NORFOLK—The lawyer for two former Community Services Board workers being sued over the agency’s “noshow worker” is trying to persuade the city attorney’s office not to refile a lawsuit that a judge rejected.
Kevin Martingayle sent a letter to Deputy City Attorney Adam Melita last week saying the city has no case against Linda Berardi, the agency’s former human resources officer, and Anthony Crisp, the former director of clinical services.
Martingayle also suggested that based on documents from the city attorney’s office, the city has a conflict of interest in pushing the lawsuit [I], which was filed in May. It seeks an estimated $320,000 from Berardi and Crisp and also from the former director, deputy director and the employee who was on paid suspension for 12 years and not terminated until a new director took over.
City Attorney Bernard A. Pishko said he plans to refile the lawsuit and won’t be swayed by Martingayle, a Virginia Beach attorney.
“He is doing everything that he can to try to dissuade us from proceeding, and so it’s a matter of deflection, and it’s poppycock,” Pishko said.
The Community Services Board oversees mental health and drug treatment programs in Norfolk. Questions over why the agency kept Jill McGlone on the payroll for 12 years have gone unanswered since the scandal became public in late summer 2010. Five workers were forced out of the agency; Berardi, Crisp and another worker filed defamation lawsuits [2], saying they had pointed out the no-show worker to superiors and were being made scapegoats.
The lawsuit filed by the CSB followed. It also names former Director George Pratt and former Director of Administration Brenda Wise, who, records show, told underlings for years that she was handling the situation. Wise recently, through her attorney, said payments to McGlone continued because of an administrative oversight. Commonwealth’s Attorney Greg Underwood has declined to charge anyone with a crime.
Martingayle’s Sept. 19 letter, which he provided to The Pilot, reveals that Daniel Hagemeister, the former deputy city attorney who handled the McGlone issues, sent a memo to Wise about McGlone in 1999. Martingayle accuses the city attorney’s office of “not doing any meaningful follow-up” to make sure McGlone’s suspension was resolved.
“If Ms. Berardi and Mr. Crisp are theorized to have any liability for failing to take further affirmative action to see that Ms. McGlone’s employment status reached a final determination, that exact same logic applies with equal or greater force to the Norfolk City Attorney’s Office,” he wrote.
And because fonner and current employees of the city attorney’s office would be witnesses, Martingayle said he has doubts about whether the city attorney can properly continue handling the lawsuit.
“They need to give serious consideration to the propriety of their role in this whole thing given the fact that their office was clearly involved at the inception of the McGlone situation and presumably could have prevented some of this from occurring,” he said in an interview.
Pishko said he plans to refile the suit after it was tossed out earlier this month by Circuit Judge Everett A. Martin Jr. The judge ruled that the CSB’s claim of constructive fraud had not been pleaded with specificity against the director and the three managers.
Pishko defended his office’s initial handling of McGlone.
He said Hagemeister went beyond his duties as the CSB’s lawyer by telling management in 1999 that McGlone should be terminated following a revelation that she illegally disclosed that a CSB client was HIV positive. McGlone, an office assistant, had previously been suspended on an allegation that she had a weapon on CSB property.
Despite Hagemeister’s advice, the decision on terminating McGlone, and the failure to do so, rested with CSB management, Pishko said. Hagemeister also referred the illegal disclosure to the U.S. attorney’s office, which at the time declined to prosecute, Pishko said. “Hagemeister is going beyond the call of duty,” he said.
“The reason for our lawsuit is obvious. The payment of somebody for over 12 years who didn’t work was wrong. So we’d like to be repaid.”
By Patrick Wilson
The Virginian-Pilot
©