Donald Theodore v. Sewerage and Water Board of New Orleans

Aug 01, 2018

OUTCOME: The DA dismissed all criminal charges and the Civil Service Commission ruled ordered that Mr. Theodore be reinstated with backpay. Notably, Mr. Theodore is the only S&WB of his cohort who won his civil service appeal and was reinstated.

Mr. Theodore was one of approximately twenty S&WB employees who were terminated and criminally prosecuted for theft and malfeasance in office based upon allegedly misappropriating and re-selling used b ... rass and copper that they removed from the ground in the course and scope of their employment. The S&WB claimed that Mr. Theodore violated its surplus property policy which was allegedly enacted in 1984, made available to all employees, and established a procedure for employees to return all surplus materials to the warehouse, wherein it would be stored in a secure location pending sale of said surplus at an auction. I was immediately suspicious about the applicability of this policy because it did not define surplus property, it appeared to apply to non-consumable items such as tools, and Mr. Theodore had no knowledge of it. I conducted an extensive investigation and found documents and witnesses to support my theory. Ultimately, I presented documentary evidence and witness testimony proving that at the time of the alleged misconduct (1) the S&WB had no policy stating that used brass has to be returned to the warehouse, (2) the warehouse did not have a process to sell the scrap metals (3) it was rare that used brass was ever returned to the warehouse, (4) the S&WB as an organization did not begin to collect scrap metals until a year later, (5) as of the date of the hearing, the S&WB as an organization had not sold any recycled brass, and (6) that the S&WB issued a memo after the fact setting forth a policy of returning all recyclable metals to the organization for resale. See article-- Kevin Litten, Sewerage & Water Board worker fired for brass theft must be rehired, Civil Service rules, Nola.com, Posted August 13, 2018 https://www.nola.com/politics/2018/08/swb_theft_brass_employment.html