FAYETTEVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS FINALLY HAND OVER RECORDS REGARDING TERMINATION OF MATTHEW WENDT

THE LONG SOUGHT RECORDS ARRIVED VIA OVERNIGHT FEDEX FROM FPS

The outside council for the Fayetteville Public School district barely avoided violating a court order to turn over records.

You can view all the 630 pages of documents they sent by clicking here for part 1 and here for part 2.

This is a video that contains all the footage from a FPS CCTV system that was used in the termination of superintendent Matthew Wendt.

This video contains voicemail messages Wendt left Shae Newman, his subordinate and adulterous lover.

According to the records, Wendt and Newman spent a great deal of time making calls and sending text message back and forth all day long.

Here are some of the text messages of the pair once their relationship soured.

The records released also detail funds and lavish gifts Wendt gave to Newman and assistance Wendt gave to Newman's sister.  It also details the nature and frequency of their sexual relationship - from the backseat of cars in parking lots to lovers retreat in New York city.

It's also clear that Newman was a far more willing participant than she claims she was. 

A woman scorned.... 

DHS RELEASES RUTLEDGE PERSONNEL FILES

RUTLEDGE TOSSES OUT CLAIMS OF "FAKE NEWS" AND ADDS DHS TRIED TO SCREW HER

Earlier today we were one of, if not the first, media outlet to obtain all the personnel records that Pulaski County Circuit Court Judge Tim Fox ordered the Department of Human Services to release regarding Attorney General Leslie Rutledge employment and separation from employment with that agency.

You can view all of the records released by clicking here. 

An employee with the Democratic Party of Arkansas ("DPA")  filed a lawsuit against DHS to release the personnel file of Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, which would include her termination files.

Attorney Chris Burks filed the lawsuit on behalf of Reed Brewer, DPA communications director, against Cindy Gillespie, in her capacity as Arkansas DHS Director, for a “refusal to provide public records.”

DHS DIRECTOR CINDY GILLESPIE EXPRESSES HER OPINION ABOUT FOI REQUESTS

According to the lawsuit, Brewer filed a Freedom of Information Act request on Monday, July 2nd, seeking Rutledge’s personnel file while she was an agency employee and all communication to the present day between DHS officials and Rutledge.

DHS reportedly acknowledged the request on July 5th and requested a five-day extension, which Brewer did not agreed to.

Under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act, government entities typically have three days to provide documents have been requested under the AFOIA.

DHS requested another extension on July 25th, and Brewer granted an extension until July 25th for the personnel file and August 3rd for the emails. 

On July 27th, Brewer received a 51-page personnel file that reportedly “does not include all job performance records and personnel file records.”

In the lawsuit, Brewer contended that the file he received was the “exact same 51-page document released in 2014.”

Brewer is asking the court to find that Gillespie failed to comply with the FOIA request “either in bad faith or negligently” and order the agency to provide the documents.

Brewer said his intent with the lawsuit was to determine why Rutledge was terminated as an employee at DHS, citing a “public interest” in the issue.

According to Brewer, the issue of Rutledge’s DHS termination “has been in the news cycle” for several years and needs to be resolved.

Rutledge responded to the lawsuit with a written statement, claiming the Democratic Party is “dragging up decade-old fake news.”

“As I said in 2014 and the record is clear: I voluntarily resigned my position with DHS on December 3, 2007, to immediately begin working on my friend and former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s 2008 presidential campaign,” Rutledge said.  “On December 13, 2007 — ten days after my voluntary resignation — my former supervisors at DHS scratched out ‘voluntary’ and altered my personnel file to reflect something that was completely false without any notice to me or legal justification for doing so.”

Matt Campbell on his Blue Hog Report back in 2014 exposed questionable emails that Rutledge had sent during her employment with DHS.

You can read about that by clicking here.

Voters need to make a change in November and send ole Leslie on her way.

Trump might be looking for a new Attorney General and she is already one of his lackeys.

ANOTHER ESCAPE FROM THE ARKANSAS STATE HOSPITAL - ARE CHANGES IN SECURITY NEEDED?

ARK. STATE HOSPITAL INMATE JAMES BARRETT MAKES A WEEKEND JAUNT TO MEMPHIS - MOTEL SIX KEPT THE LIGHTS ON FOR HIM

Another escape from the DHS/Arkansas State Hospital ("ASH") has citizens questioning the security procedures and leadership of ASH Police Chief Perry Wyse.

 

You can read the full post on our Bad Arkansas Department of Human Services blog by clicking here.

MAUMELLE CHARTER SCHOOL SUPERINTENDENT ROB MCGILL VIOLATES ARKANSAS FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT - GIVES FALSE INFORMATION TO SUBJECT OF REQUEST

ACADEMICS PLUS SUPERINTENDENT ROB MCGILL PLAYS POCKET POOL AS A FAVORITE PASTIME

Another school district, this time a questionable charter one, plays fast and loose with the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.

We made a FOI request on August 8th to Academics Plus for records involved in the termination of Stephan Owen.

Owens was fired last month after the school administration and the Maumelle Police Department investigated allegation of sexual misconduct.

STEPHAN OWEN - FIRED OVER ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT

Owen is accused of fostering an inhospitable environment for the female athletes he coached, including playing sexual music, telling his players how many women has has had sex with and allowing his players to change on the bus. He has also been accused of changing in the girls locker room, though the coach insists that only occurred when no girls were present, under a locked door.

“The only time I ever did, I was in the locker room with it locked and closed, and I changed and left before any other girl came back in there,” Owen told OzarksFirst.com.

The coach told OzarksFirst that claims against him ignore the larger circumstances in which they occurred. When he was asked about controversial, sexual music, Owen turned over the team’s playlist to authorities. And when he was asked about players changing on the bus, he pointed to the fact that the team always traveled with other adult chaperones.“I always had a parent or I had an adult chaperone on the bus” Owens added.

 

We also sent a FOI request to the Maumelle Police Department.

They immediately provided the requested records.

 
Academics Plus apparently did not attempt to reach Owen by phone or leave a voicemail notifying him of the request for records and tell him that he needed to immediately advise them if he was going to seek an opinion from the Arkansas Attorney General. Instead two days later they sent him a letter and gave him three days to give them a response.

Our publisher sent McGill an email advising him of his violation of the AFOIA.

McGill called our publisher early this morning and admitted that he made a mistake in advising Owen that he had three days to advise the school if he was going to request an AG's opinion regarding the school's decision to release the records.

McGill has placed Academics Plus in a precarious position. 

If the school does not release the records today, they are subject to legal action under the AFOIA. 

Due to McGill's error, Owen could take legal action to stop release, for what little good that would do, after all the records sought are public records under the AFOIA.

Perhaps school administrators like McGill and others (Like John Colbert with Fayetteville Public Schools) receive bad and illegal advice from the Arkansas School Board Association's staff attorney Kristen Craig-Gould-Garner.

 

Source: http://arsba.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/2-FOI-and-Ethics.pdf

We found only one case in the last decade in which Kristen Craig-Gould-Garner represented anyone or any agency as an attorney.

That's probably a good thing.

Her lack of understanding of the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act and poor training of it to school districts could place them and superintendents in legal jeopardy.

Bad Government in Arkansas blog has never paid any agency for a FOI response.

We request that the response be provided in electronic form and be emailed to us or posted online for downloading.  

Alternately, we have also provided a thumb drive or DVD's to agencies to use to provide such a response.

All public agencies are required to have appropriate software to be able to comply with such requests and have since the year 2000.

We will post the records from Academics Plus regarding Owen's termination or a copy of the AFOIA Denial of Rights complaint later today.

Stay tuned for updates.

***UPDATE 8/13/19 1:16PM***

According to an email received from Academics Plus School District Executive Direct Rob McGill, Owens has indicated to him that he will be seeking an opinion from the Attorney General.

In three days we will have the documents as the AG will no doubt find that the records sought are public records and subject to release.

In the meantime, will McGill accept service?

 

FORMER FAYETTEVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS SUPERINTENDENT MATTHEW WENDT FILES LAWSUIT AGAINST ACCUSER AND FORMER LOVER SHAE NEWMAN - WILL IT IMPACT HER LAWSUIT AGAINST FAYETTEVILLE PUBLIC SCHOOLS TO PREVENT RELEASE OF RECORDS?

The latest sordid sex scandal to hit Fayetteville Public Schools ("FPS") has ratcheted up a notch with a lawsuit filed Tuesday morning.

Fired former superintendent Matthew Wendt filed a lawsuit against Shae Newman, his former receptionist and adulterous lover seeking over $850,000 in damages.

Readers will recall that Newman filed a lawsuit against FPS to try and prevent the release of public records. She filed the lawsuit as "Jane Doe" trying to hide her identity even though she and her shyster attorney, Suzanne Clark, had given enough information so that the press and public sought out Newman for comments.

We broke the news of her identity in this post.

In case you missed our previous posts about this scandal, here are links:

http://badgovernmentinarkansas.blogspot.com/2018/07/fayetteville-public-school.html

http://badgovernmentinarkansas.blogspot.com/2018/07/fayetteville-public-school-attorney.html

http://badgovernmentinarkansas.blogspot.com/2018/07/shennigans-in-nwa-circuit-court-with.html

http://badgovernmentinarkansas.blogspot.com/2018/08/special-judge-appointed-to-hear-afoia.html

http://badgovernmentinarkansas.blogspot.com/2018/08/judge-in-afoia-case-involing-failure-of.html

http://badgovernmentinarkansas.blogspot.com/2018/08/judge-assigned-to-shae-newmans-jane-doe.html


The related cases, Shae Newman's "Jane Doe" vs. Fayetteville Public Schools, 72CV-18-1805 and Racop vs. Colbert, 72CV-18-1964 have been assigned to a Special Judge - Judge Tom Cooper from Little River County (Ashdown).

That case is scheduled for a hearing next Wednesday, August 15th, and if needed, a final hearing on Friday, August 17th.

Judge Cooper signed an order today allowing the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to intervene in Newton's "Jane Doe" lawsuit.

Judge Cooper did not find that other parties should not be permitted to intervene as Newton and her attorney had requested.

We predict that Judge Cooper will rule against a TRO and order that the records requested be released, with certain redactions.

Those redactions are meaningless as we already know the names of all the parties involved, especially Newman's.

We also predict that Wendt's lawsuit against Newman will also be transferred to Judge Cooper under the "judicial economy" doctrine.

And now that Wendt has filed this lawsuit, Newton's privacy interest is diminished even further that it was before. 

In Wendt's case we learn how their relationship developed.

Apparently, the shyster attorney Wendt hired as FPS in-house council, Chris Lawson, had Wendt's back during the complaint process.

We also learn that Newton and her attorney Clark edited text messages between the lovers to favor their position. 

Wendt shared some of his cherished ones from his side ho.

 

Wendt suggests that Newton was la heck of a lot more willing that she has stated in complaints.

We also learn that Wendt gave Newton up to $600 per month for financial assistance even though she and her husband, Joey, both have well-paying jobs at the school district.

Wendt also bought Newman a set of tires for her ride, bottles of wine and a custom Yeti mug.

You can view Wendt's full complaint with exhibits by clicking here.

We wonder what Shae told her cuckolded hubby Joey about the tires and the influx of cash from her monthly stipend from Wendt for screwing around?

The kicker was a $4,000 cash payment that was recorded on FPS security video.

Was it a blackmail payment? Was it money for her to retain an attorney so she could get a divorce? 

Wendt came to FPS with a lot of baggage. FPS should have held out for someone not as shady, and now they are reaping what they sowed.

 

FPS has a shitload of problems. The AFOIA related lawsuits and possible criminal charges for district employees failing to follow the open records law.

And there is a huge potential financial one in how they handled the Wendt/Newman matter.

The adulterous affair between Wendt and Newman is a classic example of quid pro quo sexual harassment. 

Even when a relationship between a supervisor and subordinate begins as consensual, it often ends poorly - as we are witnessing at FPS.  It then becomes a “he said-she said” on whether the relationship was truly consensual. 

The law defaults to the position that it can never truly be consensual when you have a party that has power over another person’s job and livelihood.    The employer is strictly liable - meaning FPS will have to pay for Dr. Wendt’s affair.

Good practice when an employer receives a complaint that a supervisor has been “harassing” a subordinate is to suspend the alleged harasser with pay pending the investigation.

This protects the employer by removing the harasser from a situation where he could harass others or retaliate against the harassee. 

Most employers have strong policies against these types of relationships, so the harasser is usually disciplined up to and including termination.  The FPS policy we have seen is not very strong. 

It is hard to discipline the complaining party because the employer then faces a retaliation claim that she was disciplined for exercising her right to complain. 

Another way to address the situation is to remove the complaining party from under the supervisor’s supervision.  Obviously, that could not have been done at FPS because the superintendent is the head supervisor.  And if the alleged harassee does not want to change jobs, you face another retaliation issue.

Here are some links that deal with this issue:

https://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/harassment.html

https://woman.thenest.com/laws-relationships-between-employees-supervisors-13957.html

https://www.fisherphillips.com/resources-newsletters-article-supervisor-subordinate-relationships-never-a-good-idea

Max Brantley with the Arkansas Times posted about this ordeal on their Arkansas Blog.  You can read that post by clicking here.