Acevedo whistleblower to get her day in court

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

More than two years after having her whistleblower court case summarily dismissed by a circuit court judge, former Monroe County Schools Finance Director Kathy Reitzel will receive a hearing the week of February 12.

The trial will be back in front of Sixteenth Judicial Circuit Court Chief Judge Mark Jones, who dismissed the case without a hearing when it came in front of him in September 2015. However, his decision was overturned by an appeals court in 2017, which said “genuine issues of material fact exist” and reversed Jones’ decision.

Reitzel claimed she was unlawfully fired in 2009 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. Reitzel’s actions helped 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 on Sept. 30, 2009, 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 would have focused on the claims against her, 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 when the case came before him. He summarily dismissed Reitzel’s case on Sept, 4, 2015, without a hearing. It had been scheduled to go to trial on Oct. 4, 2015.

“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. Reitzel’s attorney, Michael Barnes, then filed a motion Sept. 21, 2015, asking Judge Jones to reconsider his decision, which he denied. Reitzel appealed and the Florida District Court of Appeals granted her motion on Jan. 11, 2017, sending the case back to Judge Jones.

Monique Acevedo was sentenced to 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.

In addition to Barnes, Reitzel will be represented by Key West Attorney Brett Powell.

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