LANSING, Mich. — A sexual assault lawsuit filed last year against former Sparrow Health System CEO Emory Tibbs has been dismissed, according to court records.
The lawsuit was filed in March 2019 by Stephanie Hale, a former employee at Centra Health in Virginia.
Court records indicate the lawsuit was dismissed Tuesday. It named Tibbs, Centra Health and multiple “John and Jane Does” as defendants.
Two days after Hale filed the lawsuit, Sparrow officials decided to put Tibbs on paid administrative leave.
More than a week later, Sparrow then decided to part ways with Tibbs and search for a new CEO.
According to the lawsuit that was dismissed Tuesday, Hale said she met Tibbs in 2016 during an employee orientation at Centra Health.
She was hired in 2016 as a nurse to staff a substance abuse rehab facility operated by Centra.
Soon after she was hired, Hale said she received sexually suggestive emails from a man named "Ethan Toms" who claimed to be a UFC fighter.
The lawsuit said she responded dismissively hoping the emails would stop.
That's when Hale's then-boyfriend, Robert Peters, intervened thinking Hale was cheating on him.
Peters used Hale's phone and email to communicate with Ethan Toms in an attempt to identify him.
A co-worker of Hale also received emails from Ethan Toms. That associate eventually played a voicemail from him for Hale. Hale said she then realized Toms was really E.W. Tibbs, according to the lawsuit.
Sparrow told Fox 47 last year Tibbs was thoroughly vetted and no sexual assault allegations came up during the hiring process.
Current Sparrow CEO James F. Dover was hired June 17, 2019.
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