Ethics Charges Against Top D.C. Judge "Vindication," Union Says
Monday, February 10, 2014(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)
The District’s
chief administrative law judge was charged with engaging in retaliation against
rank and file administrative law judges last Thursday, when the Board of Ethics
and Government Accountability alleged 19
counts of wrongdoing against Mary Oates Walker, the chief judge and top
official of the D.C. Office of Administrative Hearings. DC Mayor Vincent
Gray on Friday placed Walker on leave with the intention of firing her for
cause. Walker allegedly
steered a $43,000 city contract to the husband of a business partner, hired
that business partner into a city job and lied to investigators probing the
actions, and then went after her employees, the law judges who tried to hold
her accountable. “It’s a tremendous vindication for the judges,” said
Paul
Shearon, secretary-treasurer of the International Federation of Professional
and Technical Engineers, the union backing an organizing drive by the rank and
file administrative law judges, who allege that Walker “harassed or
retaliated
against employees acting in good faith” by reporting potential wrongdoing.
Adapted from reports in The Washington Post.