SWORN AFFIDAVIT
I, James L. Roxby, an employee of the Customs Service, assigned to the SAIC South Florida, under penalty of perjury and truthfully states the following:
I am a current employee of the Customs Service, SAIC South Florida. I am currently assigned to the Blue Lighting Operations Center as of March 1, 1999. I was first hired as a Marine Enforcement Officer during March 1989. During July 1997, I was reassigned to the position of Evidence Custodian at the grade of GS-9 step10. I receive compensation from the Office of Workers Compensation Programs (OWCP) for lost wages due to an injury that occurred while on duty to my lower back. I am 7% disabled due to that work related injury.
FACTS AND CONCERNS
I formally made a request to EEOC, Ms. Lynn Andrews to obtain Managements statements concerning my reassignment from the Evidence Room to a position with very limited work duties.
After obtaining the EEOC statements of the Customs Managers, I found that SAIC Management had blamed me for the ongoing problems in the Evidence Room. SAIC Management blamed me for mishandled evidence such as evidence that had been improperly stored by Agents, failure of the Agents to bring seized evidence to the evidence room as required, boxes and bags mis-labeled or missing information by the Agents, improper documenting the evidence on the CF-6051, excepting or removing evidence without properly filling out the required paperwork, improperly duplicating CF-6051 or case numbers, improperly leaving evidence in the evidence room after the case was closed, not reassigning an Agent the responsibility to evidence after a case agent was transferred (abandon evidence and cases), moving evidence within the evidence room without documenting the proper location, removing evidence without leaving a copy of the signed CF-6051, missing evidence, storing non-evidence, storing items of great value (currency, paintings, jewelry, moon rock, etc) for periods longer than permitted by regulation, etc.
Their were 3 or 4 employees that had access to the evidence room when I was not present during the later part of 1998. This included SSA Ronald McGinty, Maria Barger, SSA Tyler Morgan and maybe a few others unknown to me. On several occasions, I found problems stated above when I returned to work after vacations or other types of leave.
SSA McGinty was reliable when excepting or removing evidence from the room. I would later have to enter the evidence into the computer data-bank when I returned for SSA McGinty.
During 1997/98, other Customs employeeâs had access (evidence room alternates) to the evidence room. Problems were created by every employee excepting or removing evidence such as stated above. No employee, including myself had ever been trained in the Evidence Room. As I had stated before, the Evidence Room has been the "Dumping Grounds" for unliked or disabled employees.
The poor accountability in the evidence room dates back many years. The SAIC Office has been criticized in prior audits for poor evidence management. It is impossible to blame the problems of the evidence room on any one employee.
THE WASHINGTON AUDIT, NOVEMBER 1998
During October 1998, SSA Tyler Morgan was assigned to the Evidence Room with two of his assistants. Their responsibilities was to get ready for the Washington audit team that was arriving November 1998. The Washington audit was due to a prior Miami Herald article reporting that, SAIC Lopez many documented problems in San Juan, PR. The Audit team responsibility was to determine if the same problems were occurring in Miami under SAIC Lopez.
I formally advised the Washington Audit Team Leader that, I was transferred upstairs after the Miami Herald reported that the Miami SAIC Office "scrambled" to get ready for the Washington Audit. I also advised him that, I was worried that since I was not in the evidence room during their audit, problems or issues may of came up that needed to addressed by the Evidence Custodian. He replied that, "they found no discrepancies in the Evidence Room". (No Discrepancies means "NONE" ).
Either the SAIC Managers and/or SSA Morgan lied to the Washington Auditors or information was withheld from the Washington Auditors by Mr. Tureaud, Mr. Cline and/or SSA Morgan.
QUESTIONS TO BE INVESTIGATED
1) Why would I be isolated upstairs with little or no duties for four months if this was not retaliation for the embarrassment due to the Miami Herald report. 2) Why was I not counseled by supervision if I had in fact created problems in the evidence room as stated in the EEOC counselors report. 3) Why was my pager taken away if I was still assigned to the Evidence Room (a requirement of the position). 4) Why did Mr. Cline have me sign a blank employee evaluation form just after the Washington audit. 5) Why did Mr. Cline refuse to offer me a copy of the evaluation form after I signed it. 6) Why did SAIC Management fail to discuss their allegations in order to correct the problems (a logical supervisory action if in fact a deficiency occurred).
SAIC Management did not intend for me to find out about their misrepresentation in reference to the Evidence Room. Their intentions were to keep me in the dark and blame me for the Evidence Room shortfalls and the ongoing problems. They knew that I would not lie to protect SAIC Lopez. SAIC Management did not have the Governments best interest in mind. They were out to protect SAIC Lopez and themselves from discipline or forced transfers.
Senior Special Agent Ronald McGinty is the best source of information about the Evidence Room. He has direct knowledge of the problems associated with the Evidence Room and will contradict the SAIC Managers report. Without questioning SSA McGinty, the EEOC report to Dallas is incomplete.
When SAIC Managers found out about the Inspector Generals investigation and needed to limit my current knowledge of the problems in the Evidence Room.
Mr. Tureaud and Mr. Cline have never conducted an audit of the Evidence Room and has no direct knowledge of the room. The information that Mr. Tureaud and Mr. Cline had to relied upon came from Senior Special Agent, Tyler Morgan. If any falsehoods were made about the Evidence Room, it came directly from SSA Morgan or his two assistants.
RETALIATION
During January 1999, Mr. Tureaud and Mr. Cline was present during a meeting were Mr. Lopez blamed me for the moral problems in South Florida. Mr. Lopez openly named me as one of the 4 or 5 disgruntled employees that caused those problems. If Mr. Lopezâs beliefs I am the cause for the moral problems, he would have reason to retaliate.
_______________________ ________________________
James L. Roxby Date