Bunch v. Board of Review, Rhode Island Dept. of Employment and Training

• Decision Date: 25 February 1997
• Docket Number: No. 95-163-M,95-163-M
• Citation: 690 A.2d 335
• Parties: C. Mae BUNCH, v. BOARD OF REVIEW, RHODE ISLAND DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING. P.
• Court: Rhode Island Supreme Court

Page 335

690 A.2d 335

C. Mae BUNCH, v. BOARD OF REVIEW, RHODE ISLAND DEPARTMENT OF EMPLOYMENT AND TRAINING.

No. 95-163-M.P.

Supreme Court of Rhode Island.

Feb. 25, 1997.

Robert B. Mann, Providence, for Plaintiff.

Valentino D. Lombardi, Anthony E. Angeli, Jr., Providence, for Defendant.

OPINION

WEISBERGER, Chief Justice.

This case comes before us on a petition for certiorari filed by the Department of Children, Youth and Families seeking review of a judgment of the District Court that sustained the appeal of C. Mae Bunch (claimant) from a decision of the Board of Review of the Department of Employment and Training (board of review). The board of review had upheld the denial of unemployment-compensation benefits to claimant. We grant the petition for certiorari and quash the judgment of the District Court. The facts of the case insofar as pertinent to this petition are as follows.

The claimant in this case was employed by the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) as superintendent of the Rhode Island Training School for Youth. On February 5, 1994, she called the West Warwick police department, seeking their assistance in finding an intruder in her basement. When the police arrived, claimant was on an upstairs landing holding a machete in her hand. Claimant was first asked to put the machete aside. She did so and then advised the police that she heard strange noises emanating from her basement and believed someone was there. She appeared to Patrolman Timothy Poulin to be nervous and emotional. He and another officer conducted a search of the bottom level of the house and found neither an intruder, nor sign of forced entry. The claimant asked the officers to search the entire house in order to allay her fears. In the course of this consensual search, Officer Poulin discovered a white powder that he believed to be a controlled substance, along with accompanying drug paraphernalia in the master bedroom. As a result of this discovery the officer admonished the claimant of her Miranda rights and brought her to the West Warwick police station. She was subsequently released from custody and returned to her home pending examination of the substance by the state toxicology laboratory. The substance later was determined at the toxicology laboratory to be cocaine.

That same evening claimant called her supervisor, the DCYF director, Linda D'Amario Rossi (director), to advise her of the incident, but claimant did not disclose that she had been taken into custody, that drug paraphernalia and items suspected of being controlled substances had been seized from the master bedroom of her home, and that she had been advised that the West Warwick police might proceed with a possible criminal prosecution.

On February 6 a member of the West Warwick police informed the director that they had discovered a substance believed to be narcotics and also drug paraphernalia and that, depending on toxicology results, the police department intended to proceed with a criminal prosecution. They also informed the director that claimant had been detained and had been advised of her Miranda rights.

On February 6, 1994, claimant again called the West Warwick police department and asked that it send someone to her residence. This time she was holding a two-inch by four-inch piece of wood and claimed that an intruder was in her home. A search indicated that there was no intruder and no sign of forced entry. The claimant expressed no confidence in the officers' findings. She insisted that her neighbors were not talking to her and that the police had "bugged" her telephone lines and were determined "to get" her.

Following the toxicology report that the substance seized from her house had tested positive for cocaine, an arrest warrant was issued and criminal charges were filed against claimant. As a result of these circumstances, which were reported to the director claimant was placed on administrative leave by the director. After an administrative hearing she was terminated from her employment as superintendent of the Training School, effective February 10, 1994. On February 18, 1994, claimant applied for unemployment compensation. Her application was denied, and claimant appealed this denial to the board of review where, after a hearing, the referee determined that claimant had been discharged for proven misconduct. The referee found that

"the claimant's conduct was certainly conduct of willful and wanton disregard of the standards of behavior which the employer had the right to expect of the claimant. It further must be found that the claimant violated the obligations and duties of her position with substantial disregard of the employer's interest by making misleading and incorrect statements to her department director."

The board of review by a majority decision affirmed the findings of the referee with one member dissenting on the ground that the misconduct was not related to the claimant's employment. A judge of the District Court reversed the decision of the board of review on the ground that there was no evidence of job-related misconduct proven against claimant. He emphasized that claimant was dismissed from her employment because she was accused of committing a crime while off duty and because she had failed to disclose the facts surrounding the occurrence of February 5, 1994. He found as a fact that the circumstances upon which the criminal charges were based were not related to her official duties and, therefore, did not disqualify her from unemployment...