Opinion ID: 2558572
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 32

Heading: Bar Counsel's Investigation of Respondent's Actions

Text: 64. In May 2006, Bar Counsel opened an investigation of Respondent based upon OIG's earlier referral: that Respondent had presented false testimony and documents to the D.C. Council and that she had concealed her outside employment while a full-time OHR employee. BX 35. 65. On June 6, 2006, Bar Counsel served Respondent with a subpoena duces tecum directing her to produce, among other things, copies of all documents, including e-mails, that Respondent provided to OIG, the D.C. Council, and/or any members or staff thereof relating to her allegations of contract steering and/or to CLA. BX 37, BX 39. 66. Respondent received the subpoena and requested additional time to respond, but then failed to produce any documents responsive to the subpoena. BX 39-BX 42. Instead, Respondent filed a motion to quash arguing that, for numerous reasons, Bar Counsel lacked a basis for issuing a subpoena for certain of the documents. BX 43. 67. In an order issued on March 1, 2007, Hearing Committee Number Eleven denied Respondent's motion to quash and directed Respondent to produce documents responsive to Bar Counsel's subpoena duces tecum within 15 days of the order. BX 49. The Board Office sent Respondent a copy of the Hearing Committee's order on March 1, 2007. Id. 68. By March 28, 2007, Respondent had not produced any documents or otherwise responded to Bar Counsel's subpoena duces tecum. By letter dated March 28, 2007, Bar Counsel advised Respondent of her failure to comply with the Hearing Committee's order of March 1, 2007. BX 50. In a submission dated March 31, 2007, Respondent contended that she either did not possess responsive documents or could not locate such documents. BX 51. Respondent never provided any documents responsive to the subpoena. 69. On August 29, 2008, four days after she was served with Bar Counsel's hearing exhibits, Respondent filed a Motion to Strike Bar Counsel Exhibits. Respondent attached to her Motion five exhibits that she later filed with other documents as her proposed hearing exhibits, including: (1) an 8-page document entitled LIST OF CHRONOLOGICAL EVENTS (RX 2); (2) a one-page document captioned TRANSMISSION VERIFICATION REPORT (RX 3); and (3) a one-page document that purports to be an e-mail from Respondent to hotmail@dcig.org sent on July 20, 2001, at 12:43 AM. RX 4. 70. Prior to August 29, 2008, Respondent had not provided Bar Counsel any of the three documents, even though they were responsive to Bar Counsel's subpoena. Respondent claimed that she had located her exhibits on Friday, August 29, 2008. Respondent's Motion for Leave to File List of Exhibits, at 1. In her Motion to Strike faxed on August 29, 2008, Respondent contended that RX 2, RX 3 and RX 4 would contradict the statements of Mr. Scavdis. BX 59 at 3. However, because Respondent did not testify, there was no evidence that she ever provided RX 2, RX 3 or RX 4 to Mr. Scavdis or OIG. Mr. Scavdis testified that he first saw the documents a few days before he testified on September 5, 2008. Tr. at 437, 440. 71. RX 2, an 8-page chronology, is an altered version of the nine-page document that Respondent provided Mr. Scavdis at their meeting on August 9, 2001. BX 9 at 1-9 (also HCX 1). Contrary to Respondent's statement in her pre-hearing pleadings (BX 59; List of Exhibits), the evidence of record showed that she never provided Mr. Scavdis with RX 2. Rather, she gave him the chronology that is marked as BX 9 at 1-9. Tr. at 425-26, 438-40, 459-60, 465-67. Respondent has altered the documents to include numerous entries in RX 2 concerning CLA that were not included in the actual chronology that she provided to Mr. Scavdis. The Committee concludes that Respondent created a false document (RX 2) that she provided to the Committee. 72. The content and formatting of RX 3FAX COVER SHEETraises serious issues about its authenticity. The fax cover sheet, purportedly dated September 21, 2001, is different from the fax cover sheet that Respondent actually sent to Agent Izzard on November 21, 2001. Compare RX 3 with BX 34 at 127. Further, after COMMENT on RX 3, Respondent states she had filed the grievance with Deputy Mayor Carolyn Graham's office, but she did not actually e-mail the grievance to Ms. Graham until three weeks after the date of RX 3, October 4, 2001. BX 34 at 49-51. Finally, RX 3 purports to attach a page from the Broiler Plate Reporta non-existent document but an apparent reference to the Front Burner Report, an internal management report that was used by the Mayor's Chief of Staff to gather information and prioritize issues among the agencies. See BX 21 at 7-9. This mis-reference carries a strong implication that the actual document was not in Respondent's possession when the fax cover sheet was supposedly transmitted. The Committee concludes that RX 3 that Respondent presented to the Committee was an altered document. 73. RX 4, a purported e-mail to OIG sent on July 20, 2001 at 12:43 AM, was also a falsely made or altered document. Contrary to her statement that she sent this e-mail to OIG on July 20, 2001 (BX 59 at 3; Respondent's List of Exhibits (description for RX 4)), OIG never received this or any other e-mail from Respondent on July 20, 2001. Tr. at 419, 442-43, 445, 530. Further, RX 4 does not contain a valid e-mail address for OIG, but rather has two incorrect e-mail addresseswhich if sent would have generated return notices within a matter of milliseconds, i.e., July 20, 2001, at 12:43 AM. Tr. at 1487-89, 1511-12, 775, 821, 443-44, 501, 519-20. 74. The content and formatting of the e-mail (RX 4) raise further issues concerning its authenticity. The transmittal time reflected on RX 4 is more than 12 hours earlier than that of the notice of returned e-mail that Respondent provided to the D.C. Council in 2003. As stated, the notice of returned e-mail would have been generated within milliseconds of the transmission of an authentic message containing an invalid e-mail address. Tr. at 1487-89. Further, RX 4 contains a different attachment (Whistleblowers Act Violation.doc) than that reflected on the return notice. Compare RX 4 to BX 21 at 6 (attachment is Whistleblower's Act Violation). Also, RX 4 is not on computer stationary nor does it include a computer-generated signature line. According to the return e-mail notice, both should have been present on the original e-mail. Tr. at 1515-16. There are other questionable aspects of the formatting: the headings are off to the left, the layout of the lines and planes are not parallel, and there are commas rather than semicolons between addresses on the cc line. Tr. at 1506-11. Finally, RX 4 contains Respondent's home telephone number and other edits that purportedly were not suggested by Ms. Bay until 11 hours after RX 4 was purportedly sent to OIG. Compare RX 4 (e-mail with time of 12:43 AM) with RX 16 (purported e-mail exchange between Respondent and Bay on July 20, 2001, at 11:30 AM). The Committee concludes that RX 4, which Respondent presented to the Committee, was a falsified document. 75. In addition to stating that she had provided OIG RX 2-RX 4 (the questionable documents), Respondent also stated to the Hearing Committee that she did not receive or prepare certain documents included in Bar Counsel's exhibits. Specifically, Respondent stated, and argued in her Opposition to Bar Counsel's Motion to Amend Petition, that she had never received Mr. Holman's March 26, 2001 e-mail (BX 5) and that she did not write Mr. Holman the memo responding to his e-mail dated March 27, 2001 (BX 6). BX 59 at 3; Tr. at 28-29, 1659, 1661-62. The fact that Respondent received Mr. Holman's e-mail is evidenced not only by her memo in response, but also by the testimony of Mr. Holman (and his verbatim recitation of the March 27 email in his memo of May 9) ( see ¶ 10); the testimony of Ms. Bay (Tr. at 990-91, 1061-62 (Respondent showed Bay the e-mail (BX 5) when they were both employed at OHR)); and the fact that Respondent provided a copy of it to Mr. Scavdis on August 9, 2001. BX 9 at 25; Tr. at 355-56. Respondent's statement in her pleading (BX 59) that she did not receive BX 5 and did not write BX 6 was false. 76. Further, the evidence showed that Respondent wrote, initialed, and provided Mr. Holman the March 27, 2001, memo. BX 6A. The memo is responsive in substance and timing to Mr. Holman's e-mail of March 26, 2001, which requested a memo in response the next day. BX 5. The memo is in the same format and includes the same initials that Respondent used in other memos during the same time period. Compare BX 6A with BX 9 at 26; see Tr. at 1260-61. Finally, the memo, which was included in OHR business records, was reviewed by Ms. Delaney when she assumed responsibility for the contracting functions, and quoted verbatim in a May 9, 2001 memo by Mr. Holman (BX 53). Respondent's statement in her pleading (BX 59) that she did not write the March 27, 2001 memo was false.