Yesterday (January 2), Dr. Jones filed with the Connecticut Medical

Examining Board a Motion for Reconsideration and to Vacate the decision

of December 18, which had imposed civil penalties and placed Dr. Jones

on probation for two years.

The basis for the motion is bias on the part of one of the panel

members, Dr. Senechal, who had told the parents of a child diagnosed

with chronic Lyme disease during the Jones hearings that there was no

such thing as chronic Lyme disease, that the treatment of chronic Lyme

disease was a “big racket,” and referred to physicians who treat chronic

Lyme disease as “quacks” who were “in cahoots” with lab companies. The

motion argues that this profound bias prevented Dr. Senechal from having

the necessary impartiality to provide Dr. Jones a fair trial in a fair

tribunal, a fundamental underpinning of due process under the

constitution.

Due process requires an absence of actual bias in the trial of cases.

Two parents who attended the December 18th hearing stepped forward at

its conclusion to express their concerns that a physician with such

strong bias had been included on the panel. The parents had learned of

Dr. Senechal’s bias through personal encounters with him as a physician

of their child, who had been diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease. The

information came to light at the end of the December 18th hearing, when

the two parents first approached counsel for Dr. Jones. The parents had

not met Dr. Jones nor his counsel prior to the conclusion of the

December 18th hearing.