Ousted CEO's attorney returns fire on WellStar

The attorney for former WellStar CEO Greg Simone, MD, said that certain health system executives have fabricated events and taken others out of context in an effort to smear Simone and divert attention from their own actions. On April 1, WellStar attorney Sharon Morgan of Elarbee, Thompson, Sapp & Wilson sent Simone a four-page letter detailing why WellStar's Board of Trustees fired him on Sept. 2. Simone's attorney, Ben Mathis, responded in a six-page letter dated Friday, warning her that she, as well as those who instigated the April 1 letter, have subjected themselves to a possible lawsuit. In his letter to Morgan, a copy of which was obtained by the Journal, Mathis accuses her of engaging in "a high-tech character assassination" against Simone and Bonnie Wilson, who was also fired last year from her position as executive vice president and general counsel for WellStar.