By 2012, Dr. Zimmerman became concerned about widespread scientific misconduct in the University Department of Psychiatry, including a data breach by some of the researchers in the department, including the Department Chairman Dr. William McMahon, involving childrens’ birth certificate, medical, educational, and psychiatric records that Dr. Zimmerman’s team had input into the database. 

In her attempts to obtain help regarding her concerns, Dr. Zimmerman contacted oversight entities at the University as well as multiple state offices for guidance, including the Utah Department of Public Safety, the Division of Technology Services, and administrators and attorneys at the Utah Department of Health, which had authority over the grant.  Within days of learning about her complaint against them to the University’s Research Integrity office, the researchers she was complaining about set in motion a plan—facilitated by the University’s general counsel—to end Dr. Zimmerman’s employment with the University, and subsequently locked her out of her office and blocked her from continuing her duties under the CDC grant and her research on autism. These actions by the University became the basis of a claim under the Utah Whistleblower Act that Dr. Zimmerman won in federal court in 2018, and the breach of contract claim that she won in state court in 2021.

During the litigation over her claims, the University (represented by the Utah Attorney General’s Office) opposed any independent research misconduct investigations of Dr. Zimmerman’s concerns and failed to take any action against the researchers who had shared sensitive information from the database without authorization. Further, the University researchers continued to justify their actions based on a data-sharing agreement that a forensic document examiner hired by Dr. Zimmerman determined was fraudulent. The University did not counter the expert’s determination, but frustrated Dr. Zimmerman’s expert’s analysis by falsely claiming throughout the litigation that the original of the document did not exist. The University finally produced the original in the middle of the 2021 trial on the breach of contract claim, causing Judge Corum to enter default judgment against the University for its failure to previously disclose the document. 

Dr. Zimmerman was represented at trial by April Hollingsworth and Katie Panzer, of Hollingsworth Law Office.  Ms. Hollingsworth states, “It is unfortunate for Utah taxpayers and scientific research generally that the University chose to support its rogue researchers’ clear misconduct through two trials rather than address or take accountability for that misconduct. We are pleased this case has come to an end, but remain disappointed in the University’s handling of the situation.”

It feels like unfinished business to Dr. Zimmerman, who is still pursuing answers to the questions raised by the research misconduct she uncovered.  Dr. Zimmerman states, “Families and the public deserve to know the truth about ongoing dramatic increases in autism prevalence.  Parents deserve to know the government is sharing their children’s most private and highly sensitive identifiable health and education records without their consent or knowledge. And above all, government, including the U of U, needs to hold researchers accountable for scientific misconduct, including falsification of findings, if they ever expect the public to ‘trust the science'.”

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