Three of Four Former EMS Employees Have Cases Concluded in Court

 

The first employee, several months back, had some major, serious charges leveled against him.  Some were felonies.  Eventually, his case was disposed of, and all the serious charges were dropped to two misdemeanors.  He is continuing his career elsewhere.

Now, today, comes news that two more of the former EMS employees that had a laundry-list of allegations leveled against them by our former medical director--have now had their cases resolved in circuit court today.  These two cases from today were concluded with neither employee admitting guilt to any of the charges, and both of these former employees were given a pre-trial diversion option--which allows all the charges leveled against them to eventually be expunged from the record--so long as the terms of the pre-trial deal are adheared to by these two former employees.  And if they so choose, both of these employees can continue their respective careers in EMS.  NO ramifications on their licenses.

Many of us have been watching these events closely, waiting for this day.

For many of us, this is vindication.  

I am quite pleased that these former employees can now move forward with their lives and get past this terrible situation they found themselves in with one employee who could take no criticism, and lashed out at junior employees once multiple harrassment complaints were filed against her.

Many believe, based upon what we're now seeing, that much if not all of these accusations and allegations of wrongdoing  was simply comprised of cooked up, trumped up allegations that have now evanesced under the scrutiny of a court proceeding.

I plan on really digging into this in more depth in the next couple of days.  

In the meantime---I'm very glad we have new leadership in Public Safety, EMS, and in the role of Medical Director.  Because what happened over the last three years did not have to happen, and a lot of good people were disparaged, disrespected, and run out of their jobs.

And some were charged with serious infractions which it appears, now, never happened.

The damage one rogue employee can inflict on fellow employees, junior employees, and an entire organization, are immense.  That's why mature, effective, and strong leadership is mandatory.

For several years in public safety we didn't have this.

Now, with our new org chart, I believe we do.  

The Deposition (s) of Ed Spainhower

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.

The Deposition(s) of John Dosh and Jimmy Maddrey

The released depositions into the recently settled lawsuit against the county regarding the county's failure to provide due process to a former employee are a window into a lot of dysfunction that was happening, apparently, in EMS in the 2018-2019 timeframe.  Thankfully--most (if not all) of the players involved in this mess have moved on from the county or been terminated, and that department is now doing MUCH, much better with better leadership.....

The depositions in the case that we recently settled with former paramedic Matt Selover contain an incredible amount of information.  There are lots of other information items contained within the depositions as well-- that beg a lot of additional questions about many aspects of the way EMS was being run in the 2018-2019 timeframe.  Many lessons to learn and mistakes not to repeat....

As we all now know, there were tremendous problems in the way staff handled and treated Mr. Selover--and this of course led to the nearly $200,000.00 settlement the county's insurance carrier, upon the strident recommendation of their own retained attorneys, ultimately paid to settle the suit.

These two depositions--one from the former acting director of public safety and the former acting EMS chief--add pieces to the puzzle that ultimately came together and which necessitated our settlement with this wronged employee.

Hopefully--many will read these and learn what to do and not to do so that we will never again do this to ANY employee so that, importantly, we will never have to make another 6-figure settlement like this one again.

County staff assistant attorney Steve West provided the following advice on my request to make these documents public--and I have removed the pages he references as sensitive in his below email:

"Commissioner Bergosh:

 As you requested, attached are the deposition transcripts for John Dosh and James Maddrey, which Alison asked me to review and forward.  The only redaction is the home address on page 7 of Maddrey’s transcript.

 I understand that Charlie has already advised on your discretion regarding certain sensitive information (xxxxxxxxxxxxx).  For your convenience, references to xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx can be found on pages 80-82 and 85 of Dosh’s transcript and pages 56 and 92-95 of Maddrey’s.   Please contact our office if you have any questions or concerns on this or any other information in the transcripts.

 Stephen G. West, Senior Assistant County Attorney"

Read the John Dosh deposition here

Read the Jimmy Maddrey deposition here

Why People Just "LOVE" Lawyers, Part I

"The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers"--Shakespeare

Lawyers:

From time to time we all need them, just like a plumber.  Like plumbers, they oftentimes are called in to clean up messes that stink--and then you get a huge bill for the service. 

Dick the Butcher in Shakespeare's Henry VI said it well:  "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers"

I have a running schtick I employ from time to time:  "I don't like lawyers, and there's only 1 Lawyer I trust!"  (Soon, I'll be forced to modify this phrase, as in addition to my brother being a lawyer--in less than a year my oldest son will also be one upon his graduation from Marquette Law School in the Spring of 2022)  So it will be "Theres only 1-- I mean 2---that I trust."

And of course I say that facetiously, in jest.  It's humorous to those that know me and my brother. But in humor, sometimes, there is often a kernel of truth--so we will leave that right there....

Case in point and the focus of part I of this post--trickery, wordsmithed half truths posited as fact and posed to me as a question during my deposition by a shyster the county is using taxpayer money to pay.

  It is all related to the recent settlement in Public Safety--necessitated by a timeline that plainly established the fact that the county's medical director at that time engaged in retaliation against a subordinate employee, exceeded her authority in constructively demoting/disciplining the subordinate, and completely usurped the chain of command of her organization by being insubordinate and deciding to initiate the filing of a state level complaint against a subordinate without bringing the department head or the administrator into the loop about this decision-----until she, essentially, had pulled the trigger on it by writing it all up and wrapping a bow around it.  

Clear as crystal, it was retaliation, so far as I can tell and in my opinion.  I believe this is the impetus for the lawyers for the insurance company all but begging the BCC NOT to take this case to trial and to settle it.  We took their advice; we settled the case with Selover and subsequently paid him nearly $200,000.

During the last portion of my cross-examination by this creature on Jauary 18th---- she busts this statement/question out on me-------and I responded to her (p. 207 of the deposition):

"Q. Well, you are aware, are you not, sir, that

Dr. Edler sat down with Mr. Dosh, and with Mr.

Spainhower, and reviewed all of the documentation that

she was going to submit to the Department of Health

before she submitted it? You're aware of that?

A. That's not the information that I have, no."

(I didn't have that information and the reason I answered the question the way I did was  because I had been told, and everything I had seen, was that everyone was totally and completely blindsided by

The Deposition(s) of Jeff Bergosh

 

On Monday, January 18, 2021--I sat for a 6-hour deposition in the Matt Selover case.

I was subpoenaed to testify, I received a written opinion that although my truthful testimony would be damaging to the county's position that it was proper for me to sit for the deposition,  and I was under oath and asked questions by multiple lawyers about this matter.  

And I told the truth.  

Here's what's important to know:  None of what I said had any bearing on the outcome of the case, and every lawyer with a brain knows I would have NEVER been called to testify in this case had it even gone to trial.  I had no relevance whatsoever;  I was not a fact witness, I wasn't an expert witness, I simply had opinions based upon my knowledge of events received second hand.  I never would have been called to testify in this case.   Wouldn't have happened.

But I was subpoenaed, so I complied and testified.  

And yes, my truthful view of the events surrounding the Matt Selover case and subsequent lawsuit differed greatly from the insurance company's lawyer, Katie Guiditis of the Lydecker-Diaz law firm.

And although I did not know it at the time, within 10 days of my deposition, attorney Katie Guiditis of the Lydecker-Diaz law firm (purportedly the attorney for the County Commission paid for by an insurance carrier that picked up this case)  would produce a scathing account of my truthful testimony and share it with the county attorney's office.  It was never shared with me or my counterparts for 8 months  prior to the conclusion of the matter after the county settled with Matt Selover for nearly $200,000.00.  

Even after the conclusion of the matter I was not aware of the existence of this memo, until a PNJ reporter called me, read portions of it to me, and asked me "what I thought of it."  

I find it incredible, astonishing that Ms. Guiditis would withhold the fact that although my opinions differed from hers, my relevance (lack thereof) would preclude my testifying in any trial that might ensue.  This was a huge fact to omit, leaving the casual reader of the document to believe I was the lynchpin that caused this case to settle--which is absolute rubbish and completely dishonest.  

So I have now subsequently requested every document in the case referring to me by Katie Guiditis and her firm. I made this request of Charlie Peppler, deputy County Attorney.  

I received a few email strings, this "memo" from the 27th of January-----and a follow-on memo from May 4th.  Again--I was not aware of any of this, nor were my counterparts, until after the settlement of this lawsuit.  I am disgusted with the way this was portrayed by this lawyer and her apparent desire to set me up as some sort of "boogey man" that created this problem.  I am contemplating filing a bar complaint against her, that is how dissatisfied I am with the way that was handled.  (Seeing the memo

The Deposition of William Hopkins

The county's litigation with Matt Selover has concluded.  Matt Selover was treated horribly by some inept, former county employees;  his harrassment complaint was buried, his wages were reduced unfairly, and his due process was severely violated.  The county has now settled the case for $200,000.00 ----and now the depositions and associated documents of the case are a public record.

There have been some unflattering portrayals of this case (and inaccurate, incomplete information as well) in memos from the insurance company's lawyers--leaked to the press and not shared with the BCC when the case was being deliberated by commissioners.  There have been armchair, Monday morning keyboard warrior types spreading a bunch of misinformation about the case on facebook chat sites.  And there have been people lying about the case, the timelines, and the reasons this case was settled.

Because of all the propaganda and noise surrounding this case, and because these transcripts are public records which many have requested, I'll be posting them all here, on this blog, one by one,  so folks can read them for themselves---and make their own judgments about how poorly this former employee was treated.

This transcript, linked below, from former Escambia paramedic William Hopkins-- created a devastating hole in the medical director's purported timeline of the "when" she decided and made it known she would seek to restrict Matt Selover's priviledges and report him to the DOH.  Mr. Hopkins directly contradicted the medical director's assertions that the decision was made to restrict the ability of Selover to remain a paramedic the day of the QA/QI board--April 23rd 2019.  In fact, his testimony appears to back Selover's claim that the Medical Director sought to retaliate against him and only took action against his priviledges AFTER she was made aware of Selover's harrassment complaint against her on May 1st...  from p. 62 of the deposition:

A. All I recall that day was the meeting,

followed by Dr. Edler asking us to write up our review

of how the meeting went and then any kind of

observations that we had and that's all I remember. I

don't really remember what happened after that.

Q. Okay. Did you all in that meeting discuss any

type of reprimand or punishing my client?

MS. GUDAITIS: Object to form.

A. (By the Witness) No.

Q. (By Mr. Talbott) In that meeting, did you

discuss anything about limiting his ability to practice

or do certain procedures?

A. A meeting? No.

Q. During that meeting, did you talk about

reporting him to the Department of Health?

A. At that meeting, no.

Q. At some other time, did you talk about

reporting him to the Department of Health?

A. There was a time when Dr. Edler stated that

she may have to do that based upon what she seen, but it

was more of a statement, not more of a -- a asking us

for permission. She was kind of hemming and hawing

about whether or not to do it, so I don't know, I mean,

obviously, I know what her final answer is today, but at

the time I didn't know what her final answer was.

Our attorney, Matt Shaud, sent the following email indicating this entire transcript is/was a public record.  I have removed the pages as recommended---even though legally this was not necessary to do:

"Commissioner Bergosh:

 Attached please find William Hopkins’ deposition transcript.  It does not appear to be subject to any applicable exemptions, but as Charlie noted below, this transcript also contains testimony regarding a xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.  Those references are on pages 26-28, 43-44, and 88-90.

 Thank you,

 Matt Shaud

Assistant County Attorney"

Read the transcript here

The Deposition(s) of Jana Still

I received authorization to release the three volumes of Jana Still's (former HR Director for Escambia County) depositions in the now concluded Matt Selover lawsuit.

Her deposition, conducted by Pensacola attorney J.J. Talbot, was not helpful, whatsoever, to the county's case.  In fact, upon re-reading it juxtaposed with all of the other pertinent information in the case, it now appears more than likely that she was brought in and thrown to the wolves and instructed to "handle" the mess that was already well underway by the time she was brought in to work on it in November of 2019.  She was brought in to fix it, and her efforts were a belly-flop-job, a disaster.  It went south on her very badly...and cost us time, money, and several employees.

From county legal, as to my ability to release these particular records:

"Commissioner Bergosh:

Attached please find Jana Still’s deposition transcript.  There does not appear to be any applicable exemptions.  However, this transcript also contains testimony regarding the xxxxxxxxxxxxx and the resulting xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

 You may want to exercise your discretion to omit the following portions of the transcript:

• Volume II, page 129, lines 9-11; and
• Volume II, page 133, lines 15-18

Thank you,

 Kia M. Johnson

Assistant County Attorney"

Read the transcripts here, here, and here...

The Deposition of Rayme Edler

The deposition of Rayme Edler, who would have been called to testify and who was a fact witness, was damaging, very damaging to the County's case.  Very Damaging.  Read it, below

Our case with former employee Matt Selover has settled, and therefore much of the discovery documents, depositions, etc., once redacted appropriately, will be released here.  

The deposition of Rayme Edler was devastatingly bad for the county.  It was a horror show.  Although she had two lawyers falling over themselves to object to just about every question asked of her---Attorney J.J. Talbot was pedestrian, balanced, and methodical in the extraction of damaging information from Edler during this deposition.  And unlike me, Rayme Edler would have been called to testify in any trial had we not settled.  I never would have been called as I was not a fact witness, not an expert, and my opinions were not and are not relevant to the facts of the case. (a fact ignored by the attorney for the insurance company in her memo to the county, and a fact omitted from the PNJ coverage of this settlement)   And had it gone to trial--by the insurance company's own estimation--the County could have been on the hook for up to $820,000.00 PLUS Legal fees.  (That devastating fact was conveniently left out of the PNJ's hit piece on me published Monday).

With respect to the medical director at the time of this incident, I received the below opinion from Charlie Peppler about releasing her deposition transcript, which I will be linking to this blog post.

From Deputy County Attorney Charlie Peppler:

"Comm’r,

   I have reviewed Dr. Edler’s depo transcript and there does not appear to be any exemptions applicable.  You may wish to exercise your own discretion about testimony given by Dr. Edler XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX on pages 173 through 177.  Perhaps, redacting those pages with an explanation that they involve personal, sensitive matters of a former employee, but, again, that is your call, I couldn’t find an exemption for this testimony. (In my own opinion, I don’t think the trial judge would let this testimony into evidence on the grounds of relevance, but that is not the issue at this point).  Other attorneys in our office are reviewing the depos of William Hopkins and Jana Still and they will get with you when they have finished their review. Regards,  Charlie

Charles V. Peppler"

Read the deposition of Rayme Edler, with pages 173-177 removed on the advice of Peppler, here.

Final Legal Analysis Listed Potential Selover Award Damages at More Than $800K

The County saved potentially $600K or more (according to attorneys working the case on behalf of the County's insurance carrier) due to our settlement with wronged first responder Matt Selover.  PNJ did not report that; instead, their article on the front page of this morning's paper essentially blames everything about this case on Jeff Bergosh......

Unlike the dishonest, feckless partisan fake news PNJ, their writer Jim Little and their rancid trash heap article in print on the front page of today's paper---I will link the documentation I have that illustrates the totality of the problems with the County's defense of the Paramedic Matt Selover's Lawsuit the county settled for just under $200K last month.

Fake news PNJ cherry pick a 35 page document from January of this year to find a couple of paragraphs they believe to be unflattering to yours truly, and they make a story of that only and exclusively.  

And, they conveniently do not link their source docuement--a 35 page memo from the Lydecker-Diaz law firm delineating all the multiple problems with the defense and urging a settlement in the case to reduce financial exposure to their real client---not the BCC---the insurance company that ultimately paid the settlement.

PNJ didn't show the document, but I did.  

And PNJ's subsequent post on their facebook page was panned by readers unanimously and universally---including by Matt Selover himself, you know, the first responder at the center of the matter.  He went in and made some very apropos comments correcting the PNJ's flawed narrative on their own facebook page.

But setting that wreckage aside--there was a follow-on memo from the same firm sent over to the BCC's deputy county attorney Charlie Peppler in early May---and that memo apparently didn't get leaked to the PNJ as the previous one did.  I wonder why?  (I know why, and so will those who read it!)

Actually--none of the board members knew about it so far as I can tell--which is problematic as we should have been given it ahead of our last shade meeting in early June.  It might have influenced decisionmaking.  But it was withheld from the board, we did what we did, and it is all over now.

But that memo, linked here, did describe our potential liablility as potentially exceeding $800K--and again urged a settlement for a myriad of good reasons---the same ones and more from their first memo---yet none of these valid reasons made it into the fake news PNJ article.  Nope.  Just "Jeff Bergosh's fault"  (I wonder why?).  No, I don't wonder why, I know why. PNJ are biased, weak, lazy, owned by the powerful, and fake to their rotten core.  That's why.

From the memo the PNJ didn't show you:

"individuals at the County thought restricting his [Selover's] privileges may be discipline and trigger due process. This prompted John Dosh (Dosh), former Interim Public Safety Director, and Matthew Coughlin, former Interim County Administrator) to seek a legal opinion regarding Dr. Edler’s authority to demote Selover. As such, Deputy County Attorney Charles Peppler, drafted same and concluded that Dr. Edler lacked the authority to demote Selover.  Critically, this is a weakness in our case as our defense is that the actions taken by the County do not amount to a disciplinary action." 

"Should a jury find that the County is liable, but believe Plaintiff’s expert’s economic loss findings, we estimate Plaintiff’s recoverable damages in a range between $788,162.00-$820,162, not taking into account attorney fees."  

"Overall, we have concerns regarding the atmosphere at the County at the time of Selover’s complaint, the turnover occurring with the administration and having things fall through the cracks, the differences in opinions evidenced in emails, and the County failing to follow their harassment policy.  For example, the County failed to follow their harassment policy timeline, but did not let Selover appeal again despite the County taking six months to issue their opinion on Selover’s complaint. Moreover, at the time Selover’s privileges were restricted, there was a disagreement over whether restricting Plaintiff’s clinical privileges or any paramedic’s clinical privileges was considered “discipline” thereby triggering due process. We have two county attorney’s opinions stating that it was discipline."

 "Critically, she [former HR Director Jana Still] testified that after rendering the final opinion, Selover asked to appeal, but since the complaint was a harassment complaint, and subject to the unlawful harassment policy only, it only provided for 5 days to appeal—which Selover and Dr. Edler had at the

Kindergarten Students SHOULD NOT be Treated Like This!

"Can you imagine this?" the voice was crackling with rage.  This veteran teacher was angry.  "This is wrong, and something better be done about this or I will go to the media--I've never seen anything like this in 20 years teaching!"

From a reliable source that does not want to be named--this is what happened in one of our (non-universal free-lunch)elementary schools today

It all started when four kindergartners forgot their lunch money--or their parents forgot to give them the money.  When these youngsters reached the cashier with their trays in hand, one by one their lunches were taken from them and dumped in the trash can right in front of them because they did not have their lunch money.

Instead of their normal lunch, each was given two slices of white bread, a slice of american cheese, and a cup of water.

These are kindergartners--not savvy high schoolers trying to get over on the system.

Saddened, traumatized, these 5 year old children began to cry.

One adult present checked and confirmed that two of the four children were, indeed, eligible for free lunch.  So they were given a new plate of food (although the previous tray of food was wasted, thrown into the trash according to this witness).

The other two, were left with the cheese sandwich.

One teacher offered to go get money from her classroom to pay for one student, and the cashier held