Truth & Justice in Whistleblowing
Whistleblowing tests our grasp of truth and justice. Take James McDonough.
In April 2008 James McDonough and his wife Vanessa bought their
home in unincorporated Homestead,
Florida. A year later McDonough, while
out for a walk, found the car that had recently driven too fast through his
neighborhood. It belonged to Alejandro Murguido[1],
a Homestead police officer. Murguido encouraged
McDonough to come and talk to him about any problem, like a neighbor and
gentleman, rather than file a formal complaint.
Good enough.
On October 24, 2012, Gurguido again drove recklessly through
their neighborhood. McDonough was forced
to drive off the road to save himself. On
the 29th he visited Murguido’s house and lectured him about lawful
driving. Then he walked away.
Within minutes Murguido raced up behind him in his police
cruiser. Murguido’s friend from across
the street, also a policeman, joined him.
Soon six fellow officers arrived.
They detained McDonough, frisked and interrogated him. Murguido told him not to mess with police
officers. After 90 minutes they let him
go with a warning to stay clear of Murguido’s house in the future.
The incident so unsettled McDonough he could not eat or sleep. He had anxiety attacks. He called the FBI, who told him to report the
matter to the Homestead police internal affairs department.
On November 1, he went to Campbell Urgent Care in Homestead
where he told Dr. Ernesto Rodriguez about the incident. Rodriguez wrote up his report: psychotic, schizophrenic,
hallucinations, may need to go to the psych ward per the Baker Act. Then Rodriguez called the Homestead
police. Officer Blanco arrived and questioned
McDonough for two hours before releasing him.
McDonough tried to complain to the Homestead and Miami-Dade
County internal affairs offices. They
didn’t return his calls. He sought help
from his State Representative Holly Reschein.
Nothing worked.
At a Citizen Advisory Council (CAC) meeting in February 2013,
Major Artime of the Miami-Dade police said he would follow-up with his internal
affairs department. After the meeting two
police officers held McDonough and interrogated him for 30 minutes.
Three days later Murguido filed a complaint of felony
aggravated stalking and corruption against McDonough. Homestead internal affairs officer Aquino had
advised Muguido to make the charges, which were later dismissed.
In April, five Miami-Dade police officers entered McDonough’s
home without a warrant. They arrested him
and hauled him off in handcuffs. At a
Miami-Dade prison he was strip-searched and held for 18 hours. The charges were finally dropped in January
2014.
In February, McDonough met with Homestead police chief Rolle
to discuss his concerns. Rolle told him the “Police Officers
Bill of Rights”, unfortunately, barred McDonough from complaining about the
October 2012 incident. He could, though,
complain about Murguido’s revving his motorcycle and chirping his siren outside
McDonough’s house a week earlier. Rolle
assigned the investigation to an officer that McDonough told Rolle had infringed
his rights. The officer concluded the
complaint was unfounded.
McDonough continued to attend CAC meetings although he was
not always allowed to speak. He attended
Homestead city council meetings, but they passed a decorum
rule prohibiting comments like those McDonough presented. He posted notes and recordings of his
interactions with police on various online media sites. He attracted some press
attention.
Murguido tried unsuccessfully twice more to get injunctions
against McDonough. Then in December 2014
State Attorney Fernandez-Rundle sent him a cease-and-desist letter[2]. Acting as his own attorney, in January 2015
McDonough sued Fernandez-Rundle. In July
2017 he won in the 11th
Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals.
After five years of abuse from Homestead, Maini-Dade county
and Monroe county officials, McDonough had had enough. In August 2017 he and his wife filed
(through an attorney) a lawsuit against 36 parties. Municipalities, police officers, city
officials, and the urgent care facility and doctor were all named. They cited thirty-two causes of action, including
unreasonable seizure, warrantless search, false imprisonment, violation of
civil rights, and RICO
Act and HIPAA
violations.
James McDonough’s experiences mirror those of other whistleblowers. He witnessed a misdeed during the course of
his daily activities. Like many others’ disclosures,
the initial violation was not earthshaking.
He tried to report the wrong through established channels
but was rebuffed. Things spun out of
control. He suffered more and
increasingly brutal retaliations. He appealed
to higher authorities, but none would protect him. He developed new skills to fight his
opponents.
He and his wife suffered personal attacks. Authorities called him schizophrenic. They called her sexually promiscuous. They published his personal contact information. They made false statements about them both[3]. The McDonoughs' marriage is stressed to near
breaking.
McDonough also presents unique qualities as a whistleblower. He is not a member of the organization he exposes. Unless we accept that the offending organization
is the body politic.
Most whistleblowers have financial skin in the game. They hope to recover pay the organization
denied them in retaliation for blowing a whistle. Or they seek a share of penalties imposed on
the wrongdoer. Financial interest opens
a kind of Ultimatum Game
in which the organization hopes to make the stingiest settlement offer that
will not cause the whistleblower to turn away in disgust[4].
McDonough lacks a financial investment in his project. He and his attackers share no basis for
negotiation. He has only self-respect he
will not trade, and they have only their precious power.
McDonough’s and most whistleblower cases struggle with evidence.
Readers often have only the parties’ statements
to go on. We are reluctant to believe our
public servants could be so nefarious and commit such outrageous acts against an
innocent man and his wife. We hesitate to
believe nonprofit HomeFirst which aims
to help homeless people could have done so many things wrong
and retaliated
against me for reporting them. Or our
government would violate our privacy without good reason as Edward Snowden claimed.
In these cases justice seems elusive. It can be easier to accept that the whistleblower
is crazy, disgruntled, or a
performance problem. Discovering the
truth demands long, hard work.
[2]
HomeFirst sent me a cease-and-desist
letter the year after it fired me because I continued to pursue my
disclosures. Despite my initial panicked
reaction, I ignored the letter.
[3] Including
that 1) McDonough is aggressive or combative; 2) McDonough is psychotic; 3)
McDonough is a schizophrenic who is delusional; 4) McDonough considers himself
a “sovereign
citizen;” 5) McDonough is threatening and aggressive; 6) McDonough and his
wife are crazy; 7) McDonough has a history of clinically diagnosed mental
health problems; 8) McDonough is a “Baker Act,” who stalks police; 9) McDonough
committed/commits theft of government property/resources; 10) McDonough was
committed to a mental institution because his wife sleeps with cops; and 11)
McDonough’s children are not his because his wife sleeps with cops.
[4] I found
HomeFirst’s offer to me offensive, but my attorney (with his own motivations) advised
that it was a good deal.
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