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The transcript of Judge Patrick Kelley’s ruling in the case of Dawn DeFraties and Michael Case can be downloaded here. Important excerpt…
“The issue here is straightforward: Is the Commission’s remand for additional evidence a finding and decision within the meaning of Section 11. The facts in this case can really be described as somewhat bizarre, and even perhaps as Kafkaesque.
“None of the parties asked for a remand. The Administrative Law Judge felt he had all the evidence he needed. The Commission made no finding as to why a remand was necessary, nor did they specify what evidence they were asking for, just that additional evidence was needed.
“Truly, these are the actions of a mysterious and calculating bureaucracy with motives we can only speculate about.”
He can say that again.
* Background…
Sangamon County Circuit Judge Patrick Kelley ruled that the Illinois Civil Service Commission mishandled the matter. DeFraties and Casey had a hearing last winter to get their jobs back, but the commission in May called for resuming the case to collect more evidence.
State law requires a ruling within 60 days of the end of testimony, a deadline Kelley agreed the commission blew. He noted commissioners did not explain why they wanted more evidence or what they were seeking. [,,,]
The decree is a significant blow to Blagojevich. He fired the former personnel workers in April 2006 for allegedly rigging the state hiring process after an investigation by the state’s executive inspector general.
DeFraties and Casey claimed they were being singled out for giving politically connected job applications — many of which came from the governor’s office — special treatment to divert attention from federal prosecutors’ inquiries about Blagojevich’s hiring practices.
* The administration’s response…
Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said in a written statement the administration found Kelley’s decision “unfortunate” and said the decision was based more on a technicality than the merits of the case.
“Dawn DeFraties and Mike Casey were terminated at the direction of the independent inspector general after a long investigation into hiring practices at CMS,” she said. “It’s unfortunate that the court’s decision today is based on the Civil Service Commission’s review process, not on the merits of the inspector general’s findings.”
* An important point overlooked by the handful of DeFraties/Casey detractors…
The ruling by Kelley comes three months after a hearing officer recommended to the commission the two only be suspended for 14 days because the case against them was too weak to support their dismissal.
DeFraties and Casey were used as campaign scapegoats by a governor under siege by the US Attorney and the FBI. Pure and simple. Blagojevich was desperate to claim he was rooting out corruption, so he had two people fired - even though his own patronage office was allegedly putting extreme pressure on those two to bend and break state hiring laws. This has been a disgusting affair all around.
The governor’s office is expected to push for an appeal. DeFraties and Casey may return to work as early as Monday.
posted by Rich Miller
Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 9:21 am
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I’m glad the governor wants to fritter away somemore tax payer money on an unwarrented appeal. This smacks of his grandstanding in the video game case.
Comment by Milorad Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 9:37 am
But why *wouldn’t* a technicality be an issue?
What, we’re supposed to ignore the “technicalities” of the law in favor of a secret opinion rendered by the IG’s office?
My understanding is that all information from the IG’s office is *secret* — and is not available for the public to consider.
If that’s the case, then the judge is absolutely correct when he calls the machinations of the state Kafkaesque. They are Kafkaesque — straight out of Kafka’s “The Trial.”
Comment by Macbeth Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 9:42 am
“The Gov’s spokesperson said:
Dawn DeFraties and Mike Casey were terminated at the direction of the independent inspector general after a long investigation into hiring practices at CMS,” she said. “It’s unfortunate that the court’s decision today is based on the Civil Service Commission’s review process, not on the merits of the inspector general’s findings.”
BUT AT THE HEARING the OEIG investigator said he did not try to verify the truth of any of the witness statements he took. This came after one of the CMS witnesses basically said that he falsified his statement to the OEIG and the notes that he took were false.
The OEIG did a disservice to us all by not getting to the truth and ooking for the real source of illegal patronage.
Comment by Political Observer Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 9:45 am
Thanks Rich, w/o your breakdown, I would not know if this is good news or bad news coming from the admin.
A technicality does not bother a bunch of lawyers? odd
Comment by Wumpus Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 9:46 am
why would they want to go back to work there, or is it the priniciple of the thing?
Comment by anon Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 9:51 am
I believe Blago may be in trouble with the US Attorney due to his unpopularity as Governor. The Feds are subject to public and political pressure like any other public office and even though Fitzgerald is better than most he is not immune.
I think of when the Feds were zeroing in on Daley and convicting his top lieutenants. The President flew into Chicago and celebrated his birthday with his honor. Message sent. The Feds have, for the most part, effectively lain off the City since.
That is not going to happen with Blago. He does not have the clout.
It may be feeding time for the lions. It depends if the US Attorney decides to open the cages.
Comment by Garp Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 9:53 am
Of course, if they return to work Monday they may still not get paid.
Comment by Another Anon Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 10:01 am
Hmmm…a technicality…like attempting to overlook the IL constitution when it comes to the budget?
Comment by Abby Spout-n-off Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 10:07 am
Hooray…A win for the little people.
Comment by Siyotanka Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 10:13 am
Looks like the guv’s office is trying to blame this on the “independent inspector general” whoever that is/was.
Comment by Cassandra Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 10:22 am
Circuit Judge Kelley made the correct decision. The order requires payment of back wages but the governor will likely appeal, simultaneously requesting a stay of the Circuit Court decision pending the hearing of the appeal. That is exactly what he did in 2003.
It might be interesting to resurrect the total cost of Winston & Strawn legal bills for the governor resulting from dismissal of state employees. I’ll bet it’s now easily over $3 million.
Comment by one of the 35 Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 10:59 am
Why would these two even want to come back to work for an administration that basically trampled all over their names and careers? I would think - at least in my judgment - that it would be better to take the state to the cleaners and branch out elsewhere. But what do I know?
It also makes me wonder how many Blago hacks tuck their tails between their legs and never raise a peep. A lot of mischief could be going on behind the scences that will never be reported due to workers either being scared to lose their jobs or people who are venomous enough to plug away.
Comment by Team Sleep Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 11:45 am
This is great example of how this administration throws people under the bus for their own interests. I wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t consider filing a separate suit since this case was used as an example on the state ethics test. Another example of the arrogance of this administration. Everyone knew the example given on the test was referring to Dawn DeFraties and Mike Casey. Now that they have been proven innocent, I would think they have some merit for a case. Someone in the administration had to require the contractor to include this example on the test. How stupid is that?
Comment by Holdingontomywallet Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 11:46 am
How do you spell nepotism? CMS!
A particular job opening will require at least two years experience and a person with ZERO experience gets the job. A person with many years experience is lucky to get a B grade and the person with ZERO experience gets the A. It will be years before the ZERO experience person is functional in that job.
This disgusting practice is the result of decisions made much, much higher up the chain of command at CMS Personnel.
Comment by Disgusted With CMS Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 12:38 pm
Unfortunate? His Office officially called due process under the law unfortunate? Reminds me of the Governor’s utterance a couple of years ago that “unfortunately” we’re forced to live in a democracy (when justifying the embryotic stem cell executive order).
There’s a difference between a) expressing disappointment over the judge’s decision and b)calling the process unfortunate.
Comment by Budget Watcher Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 12:45 pm
Congrats to the two!
It’s been a long time coming and I’m sure they want to move on with their lives. The Governor’s Office should comply with the Judges orders and stop wasting our taxpayor dollars on their personal efforts to thwarts the investigation by the Federal Gov’t by filing an appeal. The Court has spoken listen Mr. Blagojevich, Inc.
The reinstatement of their employment means that they were an escape goat for Blagojevich, Inc.’s illegal hiring. Fitzgerald are you listening? What I disagree with is the suspension for 14 days for not speaking out about the illegal hiring. Well if you can put yourself in their shoes and see how long it took to to have their employment reinstated, then one can understand why they didn’t speak out about the illegal hiring—–NO protections would have been afforded to them neither federal nor state. That’s why employees don’t speak out about government corruption, there are not protections afforded even though there are laws. Knowing what I know now, I would have kept quiet too!
Comment by One_Mcmad Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 4:50 pm
Here are a few pieces of actual testimony transcript from one of the state’s main witnesses in the DeFraties/Casey case. More to come.
Attorney Draper: “When was that application delivered to Room 500; do you know?
CMS Grader Mark Dawson: “No, I do not.”
Draper: “On the last page, the supplemental examination record, you wrote grade out of order per Dawn DeFraties; is that correct?”
Dawson: “Yes, that’s correct.”
Draper: “And you did not talk to Dawn DeFraties?”
Dawson: “No.”
Draper: “So it’s not accurate that you were told to grade this out of order by Dawn DeFraties, is it?”
Dawson: “No.”
Draper: “And you knew you were writing this on the official permanent employment — or applications record for the Department of Central Management Services, didn’t you?”
Dawson: “Yes.”
Draper: “And you knew at the time that that information wasn’t accurate, that is, grade out of order per Dawn DeFraties?”
Dawson: “That’s correct.”
Draper: “But you did it anyway?”
Dawson: “Right.”
—————————
Draper: “You said this practice that you followed was in accordance with your training from Cindy Dixon?”
Dawson: “Right.”
Draper: “Not from Dawn DeFraties?”
Dawson: “No.”
Draper: “Not from Mike Casey.”
Dawson: “No.”
Draper: “Not from anyone in 503.”
Dawson: “No.”
Draper: “And if you wrote down that you were going to rush or grade out of order, you don’t know as you sit here today whether you really had any backlog on your desk or not, do you?”
Dawson: “No.”
Draper: “There would be days that you would be caught up, wasn’t there?”
Dawson: “Sure.”
Draper: “There is no way to tell, in other words, from your log whether those applications really moved ahead of any other applications, is there?”
Dawson: “No.”
Draper: “The fact that you wrote it down at the time doesn’t even mean that, does it?”
Dawson: “No, it doesn’t.”
Draper: “Now you were asked about your log and whether the entries you wrote on your handwritten log–whether those notes were true when you wrote them or whether the notes you wrote on the application grade forms, the SER form, were true when you wrote them, and you said yes. Do you remember saying that just now?”
Dawson: “Yes.”
Draper: “But they weren’t, were they? When you wrote down out of order per Dawn DeFraties, it wasn’t per Dawn DeFraties?”
Dawson: “Right.”
Draper: “So that part was false, wasn’t it?”
Dawson: “Yeah, it was Room 503.”
Draper: “And when you wrote per 503, in fact, that part was false because you didn’t receive instruction from 503, did you?”
Dawson: “No.”
Draper: “So that was false?”
Dawson: “Right.”
Draper: “And when you said per Mike Casey, that part was false?”
Dawson: “Right.”
Draper: “Every time you wrote it, that part was false?”
Dawson: “Mm-hmm.”
Draper: “Is that yes?”
Dawson: “Yes.”
Draper: “So your notes have a lot of false information in them insofar as you recording where you claim to have received the instruction from?”
Dawson: “Right. I was just recording them from 503.”
Draper: “And, in fact, every one of those notes is false when it says grade out of order per anybody because you didn’t receive any instruction from anybody?”
Dawson: “No, not each time.”
Draper: “Not each time. Not even one time, just that was your practice per your training from Cindy Dixon; is that your testimony?”
Dawson: “Right…”
Comment by Love Reality Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 5:13 pm
And all the while Dawson is still in CMS Examining grading applications, and Dixon is working in CMS Personnel Transactions.
So if all this was fabricated by Dawson, isn’t there some kind of penalty under the OEIG statute for falsely claiming impropriety?
And isn’t there a burden on the OEIG to get to the bottom of a claim before it gets to the level of firing someone? Carl’s questioning doesn’t sound too complicated and he got to the bottom of the little boy crying wolf pretty quickly.
Maybe that’s what Carl meant when he quoted Larry the Cable Guy. The OEIG just ran with it and decided to GIT R DONE and Git Dawn & Mike, and place the burden on them to untangle all of the so-called facts.
Funny how one is guilty until proven innocent in the Blago’s land of ethics and sunshine.
Comment by A Proportionate Response Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 5:51 pm
Dawson did not lie or falsify anything the way I read his testimony. If the orders came from 503, then it came from Casey and DeFraties. If it came from Cindy Dixon, it must have come from Casey/DeFraties. Dawson simply testified that even though Casey/DeFraties never specifically told him to grade out of order, by putting their names on the applications he was acknowledging where the orders actually came from. Only 3 people could have ordered the applications to be pushed ahead-Casey, DeFraties, and Dixon. Dawson was simply a pawn. Why didn’t his supervisor testify? Why was Dixon not pressed more by the government lawyers?
Comment by Perspective Two Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 6:21 pm
Indeed, why?
Also, I don’t think it’s fair to assume that ever action taken by a subordinate is directly ordered by his/her supervisor.
But if you follow your logic it strengthens the tie back to Blago. You could add that if it came from DeFraties/Casey it must have came from Ed Wynn. If it came from Ed Wynn it came from Rumman. If it came from Rumman it came from Monk, Tusk etal. If it came from Monk/Tusk it came from Blago.
Why aren’t these people answering any questions?
Comment by A Proportionate Response Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 6:37 pm
To: Larry M. from yesterday’s DeFraties/Casey post. You don’t have the fact situation right. The case you cited involved the Civil Service Commission voting against Blago. Thus Blago had the right to appeal and choose the jurisdiction where to appeal. In this case the location was chosen by DeFraties and Casey. The appeal will be in the 4th District.
Comment by Norseman Thursday, Aug 9, 07 @ 8:02 pm