Opinion ID: 2558572
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 8

Heading: Respondent's Termination from OHR and Subsequent Allegations to Vincent Orange

Text: 41. On January 9, 2003, Ms. Wilburn, the then Interim Director of OHR, terminated Respondent's employment. In mid-January 2003, shortly after Respondent's termination from OHR, articles appeared in the press reporting that Ms. Bullock of the Washington Teachers' Union had demanded that OHR give a contract to CLA. BX 13-15. The articles referred to Mr. Holman's lawsuit against the Mayor filed in September 2002, in which Mr. Holman made similar allegations, which also had been the subject of press reports. BX 10 at 2-3; BX 11-12. 42. Respondent was aware of the news articles in mid-January 2003 linking the Teachers' Union with CLA and OHR. BX 20 at 359 (Respondent testified in response to questions that she was surprised by articles in January 2003 to learn of a real connection between CLA and D.C. Public Schools). She contacted Vincent Orange, a long-time friend who was then a member of the D.C. Council. Tr. at 1373-75. Prior to the news articles, Respondent had never contacted Mr. Orange about CLA or her complaints to OIG. Tr. at 1392-93. 43. On or about January 28, 2003, Respondent provided Mr. Orange a memo in which she claimed that she had submitted complaints to OIG regarding Mr. Holman's misconduct in awarding contracts to CLA. BX 16 at 2-35. Respondent alleged that she met with Agent Scavdis on July 30, 2001, and gave him copies of e-mails from Holman requesting me to steer contracts to Curtis Lewis and orally told Mr. Scavdis that Holman was steering contracts to Curtis Lewis because Holman stated that he was ordered to give contracts to Curtis Lewis because Curtis Lewis was well connected to the Mayor. BX 16 at 1. Respondent further alleged that she met with Agent Slay on November 9, 2001, and they discussed several things that were set out in a November 9, 2001 memo purportedly addressed to Agent Slay that Respondent provided to Mr. Orange. BX 16 at 1; BX 16 at 36 (purported memo to Slay dated Nov. 9, 2001). [25] 44. Respondent's memorandum was directly contradicted by the testimony of Agent Scavdis and Slay, who testified that Respondent had not complained to OIG about CLA and had never alleged that Mr. Holman or OHR was steering contracts to CLA. Tr. at 361-62, 367, 375-78, 773, 780, 794-95, 802, 804, 815-16, 898. Further, with one exceptionthe March 12, 2001 email from Mr. Holman to Respondent Respondent had not provided OIG with any of the documents attached to her January 28, 2003 memorandum to Mr. Orange. Tr. at 376, 404-06, 797-98. 45. One of the documents that Respondent provided to Mr. Orange was a 34-page memorandum entitled Grievance Performance Improvement Plan. BX 16 (Exhibit a) at 2-35. This document was an altered version of the grievance memorandum that Respondent had e-mailed to Ms. Graham and others on October 4, 2001. BX 34 at 15-18; Tr. at 498-500. 46. Respondent also provided Mr. Orange a one-page document which purported to be a memo that Respondent provided to Mr. Slay on November 9, 2001, listing numerous acts of alleged misconduct by Mr. Holman. BX 16 at 36. The date of the purported memorandum, November 9, 2001, predated Respondent's complaint to OIG (that was eventually assigned to Mr. Slay) by more than 10 days and their actual meeting by more than a month. 47. Respondent also provided Mr. Orange a collection of correspondence, memos, and e-mails that she marked as Exhibit C. BX 16 at 37-50. One of the documents Respondent included in the collection of documents marked as Exhibit C was a three-page memorandum to Mr. Holman dated March 15, 2001, in which Respondent was critical of CLA and contended that Mr. Holman's motive for proposing to provide a contract to Curtis Lewis that exceeds the Office's contracting authority [was] because Curtis Lewis is well connected to the Mayor. BX 16 at 45-47 (quoted language on last page) (emphasis in original). As stated above, OIG investigators testified that Respondent never provided this document to OIG in 2001, nor did she complain to OIG about CLA. The content of the March 15, 2001 memo contradicts the advice that Respondent gave to Mr. Holman in a memo of March 27, 2001, where she recommended that OHR enter into a contract with CLA to prepare additional LODs. BX 6A; Tr. at 109-10, 586-87, 624, 626-28, 653. Notably, the date of Respondent's purported March 15, 2001 memo to Mr. Holman predates the June 2001 meeting that Mr. Holman and Ms. Delaney had in the Mayor's Office, at which they first became aware of CLA's political connection and were directed to provide CLA an additional contract. Tr. at 110-13, 130-31, 153-54, 651, 728-30. 48. In a March 5, 2003 letter to the Mayor (BX 17), Mr. Orange quoted extensively from Respondent's purported memo to Agent Slay dated November 9, 2001 (BX 16 at 36) and her purported memo to Mr. Holman dated March 15, 2001 (BX 16 at 45-47). Mr. Orange urged the Mayor, as well as Congressman Davis and Delegate Norton, to remove Charles C. Maddox, the incumbent Inspector General, based in part on his alleged failure to investigate Respondent's complaint that contracts were being steered to CLA because CLA was well connected to the Mayor. [26] BX 19 at 10-15. Mr. Maddox was already the target of criticism from various City Council members who felt that the IG was not diligent enough in policing what they viewed as abuses of the Office of the Mayor and his administration. See Tr. 1379-80; BX 17 at 5.