Waters v. Ga. Dep't of Juvenile Justice
| Decision Date | 14 April 2016 |
| Docket Number | 6:14-cv-10 |
| Citation | 181 F.Supp.3d 1226 |
| Parties | Johnny Darnell Waters, Plaintiff, v. Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice, et al., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Southern District of Georgia |
This case concerns a dispute between a state employee and his supervisors and coworkers over what personal activity should occur at work. Plaintiff Johnny Darnell Waters, a probation specialist with the Georgia Department of Juvenile Justice's ("DJJ") Evans County Services Office, complained to management that his coworkers were misusing their time and violating department policies. To his surprise, his supervisors did not immediately investigate his accusations; they investigated Plaintiff instead and discovered that he frequently viewed prohibited content on his work computer. After preliminary reports were verified by the DJJ's Office of Investigations, the DJJ terminated Plaintiff and announced his termination in a press release. This case soon followed.
Presently before the Court is Defendants' motion for summary judgment. (Doc. 55.) Defendants seek summary judgment on Plaintiff's claim against Defendant DJJ under the Georgia Whistleblower Act ("GWA"), O.C.G.A. § 45–1–4, and on Plaintiff's claims under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the DJJ and Defendants Jeffery Alligood and Timothy Strickland. The Court GRANTS Defendants' motion.
Plaintiff Johnny Darnell Waters began his employment as a Juvenile Parole Probation Specialist I with the DJJ's Evans County Services Office on March 1, 2007. At the office, Timothy Strickland, the office's Juvenile Program Manager, supervised Plaintiff. Strickland, in turn, reported to DJJ Assistant District Director Rusty Rogers, who reported to Southeast Regional Administrator Defendant Jeffrey Alligood.
Plaintiff's position required the supervision of children between the ages of seven and eighteen to ensure they comply with probation conditions. DJJ policy required Plaintiff to log every contact made with children under his supervision into an internal tracking system within 72 hours. During 2009, Plaintiff failed to meet policy standards in documenting required child contacts. Strickland first discussed this with Plaintiff in June 2009 and gave him two formal reminders in July and September. Strickland placed Plaintiff on decision-making leave for the repeat documentation violations from January 2010 through January 2011. His performance evaluation for July 1, 2009 through June 30, 2010 indicated that Plaintiff did not meet performance expectations. Plaintiff's July 2011 performance evaluation indicated that Plaintiff met expectations, but that he needed improvement regarding logging child contacts within the 72-hour documentation period.
In 2011, Plaintiff made complaints concerning conduct by other DJJ employees. In particular, Plaintiff alleged the following: (1) that his coworker Michael Clark sold another coworker, Malcolm Tucker, a double-barrel shotgun in front of the Evans CSO office; (2) Clark transported shotgun shells in his state vehicle; and (3) Strickland permitted Clark to view interview questions for a position he applied for and view other applicants' resumes. At the time Plaintiff made these complaints, Strickland did not pursue any investigation into the alleged incidents.
On December 6, 2011, Strickland met with Plaintiff and explained his concern over the inadequate descriptions he included in his case notes. According to Strickland, on Wednesday, December 14, 2011, Strickland conducted a regularly scheduled audit of the office's cases. Strickland claims to have found that Plaintiff failed to record any contacts in the prior three days. This concerned Strickland because he had noticed Plaintiff had not left the office on Monday or Tuesday of that week. Because Plaintiff does not work Wednesdays, this left Plaintiff with only Thursday and Friday to have any child contacts. For his part, Plaintiff maintains that he remained well-within the allotted 72 hours to document child contacts.
Ostensibly for the purpose of determining what Plaintiff had done with his time that week, Strickland approached Plaintiff's computer and began to search his web browsing history.1 According to Strickland, he discovered Plaintiff visited numerous inappropriate and non-work-related websites, including, among others, clickandflirt.com and baconlube.com. Strickland created a list of the websites and included printouts from certain ones and, at Rogers's direction, completed a "Special Incident Report" ("SIR"). Rogers then informed Alligood of the material found on Plaintiff's computer. Alligood directed Rogers to call DJJ Principal Investigator Sheila Phillips. Phillips drove to the Evans County Services Office, confiscated Plaintiff's computer, and sent it to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's ("GBI") crime lab for a forensic audit. DJJ Deputy Commissioner Carl Brown instructed Alligood to suspend Plaintiff with pay pending the investigation. Alligood then relayed the suspension directive to Rogers and Strickland. Plaintiff, who typically does not work on Wednesdays, came to the office that day, at which point Strickland informed him that he was suspended pending investigation.
Investigator Phillips assigned DJJ Senior Investigator Michael Maybin to investigate Plaintiff's computer use. Maybin obtained Strickland's SIR and interviewed Strickland concerning his investigation. On December 19, Maybin interviewed Plaintiff and gave him the opportunity to prepare a written statement. In his statement, Plaintiff claimed that he did not subscribe to clickandflirt.com and had only visited the website in an attempt to unsubscribe. During the course of the interview, Plaintiff acknowledged visiting non-work-related websites, including Facebook, Bass Pro Shop, and Georgia Wildlife, and a website where he viewed a video of how to make a "drain oh bomb."
(Heath Aff., Doc. 44, Ex. 4 ¶ 6.) Heath gave his report to Maybin and also discussed its finding by phone.
On January 25, 2012, Maybin prepared a final report of investigation that includes Maybin's report of investigation, Strickland's SIR, an Administrative Investigative Notice, a memorandum of Maybin's interview with Plaintiff, a letter from Strickland, and the GBI's forensic report (collectively the "DJJ report"). Maybin gave the report to Phillips who prepared a memorandum summarizing the findings and concluding that Plaintiff violated DJJ policies. Phillips sent the report and memorandum to Brown and Sarah Draper, the Director of the DJJ Office of Internal Investigations. Two days later, Draper informed Commissioner Gale Buckner of the investigation and sent the DJJ report to DJJ Staff Attorney André Castaing. Brown and Draper later met with Commissioner Buckner regarding the investigation and explained the GBI's forensic audit. Commissioner Buckner testified that she "trusted the unbiased information" the GBI found on the computer.
On February 7, 2012, Buckner emailed Draper regarding the status of the case. Draper replied to Brown and advised him that the Office of Legal Services was reviewing the case. At the same time, Castaing prepared a termination review and gave it to DJJ General Counsel Tracy Masters. Castaing did not give Commissioner Buckner a copy of the review and, to his knowledge, no one else did either. That afternoon, Commissioner Buckner informed Castaing of her decision to terminate Plaintiff immediately. When she made the decision to terminate Plaintiff, Buckner had not read the reports generated by the DJJ or GBI; her decision was based on what Draper and Brown told her, principally that the investigation indicated that Plaintiff misused his state computer to view sexually explicit websites. Additionally, she had no knowledge of Plaintiff's complaints regarding his coworkers' policy violations.
After meeting with Commissioner Buckner, Castaing called Alligood to notify him that Buckner wanted Plaintiff terminated that day. He then emailed Alligood and Strickland a draft termination letter for Alligood's signature. Later that day, Strickland met with Plaintiff, informed him of his termination, and gave him the termination letter, which was signed by Alligood.
Two days later, Sam Clonts, the Acting Director of the DJJ Office of Human Resources, informed Plaintiff by letter that a "no rehire" designation was placed on his employment record. Then, on February 15, 2012, the DJJ issued a press release, which was transmitted to local media outlets, announcing Plaintiff's termination following the investigation into inappropriate use of state property and violations of DJJ policies. DJJ Public Affairs Officer Jim Schuler testified that Commissioner Buckner decided to issue a press release concerning the termination. In drafting the press release, Schuler relied on information from the Commissioner's office, the termination letter, and a synopsis of Strickland's investigation. Plaintiff later learned about articles in the...
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