By Randall Chase,
Associated Press
WILMINGTON — A Delaware prison guard was driven to suicide after his supervisors retaliated against him for engaging in union activities, according to a lawsuit filed Monday by his widow.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Wilmington, alleges that the death of Cpl. John Balas was a “direct and proximate” result of the retaliation he was subjected to for exercising his free speech rights.
Cpl. Balas, 37, shot himself in the head in the backyard of his Sussex County home on Feb. 19, 2005, while his wife and two children were in the house.
According to the lawsuit, Cpl. Balas warned friends earlier that month that he intended to kill himself.
A deputy warden of Sussex Correctional Institution, where Cpl. Balas worked, was told about his suicidal feelings but made no attempt to get him help, the lawsuit claims.
“I tried to get him to go to the state because I knew they offered counseling,” said Cpl. Balas’ widow, Cindy Adkins, who has remarried.
“He did not want to because he was afraid it would affect his job.”
Mrs. Adkins’ attorney, Thomas Neuberger, said state officials refused to provide her the customary $2,000 in life insurance proceeds for funeral expenses because her husband killed himself.
“That kind of attitude is right from the pit of hell, and that is what correctional officers work under each and every day while they try to keep us safe,” said Mr. Neuberger, who alleges that DOC officials have “an official policy, practice or custom” of retaliating against members of the Correctional Officers Association of Delaware who speak or act on issues of concern to the union.
Named as defendants in the lawsuit are DOC commissioner Stanley W. Taylor, human resources director Alan Machtinger, deputy SCI warden Michael Deloy, Capt. David Wilkinson and Lt. Truman Mears.
DOC spokeswoman Gail Stallings Minor said the department does not comment on pending litigation.
The lawsuit alleges that Mr. Taylor ordered DOC officials in August 2004 to break up a job action in which prison guards refused to work overtime to transport prisoners.
The protest, following long-simmering frustration over staffing levels and others issues, was sparked by the abduction and rape of a prison counselor by a Delaware Correctional Center inmate, who was shot dead by a member of a Corrections Emergency Response Team.
Gov. Ruth Ann Minner subsequently made concessions to prison guards, but only after an unsuccessful court effort to force them to take the overtime assignments.
Cpl. Balas, who normally worked in the property and receiving room at SCI processing new prisoners, was ordered along with nine other CERT members to help transport prisoners after the job protest began, the lawsuit alleges.
They did so for one day, earning the wrath of other COAD members, before resigning from the emergency response team and speaking out in support of the job action.
Fearing retaliation from Lt. Mears, his direct supervisor, Cpl. Balas asked Capt. Wilkinson and Mr. Deloy to assign him a different supervisor, but they refused, the lawsuit claims.
According to the lawsuit, Lt. Mears subsequently gave Cpl. Balas his first and only “mediocre” job evaluation, which Cpl. Balas refused to sign.
Cpl. Balas filed a grievance with COAD disputing the performance evaluation, and asked that Capt. Wilkinson and a union representative review it.
The lawsuit alleges that Lt. Mears refused to give Cpl. Balas a copy of the evaluation, began monitoring his every movement, and altered Cpl. Balas’ time records, falsely recording regular holidays and vacation days as “emergency vacation,” a practice that is frowned upon.
According to the lawsuit, Lt. Mears was forced to correct the timecard but never disciplined.
Last month, in a case involving Mr. Neuberger’s firm, a federal judge threw out a jury verdict awarding almost $2 million to three Delaware state troopers who claimed they were retaliated against for speaking out about problems at a now-closed police firing range.
The decision followed a U.S. Supreme Court ruling, issued one day before the jury verdict, that government employees do not have free-speech protections for what they say as part of their jobs. Attorney Stephen Neuberger said the Supreme Court decision regarding whistleblower protection should not be an impediment to the First Amendment claims in the Balas case.
“It’s not part of your job to be a union member,” Stephen Neuberger said.
