MT. PLEASANT, Mich. (WJRT) – Emails shed new light on a lawsuit filed by a former gymnastics coach against Central Michigan University that was settled, just days before a trial was to begin.
We told you on Friday how Jerry Reighard settled a lawsuit with the university after the school had fired him in 2019.
Court papers indicate CMU President Robert Davies claimed he didn’t have any information regarding the decision to fire Reighard, but the attorneys for Reighard claim that’s not true.
CMU’s attorneys recently discovered emails that appear to indicate Davies had some input on the Reighard situation.
Just two weeks after those emails were released to Reighard’s attorneys, the case was settled.
70-year-old Jerry Reighard was suspended as CMU’s gymnastics coach in February 2019.
The school investigated an allegation that Reighard told a gymnast to lie to medical personnel about a possible concussion, a claim Reighard denied.
Reighard was eventually fired, and he filed an age discrimination lawsuit against the school.
Attorneys Victor Mastromarco and Kevin Kelly, who represent Reighard, wanted to take a deposition from CMU President Robert Davies to see what, if any involvement he had with Reighard’s termination, but CMU argued then-athletic director Mike Alford had already testified in a deposition that it was Alford’s decision to terminate Reighard.
Davies did sign an affidavit in January of last year, claiming he concurred with Alford’s decision to fire Reighard, and Davies had no information regarding the decision to terminate the coach.
But on January 19th of this year, court papers indicate CMU did provide emails to Reighard’s attorneys indicating Davies did have some opinions on the matter.
Dennis Armistead, the director of the school’s Faculty Personnel Services, wrote an email on March 27th, 2019, before Reighard was fired.
It was sent to Davies and others, talking about the possibility that Reighard may want to retire or resign and receive some compensation.
Davies replied with this email, saying in part,” I agree with the finality of it; however, as you stated, he (Reighard) blatantly lied.”
Davies added, “He also put the health and safety of our students at risk” and ended the email by writing, “I have a hard time accepting this offer that cleverly benefits him.”
Reighard was fired the next month. After receiving this and a couple of other emails that included responses from Davies, Reighard’s attorneys filed a motion, claiming Davies and Alford committed fraud, a motion that will most likely not be ruled on, because the case was settled last week for $350,000.
In court documents, CMU’s lawyers called the Mastromarco Law Firm’s claims of fraud ‘absurd’ and the school released a statement writing, “There is no merit to the plaintiff’s allegations of inconsistency on the part of the University in the handling of this case. The emails voluntarily provided by CMU confirm that Dr. Davies’ affidavit was at all times true and accurate.”
SAGINAW COUNTY, Mich. (WJRT) – A former Saginaw County employee says she was branded a racist for using an expression she used when helping a co-worker.
A favorite treat for many people is a chocolate chip cookie, but those words are at the center of a federal lawsuit against the county.
The former employee says she was disciplined for using the term “chocolate chip cookie” when she spoke to an African-American co-worker.
Julia Stewart was suspended. She says when she returned to her job, she was the target of harassment and a racial slur was directed towards her and she felt she was forced to resign.
“I baked cookies, cakes, its not uncommon to bring in something one a week,” says Stewart on her habit of bringing in treats for workers.
She would bring those treats to the Saginaw County Courthouse.
She was a supervisor in the Traffic Division. She supervised about nine people and when she helped them and was thanked, she would say this.
“You just owe me a cookie someday, you just owe me a cookie and she did this, we would do this over several months,” says Stewart.
In January 2021, she got a phone call from an employee that she had been helping.
“I answered it like, oh, its going to be a chocolate chip cookie, you know, it just came out chocolate chip cookie, like that is what you owe me for this favor I know you are going to ask me, because you are calling me on my lunch hour, obviously you need a favor,” Stewart recalls.
The worker she was speaking with is African-American.
“A couple of days after that I was notified that there was an investigation being opened because they filed a formal complaint about that,” says Stewart.
Court documents indicate Saginaw County hired an attorney to do an investigation and it was determined Stewart violated a county discrimination policy twice, once for using the term and the second for an apology county officials felt wasn’t sincere.
“They branded her a racist,” says her attorney, Kevin Kelly.
“I was suspended for three days,” says Stewart.
She says when she returned to work, it was not the same.
“One of the girls started referring to me as the white devil,” Stewart says.
“When she goes to complain that she is being referred to the white devil, which is racist, they don’t do anything and they tell her they are not going to do anything, and they tell her it’s going to get worse, so what is she going to do but get out of that situation,” says Kelly.
Stewart resigned this past February.
“This is just wrong, and pushing me out of a job that I loved, really,” says Stewart.
Kelly, who is with the Mastromarco Law Firm, says it’s Stewart who was the victim of discrimination and retaliation.
A four-count lawsuit has been filed against Saginaw County, asking for damages in excess of $75,000.
He claims the county didn’t follow its own policy on how to investigate a discrimination complaint.
“The policy requires two county employees to investigate it, they hired an attorney, they didn’t follow the policy,” says Kelly.
Stewart is working somewhere else now.
“I actually hide from people because I’m afraid to run into anyone from the county,” Stewart says.
We reached out to several county employees and officials for comment and all referred me to the county’s attorney, who we could not reach for comment about the claims in the lawsuit.
Argument has been ordered in case involving what constitutes a “report” for purposes of the Whistleblower Protection Act, or WPA.
In McNeill-Marks v. MidMichigan Medical Center-Gratiot (MiLW 08-105229, 5 pages), Tammy McNeill-Marks placed a call to her attorney to convey that an individual violated a personal protection order but requested that no action be taken.
This was not a “report,” according to a Court of Appeals panel.
“[P]laintiff did not make a ‘report’ as envisioned by the WPA,” the judges explained. “Her communication lacked the purposeful intent necessary for qualification as a ‘report’ for WPA purposes. She informed her personal attorney but intended no action be taken.”
Now, the justices have directed the parties to address whether the communication from McNeill-Marks to her attorney about the individual’s presence at the hospital amounted to a “report,” as that word is used in Section 2 of the WPA.
At a minimum, the parties shall address whether: (1) the WPA requires that the plaintiff’s communication be to an individual with the authority to address the alleged violation of law; (2) the WPA requires that a plaintiff employee specifically intend to make a charge of a violation or suspected violation of law against another; and (3) privileged communications between a client and his or her attorney can constitute a report under the WPA.
Fired after chance encounter
Tammy McNeill-Marks emerged from an operating room at MidMichigan Medical Center-Gratiot, or MMCG, and greeted people in the hallway.
McNeill-Marks had multiple PPOs against Marcia Fields, who happened to be a hospital patient being transported in a wheelchair in the vicinity.
Fields responded, “Hello, Tammy,” in a manner that caused McNeill-Marks emotional distress; she feared that Fields discovered where she worked in the hospital, making her vulnerable and possibly her fellow employees unsafe.
McNeill-Marks called her supervisor — who knew of the PPO against Fields— and informed her of the incident.
She also called her personal attorney. During the conversation, McNeill-Marks instructed her attorney not to serve a newly entered PPO on Fields.
Unknown to McNeill-Marks and contrary to what she told her attorney, a process server later served Fields the PPO in her hospital room. Fields complained to MMCG, claiming McNeill-Marks violated the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.
After an investigation, MMCG ultimately terminated McNeill-Marks for violating both HIPAA and MMCG’s privacy policies based on the telephone conversation with her attorney.
McNeill-Marks filed a lawsuit accusing MMCG of violating the WPA.
The Gratiot County Circuit Court granted summary disposition in favor of MMCG. The first time the case appeared before the Court of Appeals, the panel reversed in part and remanded.
The trial court on remand again granted summary disposition for the hospital on the ground that McNeill-Marks’s communication with her attorney did not constitute a “report” under the WPA.
For the second trip to the appeals court, a majority reversed. MMCG sought leave to appeal to the Michigan Supreme Court, which reversed and remanded to the appellate court for consideration of whether McNeill-Marks’s communication satisfied the reporting requirement of the WPA.
The meaning of ‘report’
Prior case law — Rivera v. SVRC Industries, Inc. and Henry v. City of Detroit — discussed the question of whether a plaintiff’s communication with her attorney satisfied the WPA.
Whether a plaintiff made a “report” for WPA purposes by communicating with an attorney requires analysis of the nature of the communications, the appeals court said.
“The Rivera court clarified that a person making a claim under the WPA must establish she initiated making a ‘report’ which must involve ‘the making of a charge against’ or the ‘making known’ a violation of suspected violation of law,” the panel wrote. “Further, an attorney who merely fits the broad definition of a ‘public body,’ by virtue of participation in the profession, does not suffice for making a ‘report’ to a ‘public body’ for WPA purposes. When a person claims whistleblower status based on an allegation that a communication with an attorney constituted a ‘report,’ Rivera instructs that trial courts must engage in a deeper analysis of the particular facts and circumstances of the communication.”
The court acknowledged McNeill-Marks made Fields’s conduct known to her attorney, “but the record establishes that at the time of that communication she did not do so for purposes of making a charge of illegality against Fields ‘to remedy the situation or harm done by the violation[.]’”
Applying the principles articulated in Henry and Rivera, McNeill-Marks did not make a report as envisioned by the WPA, the panel said.
SAGINAW COUNTY (WJRT) – A lawsuit claims a woman who was left on a porch with gunshot wounds for more than an hour would have lived if someone would have come to help her.
The family of N’ala Wallace is suing Saginaw County 9-1-1, claiming emergency responders didn’t go to the shooting scene because they weren’t notified that the woman had been shot.
Wallace was shot, ran to a home for help, but died from injuries.
This happened in July of last year and as we have reported before, police had a number of shooting calls that day.
This was the early morning hours of July 5th, fireworks were still going off in Saginaw, gunshots as well.
Three other women were injured that night in shootings around the same time, but this lawsuit claims N’ala Wallace would have received faster medical attention if the 9-1-1 call would have been coded properly.
“She meant a lot to people,” says DeeAngela Wallace, the mother of N’ala.
23-year-old Nala Wallace was at a home on Burnham in Saginaw in the early morning hours of July 5th, 2021, where she was shot by a man.
She ran across the street, knocked on a door asking for help. The people at that home called 9-1-1, but the lawsuit claims help didn’t arrive for an hour and twenty-five minutes.
The woman who made that initial 9-1-1 call, called back
“I just called in an hour ago and said there were shots fired outside my house and there was a girl pounding on my door and no cops have showed up, and I just looked out my door finally, and she is laying on my porch, where the $*#& are these cops,” the woman could be heard in the July 5th, 2021 call.
“It wasn’t addressed as it should have been, I think it was taken a little lightly, it wasn’t taken as serious as it should have been,’ says DeeAngela Wallace.
She has filed this gross negligence lawsuit in state court against Saginaw County 9-1-1 and a supervisor, claiming N’ala Wallace might have lived if she would have received medical attention much earlier.
“We have experts who are going to testify to that, she laid on that porch for over an hour,” says attorney Victor Mastromarco.
Wallace was shot five times.
Mastromarco and attorney Kevin Kelly claim the initial 9-1-1 call was coded as a shots fired call, not as a ‘person may have been shot’ call.
“When you code it as shots fired, that means by their own policies, no one is going to come help, maybe the police will when they have time to get to it, when its a shooting, MMR is sent, police are sent, fire is sent if necessary and sure stuff was going on, that’s no excuse,” says Kelly.
The lawsuit is requesting a judgement of more than $25,000.
We attempted to reach Saginaw County 9-1-1’s director and the entity’s attorney for comment but I did not hear back.
Ramiro Garcia has been charged with murder in connection with Wallace’s death and is awaiting trial.
STANTON — For the second time in her law enforcement career, a police officer is suing her former employer for height and gender discrimination after being fired.
Destinee Bryce filed a federal lawsuit on Aug. 4 in the U.S. District Court Western District of Michigan against the city of Stanton and City Manager Jacob VanBoxel alleging gender and height discrimination in violation of 42 USC 1983, the Fourteenth Amendment and the Michigan Elliott-Larsen Civil Rights Act. The lawsuit alleges that Bryce is a member of a protected class based on her gender and height (she is 4-foot-7-inches tall).
Bryce was hired as a Stanton police officer in July 2016 she and was promoted to police chief in September 2020, succeeding the late Joe Patino. Bryce was placed on administrative leave by VanBoxel on Aug. 2, 2021, and fired shortly thereafter.
Bryce was hired as police chief of the village of Elsie in Clinton County this past May.
Bryce previously sued Saginaw County and its sheriff’s department in a height and gender discrimination lawsuit after she was fired as a part-time sheriff’s deputy, according to the Saginaw News. Bryce claimed her stature led sheriff’s officials to prevent her from obtaining full-time work with the sheriff’s department. In 2014, shortly before going to trial, Bryce received a settlement of $215,000 from the county, which expressly denied any liability.
Bryce is being represented in her lawsuit against Stanton by The Mastromarco Firm in Saginaw — the same law firm which represented her in her lawsuit against Saginaw County.
Lauri Beth Stewart of Detroit is acting as attorney for the city of Stanton.
LAWSUIT ALLEGATIONS
The lengthy list of complaints alleged in Bryce’s lawsuit state that as Patino’s retirement date of August 2020 approached, “individuals in the community began opposing plaintiff’s advancement to the chief position, indicating that some believed that a woman of plaintiff’s stature could not succeed in the position. Bryce alleges this same discriminatory sentiment was shared by Stanton Mayor Lori Williams in July 2020 who allegedly opposed Bryce’s future appointment to the position of police chief, stating that the city of Stanton should post the police chief position as open and accept applications for interviews.”
Bryce says former Stanton city manager Vester Davis told her that “some people” had it out for Bryce and there was a target on her back.
“Davis specifically mentioned receiving an email from a neighboring chief of police, who advocated against plaintiff’s hiring,” the lawsuit states.
Bryce was named Stanton police chief in September 2020. Davis resigned as city manager in October 2020 and VanBoxel was hired as city manager in January 2021. Shortly after VanBoxel was hired, Bryce says she met with him and Williams.
“Vanboxel informed plaintiff that he had been ‘brought up to speed’ by Mayor Williams and it was his understanding that the city wanted to hire Matt Pumford, whom was to be her subordinate, and who was at that time an officer with the city of Beaverton, as a full-time officer and in order to hire him, would need to pay off Officer Pumford’s contract with Beaverton, for approximately $7,800.28,” the lawsuit states.
Pumford was hired as a Stanton police officer in February 2021. Bryce says Pumford requested a meeting with her in April 2021 and he then “proceeded to act insubordinately and stated he did not like the way plaintiff did her job.” Bryce said Pumford attempted to have her hire a friend of his as a part-time officer, but when she refused, VanBoxel and Williams began “interfering with Bryce’s oversight of the police department.”
As examples, the lawsuit states that on April 20, 2021, VanBoxel and Williams asked Bryce to enforce a “no overnight parking” restriction, but the following day, VanBoxel instructed Bryce not to issue parking tickets to vehicles abusing overnight parking even though Pumford had placed warnings on approximately 24 vehicles the previous night. Bryce says she protested VanBoxel’s alleged attempts to “micromanage” the police department, but he “frequently refused to value plaintiff’s input or information, demonstrating his negative view that a woman of plaintiff’s stature should not be a police chief.”
The lawsuit states that on May 4, 2021, Bryce received a call from a Montcalm County sheriff’s deputy who advised he had arrested a drunken driver but the driver got away without penalty, because the stop signs in the city of Stanton were nonconforming to Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) standards. Bryce says she reported the nonconformance to VanBoxel who said he would speak with the city’s Department of Public Works Director James Blum. Bryce says VanBoxel later said the stop signs were legal according to Blum. Bryce says she again reported the nonconformance of the stop signs and also contacted MDOT.
“As time went on in April and into May, Officer Pumford became increasingly insubordinate to the plaintiff,” the lawsuit states. “VanBoxel condoned, tolerated and encouraged Officer Pumford’s insubordination.”
The lawsuit states that on May 7, 2021, Pumford chose to work particular hours of his own choosing instead of the hours Bryce had instructed him to work. Bryce says when she questioned Pumford, he became “extremely upset and proceeded to be insubordinate.” Bryce says she questioned Pumford the following day and he again became angry and walked out.
Bryce says she reported Pumford’s actions to VanBoxel, “who did nothing in response.” Bryce says VanBoxel and other city officials “tolerated the insubordination” of Pumford and told Bryce that she would be disciplined if she disciplined Pumford.
The lawsuit says that when Bryce was fired on Aug. 2, 2021, “any reasons given for plaintiff’s termination — that in fact the defendants broadcast to the local news — were pretextual in nature, and to mask their true reasons.”
In fact, when asked by the Daily News why Bryce had been fired, VanBoxel initially declined to comment. Only after the Daily News sent two Freedom of Information Act requests did VanBoxel provide a statement about her termination. VanBoxel said he was notified of allegations regarding Bryce’s conduct, including unprofessional interaction with the public, a potential incident of unlawful detention, the failure to properly document and store evidence (including a firearm and a cell phone) and the failure to abide by city policies regarding documenting compensatory time.
Bryce’s lawsuit also alleges, “Defendants also reported the false and defamatory reasons for plaintiff’s discharge to the MCOLES (the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards), which MCOLES found to be unsubstantiated. Defendants were motivated to defame the plaintiff and provide false information to MCOLES to prevent the plaintiff from getting a job in the future, and to place false information on her personal record for the State of Michigan licensing agency.”
The lawsuit alleges that Bryce suffered and will continue to suffer economic damages, as well as “emotional distress, mental anguish, shock, fright, embarrassment, humiliation, nervousness, anxiety, depression, denial of social pleasures and disruption of lifestyle.”
The parents of an 8-year-old girl are suing her Michigan school district, saying she was sexually abused by a custodian but administrators took little action to protect her or other students.
McClatchy News has reached out to the school’s legal team for comment and is awaiting response.
The girl, identified as Minor Doe in the lawsuit filed Aug. 5, was walking to the restroom at Hemmeter Elementary School in Saginaw when she ran into the custodian, documents say.
It was May 13, the girl’s 8th birthday.
The custodian, referred to only as Jane Roe, asked the second grader how old she was turning, and if she wanted her “birthday spankings” now or at lunch, documents say. She told the custodian she wouldn’t be at lunch that day.
Then the spankings would have to happen now, the custodian is accused of telling the girl.
The custodian followed her into the bathroom and touched her buttocks 8 times, also pinching them, “under the guise” of birthday spankings, the lawsuit says.
The encounter “(constituted) a sexual assault, sexual abuse, and criminal sexual conduct in violation of Michigan law,” according to the lawsuit.
The girl was “extremely uncomfortable and embarrassed” by what happened and told her parents about the incident the evening after school. The next day, they reported it to the school’s principal and their daughter’s teacher.
But instead of sharing the parents’ concerns, school officials brushed the situation off, according to the lawsuit. Neither the teacher nor the principal reported the incident to law enforcement, as is required by law, and no investigation was launched into the accusations, the lawsuit alleges.
Shortly after reaching out to school administrators, the parents also contacted Child Protective Services, attorneys for the girl’s mother, Victor Mastromarco and Kevin Kelly, told McClatchy News in a phone interview.
The custodian was briefly put on administrative leave, the lawsuit says. During this time, the teacher and principal interviewed her about what happened, and she is accused of admitting to touching and pinching the girl.
These “birthday spankings” were something she had done many times before at her previous job at another elementary school, the custodian said, according to the lawsuit.
In a May 18 conversation with the girl’s mother, the principal defended the custodian’s actions, saying the young girl “smiled at the idea” of getting birthday spankings.
Her mother responded that children generally lack the confidence to say no to an adult, and that it was wrong to put a child in such a position. She added that the sort of touching her daughter experienced is a method of grooming children, or acclimating them to sexual abuse.
The custodian was scheduled to return to work the next day, May 19, but the girl’s mother said she was not okay with her being at the school.
“Completely failing to recognize the magnitude of the situation,” the principal said the girl’s mother’s feelings “were unfortunate” because the school employee was “a really good custodian,” according to the lawsuit.
The school district “was more concerned about keeping its hallways clean and garbage bins empty than ensuring its students were protected,” according to the lawsuit.
The girl’s mother also spoke with the district’s superintendent, according to the lawsuit. When questioned about whether he thought it was safe for the girl to be in the same building as the custodian, he declined to answer, instead saying he needed to “circle the wagons,” the lawsuit says.
The custodian, superintendent, principal and Saginaw Township Community Schools are listed as defendants.
The mother’s attorneys are seeking a minimum of $75,000 in compensation.
MACKINAC COUNTY, Mich., (WPBN/WGTU) — The interior designer of the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island has filed a lawsuit against the former owner of the hotel, Dan Musser, and the Grand Hotel Holding Company.
For more than 40 years, world-renowned designer Carleton Varney worked with the hotel, loaning many items from his personal collection to decorate various rooms, which his attorneys now argue helped enhance the business’s marketability.
Varney and his legal team allege that Musser converted the loaned pieces for his own benefit in 2019 when the Grand Hotel was sold to KSL Capital Partners, without informing Varney.
“We have to show that those are our items, I don’t think there is any question that they are. We never sold them. It would be like somebody loaning a piece of art to a museum. That doesn’t mean they still own the piece of art so that’s analogous to what I’m talking about,” said Victor Mastromarco, Varney’s attorney. “These pieces of artwork, there’s no question they knew, were his.”
Varney is suing the hotel for age discrimination, name and likeness appropriation, among other things.
According to Varney’s complaint, Musser referred to him as “too old,” and suggested that his age was the reason his work was no longer wanted by the hotel.
Varney is 83-years-old.
Current Grand Hotel Executive Vice President and Managing Director Ken Hayward said they are aware that litigation has been filed against the former owner and added that hotel staff can’t comment on open litigation, per their policy.
“We have a deep appreciation and respect for Dorothy Draper & Co. and Carleton Varney’s award-winning work on behalf of Grand Hotel,” Hayward said. “We recognize that the unique ambiance is part of what makes staying here such a special experience for our guests. We remain dedicated to honoring the traditions of Grand Hotel while making improved enhancements, including reimagining the Esther Williams Swimming Pool.”
TUSCOLA COUNTY, MI — A Saginaw-area doctor who also had offices in Caro and Mount Pleasant was arraigned on a seven-count warrant in Tuscola County on Thursday, Dec. 29.
Dr. Joseph Edwin Oesterling, 60, was charged with continuing a criminal enterprise, the most serious of his charges, which is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, five counts of delivery of a Schedule II controlled substance and one count of maintaining a drug house, according to his lawyer, Alan Crawford.
Oesterling, a urologist, was arraigned via video conference as he was in custody during his arraignment.
Tuscola County Prosecuting Attorney Mark Reene said that Oesterling was arrested the night before at one of his clinics.
Though Crawford said his team is working to bond Oesterling out of jail, he called his arrest an attempt by the prosecution to “embarrass and shame” his client.
“They were supposed to contact me when they got a warrant but they didn’t,” Crawford said. “They did not contact me until Tuesday.”
An arrest warrant was authorized by Reene’s office on Dec. 22.
During a break from the arraignment, Oesterling told Crawford that he wasn’t practicing medicine and that one of his employees had been prescribing medicine in agreement with another doctor out of his office.
But Chief Assistant Prosecuting Attorney Eric Wanink said the prescriptions were written using Oesterling’s DEA information.
While Crawford argued for a personal recognizance bond, Wanink asked the judge to set bond at $750,000 with no 10 percent, arguing that Oesterling has plenty of assets including owning 51 percent of the Birch Run Expo Center and “millions of dollars” in John Deere equipment.
Magistrate Joseph Van Auken set bond at $100,000 cash/surety.
Oesterling also must turn in his passport and have no contact with cooperating witness Laura Hintz, who works at one of his clinics, Crawford said.
The investigation
Oesterling’s arrest comes after a seven-month investigation that was conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s Tactical Diversion Squad of Detroit and the Thumb Narcotics Unit into alleged overprescribing practices by Oesterling through his clinics in Caro, Saginaw and Mount Pleasant.
Oesterling has a clinic at 1740 Midland Road in Saginaw Township and Caro Medical Group, 206 Montague in Caro. There was no address listed online for a Mount Pleasant office.
According to the Tuscola County Advertiser, Oesterling had past legal trouble, including “a 1997 case involving expense-account fraud that cost him his job at U-M (through resignation) and a separate case from 2005 involving alleged misconduct charges.”
On Oct. 25, law enforcement executed several search warrants at multiple locations, including clinics and residences related to Oesterling and his practice.
At that time, police seized multiple electronic records, controlled substances and financial records, Reene said.
On Dec. 21, the Tuscola County Prosecutor’s Office also instituted a civil forfeiture proceeding, via summons and complaint, concerning multiple items of personal and real property which were previously seized pursuant to court order on Oct. 25, according to Reene.
Oesterling is being represented by Saginaw attorney Victor Mastromarco Jr. on the forfeiture matter.
Updated December 18, 2014 — 12.10pmfirst published at 11.01am
Dow Chemical’s Australian boss, Andrew Liveris, is facing allegations he used company money to fund lavish family holidays and a charity he founded after a US federal judge ruled that a former employee can pursue a claim that she was unlawfully fired for reporting financial misdeeds at the company.
Darwin-raised Mr Liveris is one of Australia’s most senior global business leaders and has led Dow for a decade. The 60-year old is co-chair of President Barack Obama’s advanced manufacturing partnership and a director of IBM. He was chairman of the US Business Council until succeeded last month by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.
Kimberly Wood, who was a fraud investigator at Dow, claims the company paid for an African safari vacation by the Liveris family, a $US218,938 trip to the 2010 Super Bowl, a trip to the 2010 football World Cup in South Africa, and a trip to the 2010 Masters Tournament, she said.
Ms Wood claims the disclosure misrepresented what transpired and claimed in court filings that further personal expenses by Mr Liveris wer paid by Dow and were not reimbursed.
Ms Wood claims her supervisor responded to the investigation by telling her in December 2012 that “nothing from the CEO’s past was to be looked at again”.
Other Liveris expenses questioned by Ms Wood include commercial flights she valued at $US88,626; “excessive use” of the Dow corporate jet, $US9,763 in Olympic tickets for a Hellenic Initiative adviser; a $US10,360 limousine rental in Istanbul; $US18,280 for an Australia trip; and $US300 in flowers for Hillary Clinton, according to legal filings.
Ms Wood said she was fired in October 2013 after telling her supervisor she found “financial statement fraud” in an ethylene plant project.
Dow’s bid to dismiss the case was denied December 15 by US District Judge Thomas L. Ludington, in Michigan.
The case, filed under the whistle-blower provisions of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, may bring unwanted attention to Liveris, who was accused of a series of “broken promises” last month by Third Point LLC, a hedge fund that has called for Dow’s breakup.
Dow was forced to give the activist investor two board seats, and Third Point, founded by Daniel Loeb, agreed to stop disparaging the company for a year.
Ms Wood was a disgruntled employee making false allegations in retaliation for Dow’s denial of “unearned benefits,” a Dow spokeswoman Rebecca Bentley said.
Most of the claims in an earlier state case were dismissed, and the federal court’s ruling made no determination on the truth of Ms Wood’s allegations, Ms Bentley said.
“While we strongly believe the case should have been dismissed outright, we will move forward and defend the merits of the case vigorously,” Bentley said.
Wood was a “career employee” of Dow who didn’t want to leave the company, said Victor Mastromarco Jr., her attorney.
“She was nipping at the wrong heels,” Mastromarco said. “They wanted to get rid of her.”
Wood, a 25-year Dow employee, was a company fraud investigator in 2009 when she found the renovation of the Dow-owned H Hotel in Midland had exceeded its $US13 million budget by $US20 million, according to court papers.
A Dow employee was fired for trying to limit cost overruns at the project which involved Liveris’s wife and her friend, according to Wood’s complaint.
Wood alleges that Dow in 2012 was “funneling money” to The Hellenic Initiative, a Greek charity co-founded by Liveris, court documents show.
New York advisory firm Teneo Holdings LLC billed Dow for work done for the charity, she claims. Teneo’s founders were on the board of the charity, and Dow tripled its annual payment to Teneo to $US16 million, from $US5 million, in the middle of the contract year, Wood alleges in court papers.
Her final investigation alleged Dow managers improperly recorded expenses to hide cost overruns at the Olefins 2 ethylene project, which she flagged to her supervisor as fraud on Oct. 9, 2013. She was told the next day that Oct. 31 would be her last day at Dow, according to the complaint.
BAY CITY — A Bad Axe man has filed a wrongful termination suit against a local car dealership.
According to court records from U.S. District Court in Bay City, Patrick Gottschalk, 60, of Bad Axe, alleges the dealership, George Ordus Ford-Mercury in Bad Axe, violated state and federal age discrimination laws.
As a result of Gottschalk’s termination on Jan. 20, 2009 from the dealership, Gottschalk is seeking that the court award him more than $75,000 in damages to fully compensate him for all of his economic and non-economic damages that were a result of the dealership’s “wrongful actions,” court documents state.
Gottschalk was hired by the dealership in 1976 and worked as the dealership’s service manager from 1977 until he was dismissed.
Court documents also show Gottschalk alleges his job performance was satisfactory, and that in an April advertisement mailed to customers by the dealership, he was listed as the service manager after he had been terminated. Gottschalk claims he did not give the dealership permission to use his name in the ads.
Gottschalk is represented by Saginaw attorney Victor J. Mastromarco Jr.
Ordus Ford is being represented by attorney Suzanne P. Bartos of the law firm Plunkett and Cooney. Bartos could not be reached for comment.
