09-003741PL Criminal Justice Standards And Training Commission vs. Janadra Bolling Status: Closed Recommended Order on Thursday, November 19, 2009.

Summary: Revocation for correctional officer who lied under oath about having a car accident to get time off from work and who altered the doctor's note concerning her return to work date.

STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

CRIMINAL JUSTICE STANDARDS AND )

TRAINING COMMISSION, )

)

Petitioner, )

)

vs. ) Case No. 09-3741PL

)

JANADRA BOLLING, )

)

Respondent. )

)

RECOMMENDED ORDER

Pursuant to notice, this cause was heard by Linda M. Rigot,

the assigned Administrative Law Judge of the Division of

Administrative Hearings, on September 28, 2009, by video

teleconference with sites in Pensacola and Tallahassee, Florida.

APPEARANCES

For Petitioner: Sharon Saxler, Esquire

Department of Law Enforcement

Post Office Box 1489

Tallahassee, Florida 32302-1489

For Respondent: Janadra Bolling, pro se

STATEMENT OF THE ISSUE

The issue presented is whether Respondent is guilty of the

allegations in the Administrative Complaint filed against her,

and, if so, what disciplinary action should be taken against

her, if any.

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT

On May 7, 2008, Petitioner Criminal Justice Standards and

Training Commission issued an Administrative Complaint against

Respondent Janadra L. Bolling, alleging that she had violated the

statutes and rules regulating her conduct as a certified

correctional officer. Respondent timely requested an

administrative proceeding regarding those allegations, and this

cause was transferred to the Division of Administrative Hearings

on July 15, 2009, to conduct the evidentiary hearing.

The Commission presented the testimony of Sergeant Patricia

Archie, Colonel Linda Marinin, Shirelle Neal, Captain John

Chance, Colonel William F. Watson, and Inspector Ron Castle.

Respondent testified on her own behalf. Additionally,

Petitioner's Exhibits numbered 1, 2A, 2B, 3, and 4 were admitted

in evidence.

The Transcript of the final hearing was filed on October 8,

2009. Petitioner filed its proposed recommended order on

October 23, 2009. Respondent waived her right to submit a

proposed recommended order.

FINDINGS OF FACT

1. Respondent Janadra L. Bolling was certified as a

correctional officer by the Criminal Justice Standards and

Training Commission on February 3, 2004, and was issued

correctional certificate number 237692.

2. At all times material hereto, she was employed as a

correctional officer at the Century Correctional Institution.

3. On June 16, 2007, Respondent's father was the owner of

a 2005 Nissan Maxima. Respondent, who was listed as a driver,

was driving that vehicle that day. On that date, Respondent

asked Captain John Chance, her immediate supervisor, for

permission to leave work due to having a sick child and was

granted permission to leave.

4. Later that day, Respondent called Sergeant Patricia

Archie and stated that she had been in a car accident at the

intersection of Highway 29 and Molino Road, totaling her

vehicle. She stated that her car had rolled over twice and that

she was waiting for an ambulance.

5. Still later that day, Respondent called Captain John

Chance. She advised him that she had gone to the hospital, had

been examined there, and had been told not to return to work

until she went to her personal physician on Monday, June 18.

6. When Captain Chance returned to work on June 19, he was

advised that no one had heard anything further from Respondent.

He attempted to contact her that day but was unsuccessful.

7. On Wednesday, June 20, Respondent called and advised

Captain Chance that she had gone to her doctor on Monday, the

18th, and that he had told her not to return to work until

Monday, June 25. Respondent said she would bring a doctor's

note with her at that time.

8. On June 20, 2007, Respondent's father's car was

photographed in the Wal-Mart parking lot. The car did not show

any collision damage, and particularly did not show the damage

one would expect to see on a vehicle that had rolled over twice

and been "totaled" four days earlier.

9. On June 25, Captain Chance ordered Respondent to write

a report concerning the car accident she had in June and the

reason why she had failed to provide a note from her doctor as

she had been required to do. Respondent advised him that she

would not write a report, that she intended to speak to the

Colonel instead.

10. Also on June 25 Respondent spoke with Colonel William

Watson, advising him about her accident and complaining that she

was being harassed by staff (1) requiring a note from her doctor

regarding her absence from work and (2) photographing a car in

the Wal-Mart parking lot. The Colonel asked her if she had

supplied the doctor's note, and Respondent admitted that she had

not done so but that she would.

11. A short time later she spoke to the Colonel again and

said that her doctor had told her not to lift over ten pounds.

The Colonel advised her that she would need to bring in a

doctor's note with that limitation written on it and that she

could not return to work until she was capable of performing all

of her duties.

12. On June 27, 2007, Inspector Ron Castle, who had taken

the photographs of the car at Wal-Mart, contacted Respondent's

father's auto insurance company, Respondent's father's auto

finance company, and the Florida Highway Patrol. None of those

entities had any record of an accident report or claim filed as

to any accident occurring on June 16, 2007.

13. On July 9, 2007, Respondent presented a note from a

chiropractor dated July 5. The note indicated that Respondent

had presented herself for treatment on June 25 with complaints

of neck and lower back pain and headaches. At that time, the

doctor recommended that she not return to work for two weeks.

By the time the note was written on July 5, however, the doctor

had released Respondent to return to her normal work activities.

14. On July 13, 2007, Sacred Heart Hospital faxed to the

Colonel a work release stating that Respondent could return to

work without restrictions on July 15. The work release made no

reference to any auto accident.

15. Inspector Ron Castle, who was also employed at Century

Correctional Institution, was assigned two investigations

regarding Respondent. The first involved an allegation of

falsifying records and documents and related to Respondent's

medical excuse(s).

16. On August 21, 2007, Respondent was placed under oath

and interviewed by Inspector Castle regarding her June 16 auto

accident. Respondent was uncooperative and refused to discuss

her auto accident in any detail, saying it was none of Castle's

business. She did, however, maintain that she had had an

accident.

17. On September 10, 2007, Respondent turned in a medical

slip from a Dr. Russo dated September 4, 2007, which read "Home

rest due to illness at least until 9/09/07." The original of

the doctor's note retained in the doctor's file read "until

9/07/07" and not "until 9/09/07."

18. The second investigation involved allegations of

improper conduct, conduct unbecoming, refusing to answer

questions during an investigation, insubordination for refusing

to submit an incident report, falsifying documents, knowingly

submitting inaccurate or untruthful information, and providing

untruthful testimony.

19. Respondent's earlier assertions and subsequent

testimony that she was in an auto accident on June 16, 2007,

which resulted in substantial damage to her car and required her

to take time off from work are false. There is no evidence to

support her claim: no accident report, no insurance claim, no

notice to the lien holder, no damage to the vehicle, and no

documentation for medical treatment related to an auto accident.

20. Respondent submitted to her employer a medical note on

which she had altered the date on which she could return to

work, giving herself extra time off to which she was not

entitled.

CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

21. The Division of Administrative Hearings has

jurisdiction over the subject matter hereof and the parties

hereto. §§ 120.569 and 120.57(1), Fla. Stat.

22. The Administrative Complaint filed against Respondent

in this cause alleges that Respondent has violated the

provisions of Section 837.02(1) and/or Section 837.06, Florida

Statutes; Section 943.1395(7), Florida Statutes; and Rule 11B-

27.0011(4)a [sic] and b [sic], Florida Administrative Code, in

that Respondent has failed to maintain the qualifications

established in Section 943.13(7), Florida Statutes, which

requires that a corrections officer in the State of Florida have

good moral character.

23. Petitioner seeks to take disciplinary action against

Respondent in this proceeding. The burden of proof, therefore,

is on Petitioner, and Petitioner must prove the allegations in

its Administrative Complaint by clear and convincing evidence.

Dep't of Banking & Finance, Division of Securities & Investor

Protection v. Osborne Stern & Co. , 670 So. 2d 932 (Fla. 1996).

Petitioner has met its burden of proof.

24. Section 943.13(7), Florida Statutes, requires

correctional officers to have good moral character. Section

943.1395(7), Florida Statutes, provides that the Commission may

take disciplinary action against a correctional officer who has

not maintained good moral character, the definition of which has

been adopted by rule and is established as a statewide standard.

25. Florida Administrative Code Rule 11B-27.0011(4)

contains the definition of failure to maintain good moral

character and provides, in part, as follows:

(a) The perpetration by an officer of an

act that would constitute any felony

offense, whether criminally prosecuted or

not.

(b) . . . the perpetration by an officer of

an act that would constitute any of the

following misdemeanor or criminal offenses

whether criminally prosecuted or not:

1. Sections . . . 837.06, F.S.

26. Section 837.02(1), Florida Statutes, provides that

whoever makes a false statement, which the person does not

believe to be true, under oath in an official proceeding

regarding any material matter, commits a felony of the third

degree. Similarly, Section 837.06, Florida Statutes, provides

that whoever knowingly makes a false statement in writing with

the intent to mislead a public servant in the performance of his

or her official duties commits a misdemeanor of the second

degree.

27. The evidence is clear and convincing that Respondent

lied about having an auto accident and continued that lie under

oath in an official investigation into her conduct. The

evidence is also clear and convincing that Respondent altered

one of the doctor's notes she provided to justify taking leave

from her employment. Accordingly, Petitioner has proven that

Respondent violated both Sections 837.02(1) and 837.06, Florida

Statutes, as alleged in the Administrative Complaint filed in

this cause.

28. Since Petitioner has proven Respondent guilty of

violating those statutes, Petitioner has proven that Respondent

has failed to maintain good moral character as that term has

been defined by Petitioner.

29. Section 943.1395(7), Florida Statutes, provides the

range of penalties which Petitioner can impose for failure to

maintain good moral character. These include revocation of

certification, suspension of certification for a period not to

exceed 2 years, probation for a period not to exceed 2 years,

training or retraining, and issuance of a reprimand.

30. As evidenced by Respondent lying under oath and

falsifying documents, she is a dishonest person and should not

be retained in a position of public trust. In its proposed

recommended order, Petitioner recommends revocation of

Respondent's certification as a correctional officer. Although

revocation is a severe penalty, no evidence in mitigation of

such severity was offered by Respondent. Rather, Respondent's

continuing dishonesty and failure to recognize the serious

nature of her behavior require that her certificate be

permanently revoked.

RECOMMENDATION

Based on the foregoing Findings of Fact and Conclusions of

Law, it is

RECOMMENDED that a final order be entered finding

Respondent guilty of the allegations in the Administrative

Complaint filed against her and revoking her certification as a

correctional officer.

DONE AND ENTERED this 19th day of November, 2009, in

Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida.

S

LINDA M. RIGOT

Administrative Law Judge

Division of Administrative Hearings

The DeSoto Building

1230 Apalachee Parkway

Tallahassee, Florida 32399-3060

[phone]

Fax Filing [phone]

www.doah.state.fl.us

Filed with the Clerk of the

Division of Administrative Hearings

this 19th day of November, 2009.

COPIES FURNISHED :

Sharon Saxler, Esquire

Department of Law Enforcement

Post Office Box 1489

Tallahassee, Florida 32302-1489

Janadra Bolling

Michael Crews, Program Director

Division of Criminal Justice

Professionalism Services

Department of Law Enforcement

Post Office Box 1489

Tallahassee, Florida 32302-1489

Michael Ramage, General Counsel

Department of Law Enforcement

Post Office Box 1489

Tallahassee, Florida 32302-1489

NOTICE OF RIGHT TO SUBMIT EXCEPTIONS

All parties have the right to submit written exceptions within

15 days from the date of this Recommended Order. Any exceptions

to this Recommended Order should be filed with the agency that

will issue the Final Order in this case.