These two redacted depositions, attached to this post, are a must read for anyone who truly wants to know how badly the county, under inept and indecisive leadership at the time, failed miserably to provide due process to paramedic and former Escambia EMS employee Matt Selover.
This one deposition (in two volumes), probably moreso than any other one I have read related to this case (and I have now read each of them) illustrates the reason the county eventually was forced to settle. The county HR department totally botched the investigation, tried to do a 180 reversal of the investigative findings after holding the report open for 7 months, and allowed for materials to be included in a "final" that were biased, suspect, and unreliable---- requested by one party to the complaint-- and written a full 7 months after the conduct at issue happened. Unpersuasive--this would have never stood up to a trial. It looks exactly like what I thought it was all along: A conspiracy, and an "after the fact" attempt to arrange facts for certain employees to escape any ramifications for actions outside their scope--while totally reversing what was presented as the "final" investigatory findings to fit a politically motivated outcome.
And of course once the 100% contradictory report was presented to Selover 7 months after the first one was in the can--he was told he did not have any appeal mechanism. It was wrong. It would have been a disastrous loser in court.
These two volumes here and here are the deposition of County HR Investigator Ed Sapainhower, who was questioned by J.J. Talbott in regards to his handling of the harrassment complaint that Matt Selover filed against medical director Rayme Edler. It is devastating, the degree to which the county's own policies on timelines for completing an investigation were totally abandoned.
Yes, by July 1st of 2019---Spainhower had completed his preliminary report. But 7 months later--the findings were "updated" and completely reversed--once new staff and a new administrator and her mentor took over the process and apparently wanted a different outcome.
The last 30 pages of volume I of the deposition chronicle, in agonizing detail, what happened and why Selover was not provided this report for months, and months, and months. It's actually quite infuriating.
Distrubingly--this transcript and the questions and answers it brings forward, show that a rushed one-day "finalization" of the report (where the conclusions were totally reversed) happened once a new HR director was brought in to "clean up the mess."
No wonder the lawyers for the insurance company were so desperate to have the county settle this suit.
Of course it is/was convenient for folks that handled this turkey to start blaming those of us who were asking questions, demanding answers, speaking out and inquiring as to why policy was not being followed.
The disgusting attempts at blame shifting by the insurance company lawyers and their ally the bean-counting "adjuster" (who was totally simpatico with the former HR director) are feckless--they knew I would never be called to testify in any trial that might have happened--as I was not an expert witness, nor was I a fact witness. My knowledge of the issues of the case were all second-hand, hearsay; Yet these insurance folks and the press sure were quick to try to foist blame on me...Their accusations ring hollow and are as flat as a belly flop from the high dive.
For those of us who have actually followed this debacle all the way through---these two volumes (Particularly Volume 1 pages 86-141) detail the precise reasons this case had to be settled.
Sloppy, botched work by former county leadership and an egregious failure by HR and the administrator's office in following board policy. That's what caused this. And NOTHING else.
Sadly--it didn't have to happen.
Thankfully--most that were involved in this debacle are no longer in positions of leadership anywhere in this county.
8 comments:
They tried to destroy his life.
On just a surface observation this shows that QA preventing medical errors is to be done in a non punitive non political environment and also HIPAA should be followed. The fall out years later this summer you had a sociopath at the podium threatening to contact families to prove her opinion on Facebook was right.
Speaking of loonies you got that guy who keeps signing up for elected offices saying on f/b that you are fighting the 401a because you want to be appointed as clerk. You can't make this stuff this up.
Obvious since he was turned to DOH and the other two mentioned were not -- Ths one was not treated equally. I'm glad the bullies have lost and are exposed for anyone with eyes to see.
This whole fiasco is an object lesson in why policies must be followed with fidelity, harrassment complaints MUST be investigated to resolution, and leaders must take ownership of hot-button issues and out of control employees and not deflect, obfuscate, and sweep problems under the rug. Unfortunately, everything that could go wrong in the Selover harrassment case did, staff was feckless and weak, and this young man and his family was left hanging in the breeze. Thankfully a resolution was found, but it was an expensive one that never had to happen. That's the "cliff's notes" of this spectacle......
I heard a rumor today that after a couple cases are settled some people from ECW will be named in a new suit for some things they said and done. I wonder how true it is,
I heard Ms. Pino is worried about a lawsuit and that's why she has deleted her social media account.
I doubt she’s worried about that considering she’s already weathered a lawsuit and it was dropped.
Hardly, Anonymous 6:11 AM. The appropriate word is "deactivated," not "deleted." Normal people need breaks from Facebook every once in a while. Not everybody has the addiction to it that Jacqueline Rogers and Doug Underhill do.
Still working my way through the Ed Spainhower deposition...I got interrupted when all of the probable cause dropped on Doug from his various ethics disasters. But so far it looks to be not just the final nail in the coffin to all the disinformation ECW was running from getting cherry-picked public records fed to them so they could continue to bias the Selover suit. It also really sheds a light on just how horrible the processes in the County were being turned on their head during the time the EMS got railroaded by Administration, Edler, Doug and their cronies, with Administration and HR happy to dish up that injustice and ECW pumping out the spin against those people relentlessly, knowing full well the whole time that it was an overblown set-up.
Anybody who wonders how on earth such a thing could happen, or how people could actually do something so horrible to other human beings, take a combined look at Mr. Spainhower's deposition and the Probable Cause findings of the Ethics Committee. That will tell you all you need to know about just how corrupt that nexus was in the County, and also just how difficult it was to get their entrenched self-interest exposed. So happy to be able to sit back a bit now and watch the wheels of justice turn...
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