Dona Ana County whistleblower discusses termination
robert hernandez, a former temporary dona ana county employee, is suing the county for wrongful termination. the lawsuit, served yesterday, claims hernandez was fired in retaliation for blowing the whistle on an identity theft and check cashing scheme in the dona ana county clerk’s office. abc7’s s jamie warren is at the dona ana county government center with our new mexico mobile newsroom. jamie? estela — this is the lawsuit served to county officials yesterday. it states hernandez was subject to harassment and a hostile work environment, which eventually led to his termination hernandez :59:39:08 i couldnt go to the clerk or his chief deputy prior to going to the lawenforcement because in reality i don’t know how high up the chain this actually went hernandez told me he went to his supervisor first to report the alleged criminal activity by other employees at the county clerk’s office hernandez she was told to ignore my text messages and just to let it go hernandez says that’s when he went to law enforcement, and shortly after, he was fired county clerk lynn ellins says it wasn’t in retaliation for reporting the crime lynn ellins 3:55:27:20 he was terminated for reasons other then being a so called whistle blower that’s about as much as i can say hernandez said he told a manager in the department he planned to run for county clerk. the suit alleges that’s when harassment began, and the clerk staff was instructed not to speak to him. the suit states he was locked out of his computer system, and shortly after, was approached by an employee to join the fraudulent data collection and check cashing scheme. he says that’s when he told authorities 59 25 i just can’t believe they didn’t act on it hernandez told me today he’s upset the clerks office isn’t doing more to protect the identies compromised in that identity theft scheme. clerk ellins says they’ll be releasing a report friday that will address that issue and recommendations moving forward. rick and estela — back to you. washington monthly magazine has released its
