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Plaintiff claims Corrections leaders retaliated after she reported corruption By LEE HIGGINS A veteran Department of Corrections employee is suing the agency’s director and the director of health services for $5 million, alleging they retaliated against her after she told state senators about corruption in the agency. Linda Dunlap, director of clinical services, is suing Corrections director Jon Ozmint and director of health services Russell Campbell, alleging they violated her free-speech rights. They began a “ruthless and unrelenting campaign of retaliation,” leaving her with “no hope of advancement in rank or pay,” says the suit filed Wednesday in federal court in Columbia. Dunlap told state senators about deficient health care services, discriminatory hiring and employment practices, employees breaking the law, and coverups of improper and unethical practices, the suit says. She initially turned to upper management at DOC with her concerns, including Ozmint and Campbell, but “nothing was done,” the suit says. Neither Ozmint nor Campbell could be reached for comment late Friday. Attorney Lewis Cromer, who represents Dunlap, said he had no comment Friday. Filed with the suit was a letter from state Sen. Jake Knotts to Ozmint containing specifics of Dunlap’s accusations, some of which she made with input from nurse-employees. Many allegations in the Feb. 22, 2007, letter mirror complaints agency employees filed with the staff of a Senate committee that was investigating the DOC last summer. Among the accusations in the five-page letter: • Inmates who mutilate themselves were allowed to keep razors and other objects in their possession. • An inmate who should have been in a maximum-security prison was in a medium-security prison, where he held a school administrator hostage for 13 hours and raped her three times. • After two inmates escaped from a maximum-security prison in a garbage truck, some caged razor wire garbage compactor receptacles were built, costing thousands of dollars, to make it appear the department was taking action, even though there was no intention of using them. Dunlap has been a manager in health services since 1987 and has served about three decades with the agency, the suit says.  Add as favourites (205) |  Quote this article on your site | Views: 882
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