Opinion ID: 1925629
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 9

Heading: Conversations with Charles County Warrant Office.

Text: Respondent also represented in her voucher that she had conversations with personnel of the Charles County, Maryland, Warrant Office that lasted one hour and thirty minutes. The Hearing Committee made the following findings with regard to this claim: Respondent claimed compensation for one hour and 30 minutes on March 14, 2002, for discussions with Ms. Koustenis of the Charles County, Maryland Warrant Office. The Committee finds that Respondent did not have a conversation with Ms. Koustenis on March 14, 2002. Rather, as Ms. Koustenis testified, she had only one conversation with Respondent, and that conversation was on March 20, 2002, and lasted for only a very short time. Ms. Koustenis testified that the conversation was simply to confirm that Charles County was dismissing its warrant for Mr. Whitley's arrest. Ms. Koustenis remembered the telephone call after referring to the notes she took of messages she received on her voicemail and the notations she made when she returned the calls. Although the Committee finds incredible Ms. Koustenis' further testimony that she has never had a work-related conversation with anyone that lasted more than two minutes during the many years that she has been employed in the Charles County Warrant Office, the Committee is satisfied that her notes concerning messages received and the returning of phone calls corroborate her testimony regarding her conversation with Respondent. Respondent testified that when she contacted the Charles County Warrant Office, she was referred seriatim to a number of different people before she was finally able to speak to Ms. Koustenis. In its finding quoted above, the Hearing Committee does not appear to have come to grips with this testimony. Indeed, the Committee evidently viewed the issue as being whether Respondent's conversation with Ms. Koustenis alone took one and one-half hours. We think that it would have been helpful if the Committee had addressed Respondent's account directly. In the Board's view, however, a reasonable mind can conclude [that] there is sufficient support for the conclusion reached by the Committee, even in the absence of a log of live conversations and in the face of Respondent's alternative explanation.  (Emphasis added.) We agree. Moreover, if the conversation between Respondent and Ms. Koustenis took place six days later than Respondent asserted that it did, the Hearing Committee could reasonably question the accuracy of Respondent's other representations as well.