Fired Senate analyst fights his dismissal

[timesunion.com]

Former employee claims his personal information was wrongly obtained by his superior
ALBANY -- The man fired earlier this month from his job as an analyst for Senate Democrats charged Thursday that his former boss forged his signature, misused his Social Security number and sought his college transcripts without his authorization.In an interview with the Times Union, Jean Pierre, 38, of Albany, said he is upset that he, not the woman who was his boss, is now unemployed. He said he will sue the minority conference for his dismissal and will pursue criminal charges against his former superior.
Using attorney Paul Dwyer of Albany, Pierre, who has been fired from three jobs in recent years, said he would sue and would not settle the case without a substantial award, around 13 times his $38,103 salary.
He also said he won't give up his plans to press charges by taking the case to Albany County District Attorney David Soares and the Senate Ethics Committee.
Attorney Dwyer said he is uncertain how the case will proceed. He said he had been trying, unsuccessfully, to get Pierre his job back. He was fired Dec. 10.
The matter may be illustrative of problems within the Senate Democratic minority, which is chronically understaffed and transitioning under its third leader in five years, some current and former government officials said. Key managers are on a steep learning curve, they said.
Perhaps as a result, Pierre's former boss, Indira Noel, who is serving a two-week suspension for the way she dug into Pierre's background, was inappropriately investigating his credentials, a friend of Noel's said privately.
Noel said she can't discuss what happened. Curtis Taylor, a spokesman for the Senate Democrats, described the incident as a personnel matter and would not respond to Pierre's accusations.
Pierre said he felt ill-used by Noel, that she was a poor manager and gave him foolish assignments and little to do.
He said he complained to Chief of Staff Mortimer Lawrence about his working relationship with Noel but was told to work through his difficulties with her.
That proved impossible, Pierre said, when on Dec. 7 he spotted a letter from his alma mater, the University of Buffalo, on a desk outside her office, which is within a few feet of his work station. He said he became suspicious so he contacted the university to inquire whether someone had requested material about him.
He was told, he said, that Noel had written for records on his college career. The university faxed him her request letter, he said.
The letter, stating that his records should be sent to Noel, included a signature of his name and the two Social Security numbers he was assigned, one which he used when he attended college. The other was the one he used when he applied for and got a job at the Senate last summer.
He said he had two numbers because the first one was stolen in an identity theft crime some time before 2002. He produced a letter from the U.S. Marshal's Office and the Social Security Administration backing up his contentions.
Senate Minority Leader Malcolm Smith, D-Queens, said Pierre was let go for fraudulent entries on his application for a job, and that Noel was suspended without pay for overstepping her authority. He provided no further details, but said Noel's $104,284 job as director of intergovernmental relations is secure and that she produced valuable work.
Pierre said Noel was in her job at Lt. Gov. David Paterson's insistence.
Smith contested that assertion, saying he talked Noel into staying on his staff after she was offered a job this year at the Division of Criminal Justice Services.
Paterson declined comment but said Noel was a superior employee. She had worked for Paterson when he was Senate minority leader as deputy policy director.
"In my opinion, Indira was among the 10 best employees I had a tremendous researcher, excellent writer, but had problems with some of the the other employees gossiped about as much as anyone I've ever experienced," Paterson said.
Pierre lasted less than six months at his Senate job and was nearing the end of his probation period when he was let go.
He said he was fired from two jobs before his latest dismissal, once by the state Education Department because of a mistake he made e-mailing a message to the wrong person, attempting to tell a co-worker she looked nice that day.
The other time, he said, he was terminated by Wal-Mart in Glenmont, where he was an assistant manager, because he was too friendly to rank-and-file employees, sometimes giving hugs.
He said he complained to Lawrence that Noel had improperly investigated him and that Lawrence wanted more proof. At that point, he said, he opened the letter to Noel from the University of Buffalo and showed Lawrence the contents -- transcripts and how they had been requested by her.
Pierre acknowledges that he lost his temper with Noel, especially when she denied forging his name. He also acknowledges that he wrote that he had a master's degree on his job application, but that he was not intentionally pumping up his educational experience.
He said he was trying to let the Senate know of his pursuit for a postgraduate degree but ended up postponing the ambition.
James M. Odato can be reached at 454-5083 or by e-mail at jodato@timesunion.com.

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