When Santa Rosa District Police whistleblowers Vanessa Spaeth and Josh Richards reported finding child porn on a fellow employee’s personal thumb drive, they figured they were doing the right thing. Nearly a year later, both say their careers have been deliberately ruined, and had they known the personal and professional retaliation they have faced since whistleblowing, they would not have alerted the school to what they believed was gross incompetence and illegal behavior on the part of Santa Rosa Junior College District Police employees.
The trouble began when Spaeth and Richards discovered a thumb drive at the district police headquarters containing dozens of graphic images of child pornography. Spaeth reported the incident to her boss and an investigation was launched to determine where the thumb drive came from.
Lt. Dave Willat, according to Richards, began the investigation. Police Chief Matt McCaffrey abruptly ended that first investigation and the college hired an outside investigator to look into the incident.
Private investigator Chris Reynolds looked into allegations of sexual harassment and retaliation against Spaeth, Richards and another district employee, Wendy Wasik. Reynolds has concluded his investigation and found that no harassment or retaliation occurred.
According to Reynold’s report, there was no credible evidence supporting the allegations of sexual harassment that anyone intentionally exposed Spaeth, Richards or Wasik to the graphic images.
Further, Reynolds found that after viewing videotapes of interactions between Spaeth and other employees in the police department, no retaliation had occurred.
The SRJC Board of Trustees accepted this finding and officials have used it, according to Spaeth, to try to force the disaffected employees to accept the school’s reassignment.
Both Richards and Spaeth were dispatchers when the incident began and said their doctors have told them the SRJC District Police environment was a threat to their health; they have been on sick leave. During their leaves, Richards and Spaeth have had their temporary replacements’ pay deducted from their benefits in accordance with labor agreements with the college.
Richard’s leave has ended and all of his benefits have been exhausted as of the end of January. SRJC has not tried to reassign him. Richards said his health issues prevent him from returning to the police and this was his chosen career.
Richards said college officials have not acknowledged that his medical leave is due to the hostile work environment. “All my doctors are like, this is all work related,” Richards said. “My doctor says I cannot return, and there’s not a job to go back to.”
The school has agreed to give Richards a settlement of $15,000 in exchange for him to drop a Workers Compensation claim that Richards has against the district. The Workers Compensation board approved the settlement on Feb. 10.
“It’s very odd how they can just go ahead and come up with $15,000 and say, ‘Here, we’re paying for all this, but yet we don’t have any information on you, we don’t believe you have a complaint because we denied it, but yet we are still paying,’” Richards said.
According to Spaeth, since September 2014, SRJC’s administration has been attempting to force her to take a demotion in benefits and a reassignment to the kinesiology department. This move would put Spaeth on probation, risking immediate termination for any number of arbitrary reasons. Spaeth said the college would not even have to give a reason for terminating her while on probation.
Spaeth said some of her friends in law enforcement have shunned her since she came forward to report finding the thumb drive that contained the illegal graphic material.
Documents shared with the Oak Leaf show that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a federal agency that protects worker’s rights, has launched investigations into SRJC’s employment practices. The EEOC declined to share specifics of the investigations into SRJC’s handling of employees.
Spaeth said her understanding is the EEOC is concerned with the college’s attempts to force employees to waive rights to legal actions against the school.
Dr. Frank Chong, SRJC president, refused to make any statements about either the allegations or the fallout from Spaeth’s and Richard’s complaints. Dr. Chong referred all questions on the matter to Pat Wilson, legal counsel for the school.
Karen Furukawa, vice president of human resources, also requested that questions be directed to the school’s attorney.
Wilson refused to share any information that hasn’t already been released or that is still awaiting clearance for release in compliance with California Public Records Act requests the Oak Leaf filed.
SRJC Board of Trustees member Jordan Burns refused to comment on any specifics of the case, saying it is an ongoing investigation. Burns did say that people should feel safe to raise a red flag when they encounter illegal behavior.
“Whistleblowing policies are in place for a reason. People shouldn’t fear reporting something that is wrong or illegal,” Burns said.
