STATE OF FLORIDA

DIVISION OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

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 S. Traxler, 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:

    1. The perpetration by an officer of an act that would constitute any felony offense, whether criminally prosecuted or not.

       
       

    2. . . . 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

(850) 488-9675

Fax Filing (850) 921-6847 www.doah.state.fl.us

Filed with the Clerk of the Division of Administrative Hearings this 19th day of November, 2009.

COPIES FURNISHED:

Sharon S. Traxler, 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.

Docket for Case No: 09-003741PL

Orders for Case No: 09-003741PL