Dona Ana County whistleblower files wrongful termination lawsuit

Robert Hernandez, a former temporary Dona Ana County employee, is suing the county for wrongful termination.

The lawsuit was served yesterday. It claims Hernandez was fired in retaliation for blowing the whistle in the Dona Ana County clerk’s check cashing scheme that unraveled back in June.

“I couldn’t go to the clerk or his chief deputy prior to going to the law enforcement because in reality I don’t know how high up the chain this actually went,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez says he first went to his supervisor to report the alleged criminal activity by other employees at the county clerk’s office.

“She was told to ignore my text messages and just to let it go,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez says he then decided to notify law enforcement. He says shortly after, he was fired

County Clerk Lynn Ellins says Hernandez wasn’t terminated in retaliation for reporting the crime.

“He was terminated for reasons other then being a so called whistleblower that’s about as much as I can say,” Ellins said.

Hernandez said he told a manager in his department that 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. Hernandez says after he was approached, he decided to notify authorities.

“I just can’t believe they didn’t act on it,” Hernandez said.

Hernandez said he’s upset the clerks office isn’t doing more to protect the identities compromised in that identity theft scheme. Clerk Ellins says they’ll be releasing a reportFridaythat will address that issue and recommendations moving forward.