A former employee of the Colorado Mental Health Institute in Pueblo is claiming their superior violated Colorado's whistleblower protection laws when he demoted them.
A complaint filed last October with the Colorado State Personnel Board by former CMHIP employee Christine Mendias claims that Brian Gonzales, then a program chief nurse at CMHIP, violated her protection under the state’s whistleblower act in a retaliatory manner when he decided to demote her that same month.
That complaint was the subject of a three-day administrative hearing with the state personnel board last week, which sought to determine whether her speech was protected, whether she actually made the comments for which she was disciplined, and whether the disciplinary action was arbitrary, capricious or contrary to rule or law.
Mendias was a mental health clinician prior to her demotion to client care aide, which came with a nearly $7 reduction in hourly pay. She had been making $25.72 per hour prior to that.
The Colorado Department of Human Services, which oversees the hospital and is the respondent in the matter, argued through its attorneys in a prehearing statement that the disciplinary action by Gonzales was issued because Mendias violated the hospital's code of conduct by “failing to treat others with respect, making unsubstantiated allegations possibly leading to the harmful reputation of others and assigning blame.”
CDHS also contested in its statement that Mendias’ claims of retaliation and...
Images of the Whitegate fuel protests earlier this month were altered to make it appear gardaí were violent towards protesters. The AI-doctored images were shared widely online, including by inter...