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A federal appeals court dismissed an appeal from a Government Printing Office worker alleging unlawful arrest.

Alvin Hardwick, a GPO police officer, arrested Theodore E. Williams, a GPO worker, in January 2001 after a confrontation in the lobby of the agency's headquarters in Washington.

According to Williams, Hardwick confiscated his badge as he was returning to the building after delivering a letter. Hardwick grabbed Williams, who is handicapped and uses a cane, dragged him across the lobby and slammed him head-first into a brass door at the entrance of the GPO police office.

Hardwick disputes this account and denies throwing Williams into the door. He states that Williams refused to show his identification, used profanity and threatened Hardwick with his cane.

After Williams was taken to the GPO police office, Hardwick confiscated Williams' cane and allowed him to go to the medical unit for a checkup. Later, Hardwick and another officer arrested Williams for disorderly conduct, advised him of his rights and took him to a Washington police station, where Williams was detained for several hours and formally charged.

Williams sued in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on the grounds that his Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights were violated along with common law claims. After the court granted a summary judgment against Williams, he appealed to the D.C. Court of Appeals arguing that Hardwick could not arrest him because the District of Columbia enacted the disorderly conduct statute under which he was arrested, and should prevent federal officers like Hardwick from being able to make arrests under the federal statute that gives GPO officers the same jurisdiction as local police.

Hardwick argued that it was lawful for him to arrest Williams, because District. police did not encourage him to arrest Williams and that his power to arrest stems from the federal law. The court concluded that federal law allows federal officers to make arrests for violations of D.C. law and that D.C. officials did not encourage Hardwick to arrest Williams.

Theodore E. Williams v. United States of American and Alvin Hardwick, officer, individually and as Government Printing Office Police Officer, U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit #03-5316, Jan. 25, 2005.

Investigate the Investigators

Six Democrats in Congress and two labor unions are calling for an investigation of recent actions they believe could involve civil service violations and the misuse of federal dollars by the Office of Special Counsel and Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch.

The actions under question include Bloch's decision to require 12 senior OSC workers to transfer to field offices or face losing their jobs, opening a Detroit field office and allegations that Bloch used no-bid management consultant contracts and signed a contract with a former boarding school headmaster for unspecified services.

The six members of Congress, Reps. Danny K. Davis, Illinois; Eliot L. Engel, New York; Barney Frank, Massachusetts; Steny Hoyer, Maryland; Edolphus Towns, New York; and Henry A. Waxman, California, wrote in a recent letter to the Government Accountability Office that their efforts to learn Bloch's rationale for these actions have been unsuccessful.

Waxman and Davis wrote a letter to Bloch on Jan. 26 requesting that he delay requiring the OSC workers to transfer until their questions could be answered. The original deadline fell on Jan. 16, but after a 10-day delay, seven of the 12 workers decided to leave the agency rather than transfer.

At the same time, Colleen M. Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, expressed concerns that OSC's Hatch Act unit will report for the first time to a political appointee instead of a career senior executive. Mark Roth, general counsel for the American Federation of Government Employees, said it's ironic that the agency that's entrusted with protecting federal employees from retaliation for whistleblowing is being accused of retaliating against workers.

OSC spokeswoman Cathy Deeds said the change is the culmination of a year of restructuring that has helped reduce the agency's case backlog.

Deeds said the decision to open a Detroit office was the result of an "interactive process with GSA about federal office space in the Midwest."

"They said we could have federal office space in Detroit, which was available immediately, required no build-out costs and was about one-half the cost of space in Chicago," she explained.

Anthony Vergnetti, an attorney for some of the OSC workers who have been asked to transfer, said that a GAO inquiry will help, but more immediate action is necessary. "We were hoping for a little more bipartisan support for a congressional inquiry." By the time a GAO report is complete, he said, the employees will have moved or been fired.

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