Hot Under the Collar

Investigators interviewed a dozen witnesses, mostly hospital employees, before concluding earlier this summer that Sanchez had been "rude and disrespectful" to Weinstock and the attending medical staff, and was "guilty of conduct unbecoming an employee of the city." She is expected to serve her three-day suspension next week.

This was not the first time Sanchez has been at the center of a controversy. In 1989 she filed a federal lawsuit against Miami Beach, claiming she'd been sexually harassed by her colleagues. She testified that they posted pornographic pictures defaming her and left two vibrators and a soiled condom in her office mailbox. Though the jury ruled in her favor, a dozen officers testified against her, describing her variously as paranoid, overly aggressive, unsociable, and "a supervisor's nightmare."

Joseph Weinstock says he plans to sue the city because of Sanchez's harassment. "I had to put out money to defend myself against the [assault] charge," he says. "I couldn't have smacked her if I wanted. Hell, I could hardly get myself onto that x-ray table.