A Thurston County jury on March 26 levied a $1 million judgment against Washington State Ferries (WSF) for whistleblower retaliation.
Following a seven-day trial, the jurors agreed that the plaintiff, carpenter Steve Chaussee, suffered damages after he was demoted in retaliation for bringing forth concerns that a carpenter who worked under him was cheating on timesheets.
The case highlights a pattern the KING 5 Investigators exposed in the year-long investigation of the ferry system -- "Waste on the Water." Part of the 2010 series focused on a lack of accountability at the highest levels of WSF -– the largest system in the country.
"This verdict should send a message to state bureaucrats that they will be held accountable for whistleblower retaliation. This verdict makes it cost effective to protect whistleblowers and to fix the problems they report, said Chaussee's attorney, Jack Sheridan.
According to the lawsuit, Chaussee began to experience retaliation in 2008 after he reported to his superiors that he believed a carpenter in the Eagle Harbor Maintenance Facility on Bainbridge Island was skipping out on work to attend baseball games. That carpenter, Jack Nannery, was a longtime and well-known community baseball volunteer in the Kitsap County area.
In reporting the "Waste on the Water" series, KING 5 reporters obtained photos of Nannery at various baseball games on days and times in 2008 that his timesheet showed him at work. In 2010, timesheets and baseball schedules showed that Nannery was calling in sick on days he was actually coaching baseball.
After the KING 5 reports aired, Nannery was forced to retire.
Legal documents show Nannery's WSF managers were warned about the cheating by Chaussee two years before KING 5's first story aired. In 2008, Chaussee, who was Nannery's foreman, told his boss, Vern Day about Nannery's timesheet fraud. Day said he'd investigate, but that didn't happen.
Instead of going after Nannery, Chaussee's suit alleges he was the subject of retaliation by his bosses. The suit said Vern Day started issuing written warnings for allegations such as "Acts of discourtesy aimed at co-workers, customers or supervisors."
The next boss up the chain -- Paul Brodeur -- gave Chaussee a two-tier demotion for "insubordination," "poor work performance" and for failing to adequately supervise Nannery and his timesheets.
"Stealing time is stealing money. All you can do as a foreman (like Chaussee) is report it up the chain of command and then it's for higher authority to investigate, not him," said Sheridan.
The suit also alleged Chaussee, who did not want to be interviewed for this story, was ostracized, harassed and "suffered mental anguish, emotional distress, injury to reputation, humiliation" (and) "lost wages."
"It's very troubling that the ferry system would allow this kind of injustice to exist," said Sheridan.
State Auditor steps in
While ferry managers never looked closely into Nannery's activities, the State Auditor's Office did, issuing a report in May 2009 that found Nannery was dishonest on his time sheets and spent hours on his state computer, on state time, checking baseball scores and schedules.
"If you are fudging on timesheets, or equipment or vacation or use of computers, you are stealing from the public," said Brian Sonntag, who was the State Auditor at the time.
After that report, Chaussee said his work life got even worse as he was perceived to be the whistleblower for the auditor's investigation.
"They (ferry managers) were happy to do nothing in their own little fiefdom, but if you dare to go outside, if they perceive you to go outside (the ferry system) they're going to squash you like a bug, and that's what happened in this case," said Sheridan.
At trial the attorneys for the state argued that Chaussee received a demotion because he was a bad supervisor, not because he was a perceived whistleblower. The jury didn't see it that way.
The case is expected to cost the ferry system more than the million-dollar jury verdict. State Ferries, which is under the umbrella of the Washington State Department of Transportation, is responsible for paying the plaintiff's legal bills as well for the defense work. That figure is nearly $700,000.
The state has 30 days to decide whether to appeal the jury's decision.
Chaussee still works for the ferry system in the carpenter shop. Paul Brodeur left WSF and now works for King County. Vern Day is retired.
-- This story first aired on April 2, 2015.
