What Were They Thinking? (Part 1)

What Were They Thinking? (Part 1)

Whistleblowing breaks an individual’s life.  It alters our comfortable progress. 

In July 2013, I had been CFO at HomeFirst for 6 years.  I expected to retire from my job in a few years.  My boss Jenny Niklaus was kind of an idiot, but I had worked for worse during my 35 years in finance.  We had different opinions on the 2014 budget, but we had disagreed on other financial issues during her money-losing tenure.

When I discovered we had overbilled the County of Santa Clara, I assumed we would return the roughly $130,000.  But Niklaus went a little crazy.  I asked about a different violation, and she went crazier.  Then I broke off in a new direction, finding and revealing more violations.

In 1997 Debra Halbrook joined the office of the District Attorney for Caswell and Person Counties, North Carolina, as a legal assistant.  She did administrative work for different elected DAs over the years, but Wallace Bradsher was unique.  When he took office in January 2011, he hired his wife to work for him.  He punched walls and threw things when he got angry.  And he always carried a Glock, concealed.  He told his staff, I am the Lion and you are my sheep, which struck devoutly Christian Halbrook as inappropriate.

Shortly after Bradsher took office for his second four-year term, his wife Pam went to work for DA Craig Blitzer in neighboring Rockingham County.  Blitzer’s wife Cindy came to work as a legal assistant for Bradsher.  Except neither Pam nor Cindy actually worked much despite being paid full-time. 

When Halbrook observed Cindy’s persistent absence, she asked questions.  She was told not to worry about it.  When she noticed an Assistant DA had the payroll system open on his computer, he lied and said he was training.  She asked why Cindy and Pam earned more than she did despite having less experience.  Bradsher replied, they were worth it.  Then she learned that Cindy didn’t have time for legal work because she was a full-time nursing student.

By June 2016 Halbrook was sure that something was seriously wrong.  But she was afraid of Bradsher’s response if she brought it up.  She talked to her husband and to the family attorney.  She eventually met with the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).  SBI told her they would protect her, and they opened an inquiry.

Bradsher’s suspicions about her grew.  He relocated her office from Caswell County where she lived to Person County where he worked, 20 miles away.  He said she could return to the Caswell office if she got her husband, the Caswell Chief Deputy Sheriff, to convince his boss to install a particular digital discovery tracking system.  The installation would enable his loyal new assistant to remain on the Person payroll.

Bradsher demanded to know what she told the SBI.  She wouldn’t say, and he accused her of being disloyal to him.  He moved her desk to a storage room.  Finally he fired her when he found out Caswell wouldn’t use the tracking system.  She was months shy of her 20^th anniversary which would have brought a nice pension and life-time health insurance.

Both Bradsher and Blitzer have resigned.  Blizter turned on Bradsher, who had confessed to him he fired Halbrook for disloyalty, and pled guilty to a misdemeanor.   Bradsher’s trial continues.

At the start of it all, Halbrook lived in pleasant, small town Yanceyville, North Carolina.  She did well in a comfortable, valuable job until Bradsher troubled her.  She looked into a possible wrongdoing that she could have let go.  Bradsher insulted her, and she turned whistleblower, upsetting her life.

For his part, Bradsher was on a roll.  Running unopposed, he was re-elected in 2014.  He had a loyal staff.  Admin folks in the Caswell office deserved no attention from the Lion.  Then this woman kept asking questions, started an SBI investigation, and had to be fired.  It wasn’t retaliation; it was his right.

Small-time whistleblowers, like Halbrook and me, lead mostly normal lives and then we are blindsided.  Step by step through our dramas:

1.       Foundation

a.       Halbrook and I performed our jobs well before things went south.

b.      We became somewhat dissatisfied with our jobs and bosses, but we didn’t (or couldn’t) leave.  I stayed because of age and Halbrook because of her 20-year incentive.

2.       Problem and response

a.       We found something that seemed wrong.  Her discovery and investigation were outside her normal job responsibilities, but mine were part of my job.  She found one sort of problem, and I found several.

b.      Our questions alerted management to the risk we posed.

c.       The wrongdoings we discovered were not huge in financial terms.  Blitzer agreed to repay $48,000, and Bradsher might be on the hook for about $200,000 paid to his wife.

d.      The wrongs were not egregious in moral terms either.  The Bradsher-Blitzer misdeeds were more offensive than the usual nepotism because of their role in the legal system.  HomeFirst’s disturbed me most because of our pretense that we did great good.

e.      Halbrook and I observed simple violations of common rules, not complex ethical transgressions.

f.        Neither Halbrook nor I was personally affected by the wrongdoing unless you count misuse of our tax dollars.

g.       We talked with friends and spouses about what we should do and the risks of blowing the whistle externally.

h.      We were both encouraged to believe that the law would protect us against retaliation.

3.       Retaliation

a.       We were charged with disloyalty to our boss/company for bringing up the misdeeds.  HomeFirst argued that I should have fixed, not reported, them.

b.      We suffered retaliations, ranging from inconvenience to insult and finally termination.

c.       The retaliations multiplied as our bosses became more certain of our disloyal intentions.

d.      Our bosses/companies figured they had a perfect right to act against us regardless of laws and ethics.

4.       Response to retaliation

a.       Halbrook’s attorney has taken an aggressive approach, charging violation of whistleblower protection and the State RICO Act, obstruction of justice, and causing emotional stress.  My attorney wimped out in negotiations with HomeFirst.

b.      Because Bradsher and Blizter were elected officials, Halbrook’s case received media attention.  My case won no attention at all despite my attempts to raise interest.

5.       Consequences for wrongdoers

a.       Blitzer admitted guilt, but Bradsher fights his prosecution.  Nearly everyone at HomeFirst has moved on to new opportunities without penalty.

b.      It’s too early to know whether Caswell/Person Counties or HomeFirst will be penalized.  HomeFirst’s insurance will probably make any judgment against it painless.

6.       Consequences for whistleblowers

a.       We were both fired.

b.      My case has been underway for 3+ years and will probably continue for at least a year more.  Halbrook’s suit was filed just 7 months ago.

c.       Halbrook may collect something for pay and emotional stress.  If I receive anything at all, it will be limited to past wages.  No big payoff for either of us.

d.      We both will survive.

Like everyone else, we act without foreseeing all the consequences.