Two file suit after ouster in no-show employee scandal

NORFOLK

Saying they were scapegoats, two former employees of the Norfolk Community Services Board who were forced out in the scandal over a no-show worker have filed a defamation lawsuit against the board and its director.

They allege that Executive Director Maureen Womack and city attorneys know why Jill McGlone remained on paid leave for 12 years but have not revealed the reason to the public.

Anthony Crisp, former clinical services director, and Linda Berardi, former human resources officer, say in separate lawsuits that they have no knowledge of why it occurred.

Each is seeking as much as $500,000 in compensatory damages, plus as much as $350,000 in punitive damages against Womack, who announced at a news conference Sept. 3 that she had accepted resignations from Crisp and Berardi in connection with the investigation over why McGlone was paid.

Womack also said she had terminated Brenda Wise, director of administration; Laurie Paquin, executive assistant; and accepted the resignation of Suzanne Williams, chief financial officer. The action followed an investigation by her and the city attorney's office into why McGlone was not taken off a paid suspension that commenced in 1998 when she was accused of having a weapon on the board's property.

Findings were being turned over to police and the FBI, Womack said at the news conference.

The Community Services Board is a government agency with a $25 million budget to provide substance abuse and mental health services. Although employees work for the board and not the city, the board is legally represented by the office of Norfolk City Attorney Bernard A. Pishko.

Womack declined to comment on the suits Wednesday, and Pishko did not respond to an e-mail sent late in the afternoon. He has said the investigation by Womack and a deputy in his office did not yield an answer to why McGlone remained on the payroll.

Crisp, Berardi and Paquin, through attorneys, have said they did nothing wrong and had inquired about McGlone's status to supervisors.

In the lawsuit, Crisp and Berardi say Womack knew her statements about them were not correct.

"When Womack and other persons speaking on behalf of the NCSB made public comments criticizing and blaming Crisp and the other employees... there was a clear purpose - to shift blame," Crisp's lawsuit says.

They allege that the McGlone situation involves "Womack and others at the highest levels within the NCSB and City of Norfolk."

Crisp and Berardi say a cloud of suspicion hangs over them and they are unable to find jobs in their profession.

In interviews with The Virginian-Pilot in September, Berardi said she mentioned McGlone numerous times over several years to Wise, who had suspended McGlone. Crisp said Wise once told him it "would all be over soon."

Even a supervisor at city Human Resources inquired in February 2009 about why McGlone was still getting paid, according to an e-mail Berardi sent to Wise that day. McGlone remained on the payroll until Womack, who started at the board in February 2009, found out around late May of this year.

Patrick Wilson, (757) 222-3893, patrick.wilson@pilotonline.com