GovernmentExecutive.com

A disability rights advocacy organization is offering $1,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of corrupt Federal Protective Service officers.

Mark Hobratschk, founder of the Denver-based Otologic Reimbursement Management, said that since new security measures have been implemented in federal buildings, the officers assigned to security have not been given disability training, which has resulted in multiple complaints.

Hobratschk said disabled persons who file the complaints often are retaliated against, and cited three cases in Baltimore where FPS officers retaliated against people who filed claims charging misconduct.

Citing a similar case in San Francisco where three FPS officers were charged last year with falsifying records in a federal investigation, Hobratschk said Maryland's U.S. Attorney Allen F. Loucks is making "every effort to cover up for similar fabrications by FPS officers in Baltimore."

In December, FPS officers Peter Taoy and John Haire confessed to making false statements after they chased a man for running a red light in San Francisco, falsely charged him with attempted murder and lied about where the chase started. Special Agent Charles H. Jackson, assigned to investigate the incident, has been indicted on a federal charge of falsifying records in an investigation.

ORM has pushed for a criminal prosecution of FPS officers Jerry Bartgis and Louis Michael Mount who it says retaliated against people filing complaints regarding FPS wrongdoing.

Hobratschk said Mount covered up what he called bigoted treatment of a disabled motorist by making up claims of terrorist threats a week after the motorist demanded disability sensitivity training for all federal building security workers. Hobratschk described FPS as an "incestuous nest of corruption."

According to various accounts, Mount refused to help a disabled man with a spinal-cord injury when he was visiting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in Baltimore. After saying "Where's your wheelchair?" and "Everyone wants to be disabled nowadays," Mount would not allow the man into the building.

ORM alleges that Bartgis has fabricated similar retaliatory claims against federal workers who filed misconduct complaints.

FPS spokesman Dennis O'Connor said he is unaware of the cases involving Bartgis and Mount, but encouraged anyone who thinks FPS agents or officers have done anything wrong to contact the agency.

"If we find officers or agents doing anything inappropriately, we're going to take the proper action," O'Connor said. "We do have a special agent that is under indictment ... but this is America, and he's still innocent until proven guilty."

Lost and Found

The Interior Department is deliberating on whether to release information regarding former Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers' personnel file.

In a letter to Richard Condit, general counsel for Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, the department's Freedom of Information Act appeals officer stated that a search of agency files turned up documents relating to a written performance review. Interior officials previously had said that the document did not exist.

Condit said, however, that the document was not the requested evaluation by Park Service Director Donald Murphy, but a Senior Executive Service performance plan that did not provide what they are looking for.

"We are baffled by the confusing responses that have come from the Interior Department on this issue," Condit said. "It is very hard to believe that the department is being truthful with us and Chief Chambers on this issue of the missing evaluation and her personnel file."

Interior spokesman David Barna would not comment on the matter.

"We cannot comment in any way, shape or form because she is not a federal employee anymore and this case is under litigation," Barna said.

Chambers sued Interior last month for illegally destroying documents she believes prove that the charges used to fire her last year were fabricated. According to the former Park Police chief, the documents would clear her of two of the six charges used to justify her removal. Two other charges already have been dismissed by the Merit Systems Protection Board.

In December 2003, after telling The Washington Post that the police force needed to more than double its size to meet increased demands, the Park Service placed Chambers on administrative leave. She was fired several months later. Chambers has since appealed an MPSB decision to uphold her firing and reapplied for her old job.