Ryan Jerz :: Reno Blogger, Reno Blog

Misc: The Terri Patraw whistle blower decision

I know this is starting to bore some of you, but bear with me. It’s about to get better and more interesting.

I just got finished reading the decision rendered by Bill Kockenmeister in the case of Terri Patraw’s whistle blower claim against the University of Nevada. Before now, I’ve honestly only been able to speculate on her actions toward me and the similarity to her actions while actually employed as the head soccer coach at UNR. That was before now. Believe me, my speculation was spot freaking on.

The summarized claim by the university that led to her firing was that she couldn’t let things go. Simply, I understand that. But to read the actual text of the emails and text messages she sent either threatening her resignation or actually resigning only to rescind it later, as allowed by UNR policy, while actually employed there was amazing, and it took a long time. It took a long time because there were a lot of them. Really, a lot.

She tendered her resignation twice—on June 25, 2007 and on August 24, 2007—and sent threats of resignation on (this actually needs a bulleted list):

• July 7, 2006
• May 18, 2007
• June 22, 2007
• June 25, 2007 (To three different people)
• July, 2007 in an undated letter
• July 30, 2007
• August 22, 2007

Keep in mind that those were in addition to her actual resignations listed above. As part of the decision, Kockenmeister wrote that he believed that the threats went beyond a negotiating tactic (which is what Terri Patraw claimed, as detailed in the decision). In his own words:

These threats and complaints were an indication that Petitioner was extremely unhappy as the Head Women’s Soccer Coach at UNR. Furthermore, these threats, complaints and other indications of Petitioner’s unhappiness began to have a severe negative impact on the UNR Athletics Department.

No employer in their right mind would continue to employ such a person. It’s simply more trouble than anyone needs. So, eventually, they fired her.

But wait, that’s not the only reason they fired her. It gets even better.

In addition to the tendered resignations and threats of resignation, there was the issue of former assistant men’s basketball coach Dedrique Taylor. While I am loathe to bring more people than necessary into the fray here, Taylor is specifically mentioned, at length, in the decision.

As he prepared to take his new job at Arizona State University, an email was sent by “Pack Donor” to head coach Mark Fox. The email included an offer of $25,000 to be paid directly to Taylor if he remained at UNR for the 2006-2007 season, and the offer would be void if he chose to leave. Due to Terri Patraw’s relationship with Taylor, which she admitted to at the hearing and in a phone conversation with me, UNR officials believed she may have sent the email herself, so they conducted an investigation. The investigation concluded that with 99% certainty, she sent the email.

Back up. They suspected she sent the emails? I have no idea for sure, but based on what I know of her and sending anonymous emails, I’d be willing to bet there is more to this tale. You don’t normally go around suspecting employees of being the ones offering cash to keep other employees around.

OK, back to it. The 1% uncertainty came from this: the possibility that someone else used the same computer that logged into Patraw’s UNR email account minutes later. Now, as we’ve seen here before, someone claiming to be close to Terri has told readers of this site that she has roommates. I have heard from reliable sources that she does not have roommates. The only person that could confirm this is Terri herself, but she has never been willing to post to this site. I presume that’s because as soon as she did, I’d have a traceable IP address that would allow me to reveal the origin of several other anonymous emails and comments I have received since I outed her actions on this site. At least she’s learning.

Now, back to the original point, I can make no claim to know or understand what Dedrique Taylor was thinking when he left Reno, but I wonder if part of it was to escape her actions. Taylor was involved in another relationship and likely wanted to avoid as much trouble as possible, but again, I don’t know.

The tendencies that come with sending that email are scary. First off, as far as I can tell from the decision, the relationship was over by the time he was ready to leave. Terri Patraw had been instructed to refrain from contacting Taylor, and Taylor was preparing to move on. Sending that email demonstrated an unwillingness to accept that the overall situation was changing and an unwillingness to move on. If I were Taylor in that situation, it would have scared me.

Further, Kockenmeister addresses the email specifically in his decision:

The substantial, reliable and probative evidence establishes that the sending of these anonymous emails was highly improper and in the opinion of the undersigned administrative hearing officer could have been grounds for termination at the time it was determined that there was a 99% probability that Petitioner sent the emails.

Of course I bolded that one part. I wouldn’t want you to miss that. What it’s saying is that they had every right to fire Terri Patraw then, but they chose to keep her on and suggest she get counseling.

Faced with this entire situation, UNR had no choice but to fire Terri Patraw. And Bill Kockenmeister had no choice but to uphold that firing. She was causing trouble and was acting inappropriately. Kockenmeister’s behavior during the hearing is a completely separate matter, and one that he is paying for now. But to suggest that the evidence does not support his decision, at least from a layman’s perspective, is ridiculous.

Separately, I have run into comments from people online that suggest Patraw’s firing wasn’t justified. If you feel that way, please read the decision. The evidence is overwhelming, and largely backed up by actual documents. But I shouldn’t presume to make that call for anyone. I want these documents available to everyone because the facts are out there and they’re not complete in any post like this or any news story.

As far as I’m concerned, this convinced me. Like I said above, I now know Terri Patraw’s patterns now instead of just speculating on them. Anonymous emails, making a huge deal out of a very minor issue, and being unable to let things go—resulting in her overall detriment. I said it before and I’ll say it for as long as I remember this: it’s very sad. But at the same time, nobody can be blamed but Terri Patraw herself.

In related news, Terri has a blog! Or two. Or (sigh) three. It’s tough to keep up with her claims of the UNR president sending cops to her house when she posts all over the damn place. And it’s sad that a Google search for terri patraw blog has me at the top and her on page two. All three of her. Somebody should tell Domingo Rivera that the correct strategy to elevate positive results about yourself isn’t to buy up a million domains—it’s to actually, you know, have positive stories about you.

tags: bill kockenmeister, nevada, reno, terri patraw, terri patraw blog, university of nevada, whistleblower
posted by Ryan Jerz on 05/17/2008

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