Blagojevich gives up court fight over firings
SPRINGFIELD -- Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who rarely shies away from a legal fight, has stopped pursuing a case he made the premier example of his efforts to fight government corruption.
The administration will not appeal a decision reinstating two employees Blagojevich fired for allegedly manipulating the state hiring process to benefit applicants with political connections.
Neither Blagojevich's office nor that of Attorney General Lisa Madigan will explain why they won't seek another court's opinion in a case that has cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and back pay.
That means Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey, off the payroll for 16 months before returning in August, will keep their jobs and more than $200,000 in back pay. The two had been midlevel personnel managers at the Department of Central Management Services, which handles state hiring.
They were fired in April 2006 after investigators for the executive inspector general accused them of giving some job applicants an illegal advantage.
An administrative law judge for the Civil Service Commission said the evidence didn't support DeFraties' and Casey's firing and recommended putting them back to work after 14-day suspensions. But the commission sent the case back to the judge for more evidence.
When DeFraties and Casey sued to block that move, Sangamon County Judge Patrick Kelley threw out the case against them, calling the administration's conduct "bizarre" and "Kafkaesque."
Charges against the pair were not proven despite a yearlong investigation and another year of prosecution with 6,000 pages of evidence, said their lawyer, Carl Draper.
"It's unfortunate that employees have go to these great lengths to protect their jobs and their reputation," said Draper.
Blagojevich had considered the matter so important that he turned over evidence to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald, who has been investigating Blagojevich's hiring practices for two years. The governor's chief of staff announced the firings by saying the administration "will not tolerate any misconduct."
But appealing the decision was up to the Civil Service Commission, which decided against it, Blagojevich spokeswoman Abby Ottenhoff said without elaboration in an e-mailed statement.
Commission members all are chosen by Blagojevich. And the two Blagojevich-controlled agencies that employed DeFraties and Casey at the time they were fired, the Department of Healthcare and Family Services and the Historic Preservation Agency, could have appealed, too.
Ottenhoff did not respond to follow-up questions.
Madigan spokeswoman Robyn Ziegler also refused to explain why there is no appeal. Madigan's staff represented the commission. A lawyer from the private law firm that represented the agencies that employed the two did not return a call seeking comment.
Blagojevich is no stranger to court battles, even against long odds. He unsuccessfully fought judges who said the governor cut their pay. When a judge called his legislation restricting violent video games unconstitutional, he appealed even though similar efforts had failed in other states.
He sued the House speaker in August over the authority to set the time of legislative sessions and even filed a lawsuit last week against the House clerk for not recording the governor's vetoes.
Case summary
Background: Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to fire two employees he claimed had given favorable treatment to some state job applicants.
The decision: A circuit judge agreed with the employees last month that the Civil Service Commission mishandled the case and put them back in their jobs.
No appeal: The governor claimed the case was a prime example of his work in throttling corruption. But neither his office nor the attorney general's, which helped with the case, will explain why they won't appeal to a higher court.
Source: Associated Press