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* From Ed McManus…
The director of Choate Developmental Center in far downstate Anna, indicted in June for misconduct in connection with workers’ attacks on residents with disabilities, is being sued by an employee for violating the State’s Whistleblower Protection Act.
Darcie Hancock, a former residential services supervisor at Choate, charged that [now-former] director Bryant Davis retaliated against her after she told the institution’s internal affairs office that she believed Davis received money from the State “to which he was not entitled.”
Teresa Smith, a former assistant director of the facility who was indicted along with Davis, was also named in the whistleblower suit. Hancock said she reported to Smith that she believed a member of the Choate management team was falsifying timesheets, claiming hours she did not work, but Smith took no action to investigate the allegation.
It was reported in March that a total of 9 Choate workers had been indicted during 2020 in connection with attacks on residents. Davis, Smith and another administrator were charged in June with “impeding a State Police investigation of a staff member battering an individual.”
The lawsuit was filed in 2018 but was put on hold when the pandemic began. Hancock’s attorney, James P. Baker of Springfield, said he is now in the process of beginning discovery.
Hancock worked for 22 years at Choate, which is one of seven large Illinois institutions serving individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
‘THREATENING AND ABUSIVE TREATMENT’
Hancock said after her allegations about Davis and the member of the management team, Davis and Smith repeatedly subjected her over the next three years to unwarranted investigations, disciplinary actions and suspensions. At one point, she was assigned to the dietary office for five months and “subjected to threatening and abusive treatment by the supervisor.”
And in August of 2016 she was “without good cause” assigned to do cleaning work “in the basement of a building in an environment which was filthy, was contaminated with asbestos and had no air conditioning.”
The suit alleges that as a result of all this, Hancock “developed emotional symptoms which required her to take a disability leave” beginning in May 2017. She has not had a job since then.
The suit accuses Davis, Smith and the Dept. of Human Services of retaliating against Hancock for disclosing wrongdoing, which is prohibited by the whistleblower act. It says she “sustained physical and emotional stress and anguish as well as the loss of enjoyment of life.” The suit asks for damages for the loss of salary and benefits, as well as compensatory and liquidated damages.
The Attorney General’s Office filed an answer to the suit, denying most of the allegations. But the office stated that they “lack knowledge or information sufficient to form a belief about the truth of the allegations” that Davis received money from the State to which he was not entitled and that a member of the management team falsified timesheets.
Following the June indictments, DHS initially announced that the three administrators would remain on the job while their court cases proceeded. Much criticism followed; State’s Atty. Tyler Tripp told a newspaper it was “asinine” not to put them on leave. A week later DHS reversed itself and announced that the three were “being reassigned from the facility.”
Smith ‘s attorney has filed a motion to dismiss the indictment. All three administrators are awaiting assignment of a judge to hear their cases.
The lawsuit is here. The state’s response, in which it denies violation of the whistleblower statute, is here. The state also denied that Hancock’s work product was satisfactory or that she regularly received satisfactory performance reviews. It also denies that no action was taken after Hancock made her allegations.
* Related…
* Choate employees facing charges have been reassigned
posted by Rich Miller
Wednesday, Aug 18, 21 @ 9:48 am
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Previous Post: Another record broken at Governor’s Sale of Champions
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Seems like the Pritzker administration has an accountability problem. It’s going to be difficult to expect public employees to follow the ethics act if this is how we’re going to treat the whistle blowers.
We need to decide if public ethics in Illinois is going to remain a joke. Right now it seems like the powers that be want it to remain a joke.
Comment by Candy Dogood Wednesday, Aug 18, 21 @ 10:04 am