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Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com

Published - Saturday, July 19, 2008

Demoted investigator files complaint against DOJ

MADISON (AP) — A former top state Justice Department investigator has filed a complaint saying her bosses demoted her because she questioned using state agents to protect Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen at the Republican National Convention.

Joell Schigur’s complaint with the state Department of Workforce Development’s Equal Rights Division claims Division of Criminal Investigation Administrator Mike Myszewski improperly retaliated against her.

Justice Department spokesman Bill Cosh said Schigur was demoted because of poor job performance and nothing more.

Schigur filed the complaint July 11. The employment agency released the document Friday.

Schigur was director of DCI’s public integrity bureau. She got a glowing job review in February, in which Myszewski recommended her two-year probationary period for the position end early.

But in May, Myszewski demoted her to special agent days before her probation officially ended, which cut her pay by $6,550 to $80,600 annually.

Myszewski said Schigur had become insubordinate. He wrote in another evaluation she threw a tantrum and slammed his door when they disagreed on a case, didn’t initially cooperate with a plan to give Internet safety lessons to children attending the Justice Department’s Take Your Child to Work Day and approved incomplete investigative reports.

But Schigur alleged in her complaint the demotion was over an e-mail she sent Myszewski in April.

She wrote in that message she was concerned about a plan Van Hollen’s aides were developing to have DCI agents guard the attorney general at the Republican National Convention in the Twin Cities in September. That could amount to improper use of state resources at a political function, Schigur wrote.

Van Hollen, a Republican, has said he didn’t request a security detail. Cosh said no agents will accompany him.

The Equal Rights Division will investigate Schigur’s complaint. If it decides there’s enough evidence to proceed, the matter would go to an administrative law judge, DWD spokesman Chris Marschman said. The judge could award reinstatement, lost wages plus interest, attorney fees and costs.

Schigur’s complaint doesn’t specify what she’s seeking. Her attorney, Peter Fox, didn’t immediately return a message.

She filed an appeal in June with the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, calling her demotion an abuse of discretion and criticism of her performance inaccurate and unfair. She asked for reinstatement to her director position, back pay and removal of the critical performance review from her personnel file.

The Justice Department has moved to dismiss the appeal.

The public integrity bureau, a branch of the Justice Department’s Division of Criminal Investigation, probes public corruption, white-collar crimes and computer crimes.

Schigur was named bureau director in May 2006 after 12 years as an investigator and supervisor. Now she oversees the agency’s technical services unit, which hands out surveillance equipment for agencies to use in felony investigations.

The Justice Department’s criminal investigation unit has gone through a myriad of changes in its top personnel since Van Hollen took office in January 2007.

Longtime director Jim Warren retired in January after clashing with Van Hollen and his executive staff. Van Hollen promoted Myszewski from acting director to director to replace Warren.

State fire marshal and homicide investigator Carolyn Kelly was demoted in May for writing e-mails critical of Van Hollen and his aides and being insubordinate. Kelly has filed an appeal with the employment relations commission as well.