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In a brief press release on Monday, the Med Control Board announced, "the director has been released from employment" and acknowledged "an ongoing investigation by the Michigan State Police."

Board Chairman David McEwen said the action was taken last Wedneday, following a closed door meeting with Michigan State Police Detective Brian Ferguson, Sanilac County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Brenda Sanford, and the certified public accounting firm hired by the board to "review matters relating to its director, John Turner."

Turner was notified of his dismissal by mail on Friday, said his attorney, Michael Gildner of Flint.

Turner was suspended from his job on June 11, pending the results of the audit by the accounting firm of Anderson Tuckey Bernhardt & Doran of Caro. McEwen said the auditors presented a verbal preliminary analysis at the meeting. He would not comment on the findings.

Gildner said his client was fired without having an opportunity to respond to the audit.

"John has worked with the state police, the authority and the hospital at every stage. He's been more than willing to let the investigation run its course (so) he'd be back on the job. I'm convinced at this point there's some politics. And the audit and the investigation were a pretext to letting him go."

Gilder stated, "They're making him out to be a scapegoat...I can't understand why they're in such a rush to make him out to look like the bad guy, except to cover up their own mistakes. Every purchase he made, every expense he was paid was approved either by the finance committee or the board as a whole. So it went through (several) levels of approval and now they want to say, whoops, we disagree with that purchase or expense."

McEwen would not respond to the lawyer's comments.