School accountant who uncovered Acevedo conspiracy loses whistleblower ruling
BY PRU SOWERS
KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER
A judge has thrown out the whistleblower case brought by former Monroe County Schools Finance Director Kathy Reitzel that claimed she was unlawfully fired after she helped uncover a school credit card abuse conspiracy by former Supt. Randy Acevedo and his wife Monique, the former adult education coordinator for the school district.
Circuit Court Judge Mark Jones summarily dismissed Reitzel’s claim that she was forced to retire on Sept. 30, 2009, after helping launch a state investigation into Mrs. Acevedo’s use of a school-issued credit card for personal expenses, a charge she was eventually convicted of. Her husband was convicted of three counts of obstructing justice in the investigation. The couple has since divorced.
Reitzel said in court documents that she was forced to retire when the newly-appointed school superintendent, Dr. Joseph Burke, told her shortly after he took office that he was recommending to the school board that she be fired. Burke based his termination recommendation on a report into the Acevedo investigation written by a law firm hired by the school board. In that report, Reitzel was called “incompetent” and should be either fired, demoted or suspended, according to one of the attorneys, L.T. Lafferty, hired by the school board.
Faced with quitting or undergoing a termination hearing that promised to drag her through the mud, Reitzel instead chose to retire. Her February 2010 court case said that her retirement was made “under duress,” however, and that the school board was in violation of breach of contract, as well as a violation of the federal Whistleblower Protection Act.
Judge Jones disagreed.
“The Court finds that [Reitzel] had a clear understanding of the situation facing her and she made a knowing and voluntary decision to retire. Without a doubt [Reitzel] found herself in a difficult situation where she was faced with disagreeable choices. However, the mere fact [Reitzel] had to make a choice between a comparably unpleasant alternative does not alone establish that her retirement was involuntary,” Jones wrote in his opinion, issued Sept. 4.
Reitzel’s case had been scheduled for trial before Judge Jones on Oct. 5. However, Jones’ ruling cancels that trial unless Reitzel appeals the decision. Neither Reitzel nor her attorney, Michael Barnes, returned calls from Konk Life for comment. However, in an email to a friend that Reitzel agreed to make public to Konk Life, she said she intends to appeal.
“Of course we will file an appeal and have a very good chance that it [Jones’ ruling] will be overturned,” she wrote in the email.
Monique Acevedo is currently serving an eight-year prison sentence for stealing $413,000 from the school district. Randy Acevedo was sentenced to three years’ probation for his role in covering up his then-wife’s illegal expenditures.
For her role in uncovering the criminal conspiracy, Reitzel said in court documents that she was turned into a “scapegoat” by the school board. Even Judge Jones, in his ruling, acknowledged that Reitzel believed that she did not retire voluntarily.
“When [Reitzel] filled out her retirement document, she wrote the words ‘under duress’ but she removed those word when she was informed by [Monroe County Schools Human Resources Director] Cheryl Allen that Dr. Burke said she would have to remove those words if she wanted to continue to work until the end of September,” Jones wrote in his opinion.
However, he said, that alone did not prove that Dr. Burke and the school board took “any adverse employment actions” against Reitzel and that, as a result, her claim under the Whistleblower Act had no legal standing.
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This was, I believe, an incorrect ruling, and will be reversed on appeal. The same thing happened to Linda Gottwald and SUFA, and they eventually prevailed. Hang in there, Kathy!
Here again, no good deed goes unpunished. Faced with the choice of retirement or being fired, losing everything you’ve worked for, certainly constitutes duress and consequently an involuntary decision. By his decision, Judge Jones implies Kathy Reitzel should have allowed herself to be fired and bear personal financial burden in her fight for justice after doing what was upstanding for the taxpayers. What is the real reason why this was forced on a person who had the conscience and guts to do the right thing? It only stands to reason that corruption perpetuates itself by systematically eliminating the watchdogs. Killing the messenger by “public execution” is a clear message to us “minions” to put up and shut up and even reinforced by the courts. If such a disgrace can be perpetrated at this local level, imagine what is happening regularly on a national and global level. We’re all sold apple pie, motherhood and “the American way” but it disgusts me to realize what what the American way has really become. Kathy Reitzel is a heroine who deserves the support of the entire community instead of being kicked to the curb in concocted disgrace.