June 19--The warning signs were there.
In February, Jackie Wisniewski went to West Seneca police with concerns about threatening phone calls she had received from her estranged boyfriend, Dr. Timothy V. Jorden Jr.
In April, the estranged husband of Jorden's personal secretary at Erie County Medical Center complained to Jorden's employer that Jorden was behaving in an "inappropriate, unethical and unprofessional" manner with women who worked with him.
Last Wednesday, Jorden's unusual behavior exploded into violence, as police say he shot and killed Wisniewski, 33, of West Seneca, in a building on the ECMC campus.
The violence might have been averted if Jorden had been arrested, or subjected to a court order of protection, after Wisniewski made her complaint about him months earlier, West Seneca Police Chief Edward F. Gehen told The Buffalo News on Monday.
"I'm not blaming the victim, I would never blame the victim ... but we see this way too often with domestic violence victims," Gehen said.
Many, he said, are reluctant to have an estranged husband or boyfriend arrested.
Wisniewski complained to West Seneca officers about Jorden in late February, but Gehen said no arrest was made because Wisniewski did not want to pursue the issue further.
According to police, Wisniewski told an officer and detective that Jorden made harassing telephone calls to her, and that he indicated to her that he somehow had knowledge of many of her travels.
Officers who spoke to Wisniewski found a global positioning satellite device that they believe Jorden had secretly attached to her car so he would know where she was driving.
"Our people interviewed her, took a report, found the GPS device on her car and confiscated the GPS," Gehen said. "Our family offenses detective told her how to apply for an order of protection ... but she didn't apply for one."
Gehen added that it was the only complaint Wisniewski made to his department about Jorden, and the chief said he was unaware of any allegations of violence made by Wisniewski against the 49-year-old physician.
Gehen said he felt "very sad" when he learned that Wisniewski was murdered by Jorden. Police say Jorden fatally shot himself in a wooded area near his Hamburg lakefront home within an hour or two of the murder.
Gehen said he does not believe his department mishandled the case, but he wishes that Wisniewski had asked police to arrest Jorden, or had gone to court to get an order of protection. Potentially, such actions might have saved her life.
"To predict human behavior is very difficult. Who knows what was in [Jorden's] mind?" Gehen said.
Tracy Myles, who contends that Jorden had affairs with his estranged wife and other female co-workers, said Monday he wishes more action had been taken on a complaint he made to an official of the medical group that employed Jorden.
Myles said he was making public his contact with UB/MD Physicians Group because of his concern for Wisniewski's 4-year-old son and her family.
He said he hoped the Wisniewski family would take his email and phone records, "which show Dr. Jorden was in contact with my wife," should they consider legal action against Jorden's employer.
Colleen Myles said her estranged husband is trying to unjustly insert himself into an already tragic situation.
Myles said he does not see it that way.
If Jorden's employer, which contracts its doctors' services with ECMC, had heeded Myles' objections, raised in April, that the doctor was a "womanizer," he says Wisniewski, an ECMC secretary, might not have been killed.
Following a telephone conversation in mid-April with Rosemary Boerschig, patient care manager for surgeons at UB/MD, Myles says he was asked by her to submit an email detailing his complaints against Jorden and was assured they would be forwarded to the "appropriate people."
In an April 23 email to Boerschig, Myles wrote of the alleged affair and asked that it stop for the sake of his two sons, at least until they were divorced.
"Dear Ms. Boerschig, I am writing you this letter in regards to the inappropriate, unethical, and unprofessional relationship that has been ongoing between my wife Colleen Myles and Tim Jorden, one of your physicians on staff at UB Surgeons.
"This started two years ago when I noticed a large amount of phone calls and after hours texting between my wife and Tim Jorden.
"... I don't want this to seem as though I am a disgruntled soon-to-be ex-husband. It's for the emotional security of my sons. ... If I have to take legal action against Tim Jorden personally, I will. If I have to take legal action against UB Surgeons, I will, along with ECMC. I don't want this matter to further escalate because UB Surgeons and ECMC haven't monitored or care about the quality, character, class or ethics you have on your medical or office staff."
Boerschig said she was not going to comment on any of Myles' claims.
"I don't want to hear what he has to say. I have no comment," Boerschig told The News.
Myles told The News on Monday that during periods in which he and his wife were trying to repair their marriage, she confided in him that Jorden had sexually harassed other workers at the medical center.
His estranged wife worked on the third floor of ECMC's David K. Miller Building, where the fatal shooting occurred in a basement stairwell last week.
Colleen Myles said her estranged husband "is a bitter and disappointed man. I feel the deepest empathy for the Wisniewski and Jorden families. There's been enough harm."
Tracy Myles said he gave copies of his email to Boerschig to state police after troopers and Niagara County sheriff's deputies searched his family's Town of Lockport residence last Wednesday, attempting to locate Jorden, when his whereabouts were unknown.
Jorden's body was found late Friday morning with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in heavy brush some 800 yards from his Lake View home on Lake Erie.
When Colleen Myles was asked Monday afternoon if she had been romantically involved with Jorden, she declined to comment, but did say: "We had a personal relationship and worked well together." She explained that since she was his secretary it was not unusual that he would have her cellphone number and be in contact with her.
Tracy Myles admitted his estranged wife took out an order of protection against him and that he was inflamed at times because of the doctor's intrusion in his marriage.
Myles said he was charged Saturday with criminal mischief during an argument with other relatives after his estranged wife refused to let him see his sons on Sunday for Father's Day, a visit that had previously been scheduled.
The case is pending in Town of Niagara Court.
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Copyright 2012 - The Buffalo News, N.Y.
