Opinion ID: 2641219
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Expense Report

Text: Lobato also claims pretext in NMED’s accusations that Lobato falsified an expense report and did not cooperate with an investigation into this matter. As the dismissal letter indicates, Lobato sought compensation for a night at a hotel in Albuquerque. Yet he then submitted a receipt for a breakfast he had purchased 300 miles away. Further, the hotel denied that Lobato had stayed there the night in question. Lobato eventually reimbursed the State for the charges, but only, according to the dismissal letter, “under protest.” App. 434. The letter also explains how, in June 2008, Bentley opened an investigation into Lobato’s expense report discrepancies and solicited Lobato’s cooperation. -16- From NMED’s perspective, Lobato rebuffed this attempt by failing to respond to Bentley. Lobato suggested that he was having trouble answering questions because he was the only inspector in the Farmington office, but the dismissal letter indicates otherwise: [T]hree inspectors from other offices were in Farmington helping with inspections that week and had been going to the Farmington office to do inspections for over three months. In addition, your Supervisor, Salomon Romero was also there helping out that week and had been at the Farmington office every week doing inspections to keep up on the workload. Id. In sum, then, NMED’s rationale for dismissal here is that Lobato (1) lied about staying in a hotel, (2) failed to cooperate with a subsequent investigation into the matter, and (3) lied in the course of his failure to cooperate. Lobato concedes he was not entitled to the expense reimbursement but attempts to minimize the extent of his dishonesty by noting that he paid back the money. And, he maintains, the failure to comply with the investigation is the fault of his lawyer, who forgot to turn in the responses to Bentley’s questions. None of these arguments creates a material fact question as to pretext. As an initial matter, there is no genuine dispute that he was dishonest about staying in Albuquerque. And whatever Lobato’s lawyer did or did not do has no bearing on NMED’s justification for terminating Lobato. What matters in the pretext inquiry is what NMED knew, not what Lobato knew. Luster, 667 F.3d at -17- 1093–94. Lobato does not allege that he ever informed Bentley or Romero about his attorney’s purported failure to send responses, nor does he dispute that he failed to respond to Bentley’s repeated requests for assistance with the investigation. Thus, Carlos Romero had an ample basis to conclude that Lobato did not cooperate with the expense report investigation. Moreover, Lobato offers no response to Romero’s undisputed contention that Lobato misled Bentley during the course of the expense report investigation by stating he was working alone in the Farmington office when in fact there were three other workers and one supervisor helping him. His failure to contest this fact further undermines his argument that NMED’s expense account rationale was pretext for discrimination or retaliation. Lastly, Lobato alleges that other employees with the same per diem problems were treated less harshly than he was. But he points to only one other such employee, and he offers no evidence that this other employee was also probationary or otherwise similarly situated with Lobato. Thus, this allegation is insufficient to establish pretext.