013 on a contract basis, according to court filings.
The health care system announced its policy in August 2021, requiring all employees to be vaccinated for COVID-19 unless granted an exemption for “medical or sincerely-held religious reasons.”
Court documents state that DiChiara had both scientific and religious objections to the policy.
She then saw a Facebook post by Deters, who’s been suspended from practicing law since 2013 and was serving as a representative of Deters Law. He was using social media to advertise a plan to fight local hospitals’ vaccination policies in court.
DiChiara sought advice from Deters about her planned response to St. Elizabeth’s policy and he agreed to help, the filings state. He added the doctor to group email communications about possible litigation and later asked the recipients to sign client class-action contracts.
DiChiara did not sign a contract, nor was she a party to the lawsuit Deters’ firm filed against St. Elizabeth on Aug. 23. The plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the suit six days later, indicating their intent to refile at a later date.
After meeting with hospital leadership, who informed DiChiara they didn’t intend to alter their policy, the documents state, she shared internal emails with Deters, including her exchanges with the CEOs of St. Elizabeth Healthcare and St. Elizabeth Physicians.
She requested that Deters not share the contents of those emails publicly, although she wanted him to store the information as “ammunition for [his law firm’s] case,” according to the filings.
The firm filed another lawsuit against the health care system in September 2021. It contained the emails DiChiara shared with Deters.
She was fired shortly afterward in October. The termination letter cites DiChiara’s “disruptive and unprofessional conduct” in disclosing emails to Deters Law, which had already sued St. Elizabeth and was planning to sue again.
“He’s a liar,” she said in a June 2023 deposition. “He promised confidentiality … [Deters] was unprofessional and did not honor that.”
She acknowledged that she never asked Deters Law to represent her, nor did she sign any contracts or affidavits for the firm. DiChiara said she believed at the time that Deters was a practicing attorney.
She noted in the deposition that Deters shared the emails publicly for “his own personal gain and for media attention.”
In a text message to The Enquirer, Deters said he never agreed to keep any communications between himself and DiChiara confidential.
“It is not a case of my agreeing to it. I did not agree,” he said. “I am not the bad guy St E is.”
Deters Law was involved in legal actions against numerous Cincinnati-area hospitals regarding their COVID-19 vaccine mandates for employees. A federal judge in Cincinnati criticized attorneys seeking to block the vaccine mandates at the time, saying they made false claims and espoused “unsupported conspiracy theories.”
This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Court upholds firing of doctor who sent internal emails to Eric Deters
Reporting by Quinlan Bentley, Cincinnati Enquirer / Cincinnati Enquirer
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Quinlan Bentley, Cincinnati Enquirer | USA TODAY Network
