A former employee of the Council for Drug Free Youth has filed a lawsuit, claiming she was wrongfully terminated for being a whistleblower.
Angelique Shaw filed the lawsuit March 25 in Cole County Circuit Court against the Council for Drug Free Youth (CDFY), and also named two CDFY employees, Joy Sweeney and Julie Gramlich, as defendants. Shaw alleges CDFY officials misused grant funds, violated the terms of a personnel contract and wrongfully terminated her in violation of state public policy and whistleblower laws.
The council agreed not to comment about the lawsuit after a special meeting Thursday.
"Basically, we disagree with the allegations, and since the litigation is still pending, I am not at liberty to discuss it," said Sweeney, the executive director of CDFY. "The Council for Drug Free Youth would like to not have had this happen."
Shaw was hired as the project coordinator and manager on Oct. 21, 2014, according to the lawsuit. Her position was paid for with the Drug Free Communities federal grant, which she was also to administer, Shaw said in an interview.
"I was told that they had never done grant administration and because I had administered grants in the past that was what made me invaluable," Shaw told the News Tribune. "And therein lies the problem. I came in and attempted to do what I was hired to do, but nobody wanted to hear it. At the very first meeting in November, I made statements saying you guys have been running this as a mom-and-pop shop, and now you have this grant, and the feds do not play that way."
According to the lawsuit, Shaw alleges Gramlich, the president of the CDFY board of directors, told her she was fired because she was not a "good fit," and her termination was Sweeney's decision and the council would not provide any further explanation.
Shaw's contract stated her tenure would end when the grant expired, unless the CDFY decided to keep her on the payroll. But when she was fired, the grant term had not ended, according to the lawsuit.
Shaw states in the lawsuit the board reduced her salary nearly $3,000 from what was contractually promised, while Sweeney's salary was increased by $7,000. Meanwhile, portions of other CDFY workers' pay appropriated from the same grant, including Sweeney's, went unchanged.
In the lawsuit, Shaw alleges she brought several issues to administrators, the CDFY board of directors and the national grant staff. Shaw stated the administration and board did not address these issues, yelled at her and threatened her with termination. She was told if she went to the national grant staff without permission from Sweeney, she would be fired immediately, according to the lawsuit.
Shaw alleges in the lawsuit that Sweeney misappropriated more than $1,700 of grant funds, once by an illegal and unapproved salary increase. For example, the lawsuit claims Sweeney used organizational funds to purchase new office furniture when the board had ordered her to get donations to fund the purchase. Shaw alleges Sweeney told the board the furniture was donated.
Shaw also claims Sweeney used organizational funds to upgrade flight tickets to first class on business trips, pocketed per diems for meals she did not eat, and tried to use grant money to reimburse her husband for health insurance costs, which are deducted from his paycheck with his private employer.
The lawsuit states Shaw found numerous I-9 tax violations - forms employers fill out for new employees - within the organization, and it had failed to conduct federal background checks as mandated by Missouri law for CDFY employees who would work with children.
In the suit, Shaw said she believes she was fired for not overlooking various "violations plaguing CDFY." The suit seeks more than $25,000 in damages.