A former staffer for U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin ( D-WI ) has filed an ethics complaint against the senator, who is openly gay, alleging that Baldwin and her chief of staff wrongfully terminated her employment to cover up their own culpability in mishandling complaints at a Wisconsin VA hospital.
The complaint was filed April 20 by Marquette Baylor previously Baldwin's deputy chief for Wisconsin and head of her Milwaukee officewith the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Ethics. It alleges that Baldwin and her chief of staff, Bill Murat, initially did nothing in response to reports from the Veteran's Affairs Office of the Inspector General ( VA OIG ) on overmedication and patient abuse at a VA hospital in Tomah, Wisconsin.
According to the complaint, Baldwin's staff learned of the problems in late 2014, but did no follow-up. The OIG VA report became public knowledge, however, in January, 2015. At that point Murat fired Baylor, allegedly offering her a generous severance package in exchange for her silence, but all the while spreading the word in political circles that she was responsible for mishandling the complaints.
Baylor said that she refused the severance package, so Baldwin hired a law firm to prepare an internal report; it confirmed Baylor's culpability. Baylor also said that, upon learning of the OIG VA report in November, 2014, she and her staff actually drew up an extensive response that Baldwin and Murat ignored.
"Senator Baldwin and her staff have disparaged the truth in order to cover up Murat's actions and to protect her political career," Baylor said in the complaint. "Had Murat, as the Chief of Staff, allowed me and other individuals to properly perform our roles, the issues surrounding the Tomah VA Medical Center would have been identified and addressed long ago."
The complaint was filed from a Republican law firm based in Kansas City, Missouri, according to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, which also reported that Baldwin, upon receiving the internal report, demoted Marquette's superior, former State Director Doug Hill, and docked Murat one month's salary.
"Senator Baldwin's comments to the media imply that my actions were willful or unethicaltherefore justifying my terminationand that the actions of Murat and Hill were not. The Senator has it backwards. It was me and my team who continually sought to address the Tomah VA issues and it was Murat who affirmatively prevented us from doing so," Marquette alleged in the complaint.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's story is at bit.ly/1cRSnGF .