The Defense Department illegally retaliated against a whistleblower who applied for a civilian job after her husband was killed in action in Iraq and the Air Force disposed of his cremated remains at a landfill in Virginia, an appeals board ruled on Wednesday.
Garilynn Smith notified the media and a congressman after she learned of the mistreatment of her husband’s remains, who was a U.S. Army sergeant and explosive ordnance disposal technician, five years after his 2006 death. Smith worked as an Army civilian in New Jersey at the time. She got a new job with the Navy, but quickly decided to apply for an executive assistant opening at her old office. After the Army selected someone else for the position, Smith filed a whistleblower complaint with the Office of Special Counsel.
The case made its way to the Merit Systems Protection Board, where an administrative judge ruled in 2017 the Army had retaliated against Smith for disclosing what happened to her husband and demanded she be offered the position and back pay. The Army appealed the decision to MSPB’s central board, where it languished for five years due to the absence of a quorum.
In one of the first precedential rulings of the newly reconstituted board, the independent, quasi-judicial agency agreed the Army had engaged in unlawful retaliation. The board signaled in its decision that it will continue recent precedent of interpreting a "broader view of retaliatory motive” in whistleblower cases, a welcome sign to...
Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief PLtGen. Jose Melencio Nartatez, Jr. PNP PIO MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Monday, April 6, said it will pursue criminal charg...