Opinion ID: 788414
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Post-Settlement Acts

Text: 18 On January 25, 2000, approximately six months after Kaiser had reported Pardi's termination to the RCB and less than two weeks after Kaiser had settled with Pardi, Mark Bleeker, a Senior Investigator with the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA), contacted Christopher Joyce of Kaiser's Human Resources Department. Bleeker advised Joyce that he was initiating an investigation on behalf of the RCB regarding allegations that Pardi had falsified medical records and acted unprofessionally. Bleeker requested access to employment files and patient records and sent investigative subpoenas to Joyce and Deborah Booker (now Deborah Shibley), an inhouse attorney for Kaiser, in an effort to obtain information about complaints against Pardi. 19 On February 1, 2000, Bleeker met with Joyce at Kaiser's Oakland Medical Center. Bleeker reviewed Pardi's employment file and requested copies of certain documents. As of February 1, 2000, Pardi's employment file had not been updated to reflect his resignation rather than his termination for cause. It was not until February 9 and 11, 2000, that Joyce directed Kaiser's document management center to remove termination paperwork from Pardi's personnel file and replace it with documents indicating that Pardi's employment with Kaiser had ended through voluntary resignation. 20 On April 5, 2000, Shibley sent a letter to Bleeker enclosing documents she stated were responsive to the subpoena, including complaints which were not part of the investigation leading to the decision to report Pardi's termination. There is evidence that Shibley did not turn over to Bleeker medical records that could have supported Pardi's explanation of the charges that allegedly formed the basis of his termination, or the name of at least one witness favorable to Pardi whom Pardi had identified in a June 21, 1999 letter he had written to Joyce. Kaiser also did not turn over to Bleeker letters Pardi had written to his supervisors at Kaiser regarding Kaiser's harassment and failure to accommodate his disability. One such letter was dated December 29, 1997, and was sent to Schade. 21 Shibley never informed Bleeker that Kaiser and Pardi had reached a settlement. It is unclear when Shibley informed Bleeker that Pardi's termination had been revised to reflect voluntary resignation. 22 As a result of the pending investigation, the RCB temporarily suspended Pardi's certification to practice. Eventually, after requiring Pardi to undergo a psychiatric evaluation, the RCB renewed Pardi's certificate. 23 Beginning in early 2000, Ellen Dove, Pardi's attorney, made numerous unsuccessful attempts to obtain a letter from Shibley verifying that Pardi had been employed at Kaiser. Shibley told Dove not to contact any Kaiser employees seeking such information about Pardi. 24 Kaiser was similarly unresponsive to other inquiries about Pardi's employment. A prospective employer of Pardi, Dr. Calvin O'Kane, program director of the Multiple Sclerosis Society near Sacramento, California, called the new head of Kaiser's Oakland Respiratory Care Department on August 7, 2001, and the Human Resources Department on August 13, 2001, seeking information about Pardi. O'Kane never received return calls for the messages he left on both occasions. He wrote a letter addressed to Kaiser's Human Resources Department in October 2001 requesting information about Pardi. As of May 2002, he had received no reply. Without verification of Pardi's former employment, O'Kane was unwilling to offer him a position. 25 Kaiser contends that its personnel department had not received any inquiries, either by telephone or through correspondence, seeking employment verification about Pardi as of April 16, 2002.