The federal Judiciary today released the results of its first-ever employee survey exploring workplace issues, along with a new report containing recommendations for improvements aimed at achieving the Judiciary’s goal of fostering an exemplary workplace.

The survey results show that the overwhelming majority of Judiciary employees are satisfied with their workplaces. Eighty-four percent responded that they are satisfied or very satisfied with their jobs and 80 percent said they would recommend their court or employing office to others.

The survey was conducted by the Federal Judicial Center for the Workplace Conduct Working Group, a group of judges and court executives who have been working on workplace conduct issues since early 2018 at the request of the Chief Justice. It was sent to nearly 28,000 employees in 2023, and the response rate was a statistically impressive 50 percent.

The results provided a wealth of data that the Judiciary is using to gain a deeper understanding of employees’ experiences and to guide continued efforts to foster an exemplary workplace for all employees. The Working Group used the survey results as a basis for nine new recommendations in a report to the Judicial Conference of the United States, which was also released today. 

The recommendations are designed to build on the substantial steps taken over the past seven years. Most respondents who indicated experiencing wrongful conduct did not avail themselves of employment dispute resolution (EDR) procedures. Two priority areas that the Working Group has targeted for improvement are reducing potential barriers to reporting misconduct and increasing employees’ confidence in using available resolution procedures. 

“These results tell me and my colleagues on the Working Group that we have done a lot, but we have more work to do to address the reluctance of employees to seek help or report wrongful conduct. And that work begins immediately, with a new set of recommendations for the Judicial Conference to consider,” said Judge Robert J. Conrad, Jr., the Director of the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts.

The recommendations include the following:

• Review current definitions and guidance on abusive conduct and assess whether greater clarity can be provided on the distinctions between inappropriate behavior. Abusive conduct is a workplace protection unique to the Judiciary that goes beyond current statutory protections.
• Extend and clarify procedural rights, remedies, and obligations under the Model Employment Dispute Resolution (EDR) Plans, including clarifying that modifications to local plans cannot diminish or curtail rights or remedies under the model plan; ensuring that consideration of interim relief for complainants occurs consistently and at the outset of an investigation, incorporating additional monetary remedies for victims of misconduct, and removing the procedural requirement that employees first use assisted resolution prior to filing a formal complaint.
• Establish standards for the qualification and selection of EDR coordinators and enhance existing training.
• Promote the use of trained investigators in EDR assisted resolutions and in informal investigations at the local level.
• Ensure the appearance of impartiality of presiding judicial officers (PJOs) in formal complaint proceedings by appointing PJOs from outside a complainant’s district or circuit, ensure that PJOs appoint trained investigators, and develop additional resources for PJOs. 
• Expand feedback and information about EDR by ensuring that follow up occurs with employees who report wrongful conduct, developing uniform standards for the redaction and publication of EDR decisions in formal complaint proceedings, developing a publicly available source of published EDR decisions and relevant Judicial Conduct and Disability Act opinions, and augmenting data collection.
• Continue to incorporate workplace conduct training into orientation programs for all judges and employees.
• Clarify distinctions between inappropriate behaviors and abusive conduct in training programs for judges and employees.
• Provide continuing education for leaders at all levels of the Judiciary, including management training on listening, communication, building trust, and effective response to both inappropriate workplace behavior and allegations of wrongful conduct.

Learn more about workplace conduct initiatives in the federal Judiciary. 

A respiratory therapist at a Missouri hospital filmed his female co-workers using the bathroom using a pen with a hidden camera built into it, he admitted as part of a plea agreement.

Gabrielle Vanriette, 40, pleaded guilty on Feb. 27 to invasion of privacy. According to a probable cause arrest affidavit, cops responded to the North Kansas City Hospital on Sept. 14, 2023, for a call about a recording device found in an employee bathroom. The charge nurse told detectives with the North Kansas City Police Department that she was using the bathroom when she saw a pen on a plastic storage tote facing the toilet.

A Florida day care worker was arrested after she allegedly shook a playhouse so violently that a 4-year-old boy fell headfirst to the ground.

De’Neishia Garner, 30, is charged with aggravated child abuse, records show. The Alachua Chronicle obtained an arrest report that detailed the incident, which occurred shortly before noon Monday at O2B Kids in Gainesville. According to the affidavit, the boy climbed to the top of an outside playhouse. Garner reportedly shook the apparatus, causing the boy to fall off. Apparently unhurt, the boy got up and walked away.

But minutes later, the boy climbed atop the playhouse again. Garner allegedly walked back over and began “violently” shaking it. This time, the boy fell backward and flipped onto his head down to the concrete about five feet below. His injuries were more serious. He split his head open, the affidavit reportedly said.

More from Law&Crime: Day care teacher allegedly caught on video at work treating 3-month-old boy like ‘rag doll’ and ‘aggressively’ shaking baby bouncer until he went ‘limp’

The boy was rushed to the emergency room, where he reportedly received nine stitches in his head. Doctors also performed brain scans to see if there was any internal damage. According to cops, the whole incident was captured on surveillance video.

Post Miranda, Garner admitted to shaking the playhouse. She said she was trying to warn the boy not to climb that high. She reportedly told the boy, “we keep our feet on the ground,” before shaking it.

An armed Walgreens employee shot a pregnant woman he suspected of stealing lipstick seven times in a parking lot confrontation last year that prompted an emergency cesarean section to deliver the baby and lifelong health problems, a new lawsuit says.

Travonsha L. Ferguson, 25, was shot on April 12, 2023, at the Walgreens store at 2500 Gallatin Road in Nashville.

It happened when the employee, who didn’t identify himself, aggressively confronted, cursed and screamed at Ferguson and her friend about the alleged stolen merchandise, and Ferguson sprayed the employee with mace “in fear of imminent bodily harm to Baby Ferguson and herself,” court documents obtained by HuffPost said.

The shooting prompted an emergency cesarean section to deliver the baby prematurely. The boy survived, but the now 11-month-old has a heart defect, and his mother requires the use of a colostomy bag, court documents said.

The employee who shot her was terminated. He was not charged with a crime after he claimed self-defense, saying he didn’t know if Ferguson and her friend were armed and he feared for his safety and didn’t know if they were armed, police said in a news release.

“I would believe the situation of self-defense if one shot, but it’s impossible to shoot seven times with such accuracy if you’ve been maced — which he was not,” said L. Chris Stewart, Ferguson’s attorney, in a news conference, local CBS affiliate WTVF reported. “We believe it was sprayed at him or in the air when they were surprised — as any pregnant mother would do who gets surprised by somebody running up on them screaming slurs.”

Police said the bloodshed happened when another employee notified the store team leader that two females were stealing items. The team leader told police he started recording the women on his cellphone when he saw them placing items into a cart and a large over-the-shoulder bag, then followed them outside when they left without paying for the merchandise, police said.

He told police he made his way to the rear of the car as the women loaded items into the trunk. He pulled his semi-automatic pistol and fired after one of the women sprayed him with mace, authorities said he told investigators.

After the shooting, the women drove off, and he called 911.

The woman who was with Ferguson dropped her off at a hospital and drove away, officials said.

Ferguson was charged with assault and theft of $1,000 or less, court records show. Her attorney would not comment on the charges, according to local ABC affiliate WKRN-TV.

But he said shoplifting accusation or not, following her to the parking lot and shooting was “negligent and against policy, provided the employee had been trained properly, and Walgreens must be held accountable,” local NBC affiliate WSMV reported.

“Ms Ferguson did nothing at all to deserve to be shot this many times. A witness even said it sounded like the full clip was emptied,” Stewart said, WTVF reported.

Shantanica Ferguson said her daughter did not deserve this.

“It’s been a long ride, and it’s not fair,” she said. “She deserves justice.”

Walgreens did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime, but in a statement after the shooting, the company said, “The safety of our patients, customers and team members is our top priority, and violence of any kind will not be tolerated at our stores. We take this matter seriously and are cooperating with local authorities.”

 

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The government witness known in court documents as “Trump Employee 5” and now known publicly to be longtime former Mar-a-Lago valet Brian Butler shed more light on what went on behind closed doors when he sat for interviews with the Special Counsel’s Office and testified before the grand jury that went on to indict the former president.

Revealing that he met with special counsel Jack Smith’s office up to five times over a period of months, Butler told NBC News that the grand jury setting was a “dark” closet-like room filled with roughly 20 grand jurors. Prosecutors “were interested in everything” he had to say during interviews, Butler added.

That may not have been the case for at least one of the grand jurors, however. Butler said he “could see their eyes shut.”

Butler also appeared Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The Beat with Ari Melber,” where he revealed that he voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020 but will not do so in 2024.

The erstwhile Mar-a-Lago employee of two decades, as he said in his first public interview with CNN, stated his belief that Trump wanted surveillance video deleted because he knew he wasn’t supposed to have national defense information and knew that the Presidential Records Act didn’t protect him.

“The way I see it, if these were his personal documents or he’s allowed to have these by the PRA, why would you need to ask questions about video footage?” Butler asked. “Why would you possibly move the documents when they are coming to retrieve them. To me, it just doesn’t make any sense. On top of that, why would you put two low-level employees in the position they’re in if he you did nothing wrong and these were your personal documents?”

Pressed as to whether he had witnessed “part of a cover-up,” Butler said: “I think it’s very possible.”

“From what I saw, the questions — why would they ask about video footage, how long it’s deleted for?” Butler asked. “Those are conversations Carlos [De Oliveira] told me he was asked with finding out prior to Walt [Nauta]’s arrival on a secret trip.”

Here, Butler was recounting the details as they appeared in the indictment.

Mar-a-Lago property manager Carlos De Oliveira on June 25, 2022, allegedly told Trump Employee 5 that valet Walt Nauta was en route from Bedminster, N.J., to Mar-a-Lago but asked the witness not to tell anyone about the “secret” trip that related to surveillance camera footage.

“DE OLIVEIRA also told Trump Employee 5 that NAUTA wanted DE OLIVEIRA to talk to Trump Employee 4 to see how long camera footage was stored,” the indictment said. “Shortly after arriving in Palm Beach on the evening of June 25, NAUTA went to The Mar-a-Lago Club and met with DE OLIVEIRA at 5:46 p.m. At The Mar-a-Lago Club, NAUTA and DE OLIVEIRA went to the security guard booth where surveillance video is displayed on monitors, walked with a flashlight through the tunnel where the Storage Room was located, and observed and pointed out surveillance cameras.”

Two days later, De Oliveira told another employee — “Trump Employee 4” — that “the boss” wanted the video footage server deleted, the indictment further alleged.

On CNN, Butler recalled helping Nauta load boxes of documents onto a Trump plane headed for New Jersey, documents the witness said he later realized “were the boxes that were in the indictment, the white bankers boxes.” Before he left Trump’s employ and became a witness for the prosecution, Butler counted De Oliveira as one of his “best friends.” Now, he said, they don’t talk anymore.

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Justice Thomas hires clerk accused of sending racist text; was she set up by rogue employee?

By Debra Cassens Weiss

February 26, 2024, 9:51 am CST

A graduate of the George Mason University Antonin Scalia Law School will be clerking for U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, despite a prior allegation that she sent a racist text while working at a conservative group.

Crystal Clanton, class of 2022, will clerk for Thomas for the 2024-2025 term, according to a press release (via How Appealing), the New York Times and an opinion column by the Washington Post.

The New Yorker had reported in 2017 that Clanton allegedly sent the text to a colleague in 2015 while working at the conservative student group Turning Point USA.

“I hate Black people,” the text said. “Like f- – – them all … I hate Blacks. End of story.”

Clanton told the New Yorker that she had no recollection of the messages, and they “do not reflect what I believe or who I am.” The executive director of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, told the New Yorker that “Turning Point assessed the situation and took decisive action within 72 hours of being made aware of the issue.”

Thomas’ wife, Virginia “Ginni” Thomas, was on Turning Point USA’s advisory council. After Clanton left Turning Point USA, she lived with the Thomases for close to a year. Justice Thomas has said he encouraged Clanton to go to law school.

After her graduation, Clanton clerked for U.S. District Judge Corey L. Maze of Alabama and Judge William H. Pryor Jr. of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Atlanta.

The federal judiciary investigated the situation after Pryor hired Clanton at the request of seven Democratic members of Congress. Pryor told the judiciary in a letter that he learned that the racist email was actually written by a rogue employee fired for creating fake text messages to discredit co-workers. A lawyer for Clanton told Pryor that she did not dispute the allegation because of a nondisclosure agreement.

Thomas recommended Clanton to Pryor, and he thinks that the allegations were false, according to a letter that he submitted for the judiciary investigation.

“I know Crystal Clanton, and I know bigotry,” Thomas wrote. “Bigotry is antithetical to her nature.”

The judiciary investigation ended with a determination that Maze and Pryor knew about the allegations against Clanton but found them to be false.

In plotting to murder his co-worker over a $7,000 inheritance, a Pizza Hut employee downplayed the possibility of witnesses hearing the gunshot by saying that the victim’s head would act as a silencer, according to court documents out of Milwaukee County, Minnesota.

Cops apparently did not have to look far for who killed Alexander Stengel after Kavonn Ingram, 31, allegedly dumped the body in a garbage can behind the dumpsters, left behind blood evidence in the restaurant, pretended to be the victim in text messages, and was seen leaving the Pizza Hut on a local bus.

The defendant remains locked up on $200,000 bail for first-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and robbery with use of force.

Officers said that the victim’s body was found on Feb. 7 in a wheeled garbage can in the dumpster area behind a Pizza Hut on N. Chicago Avenue in the city of South Milwaukee, but they believe Ingram killed him two days before.

Employees at a Milwaukee engine plant are working without any coronavirus guidelines and one employee has died from the virus. Nancy Cordes reports.