Maryland Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. accused a former state employee yesterday of trying to "blackmail" him. The woman involved said she was trying to protect herself against a retaliatory "whisper campaign" by the administration that could cost her a job. And after a winter of partisanship and allegations of political dirty tricks, the tension ratcheted up another level when Ehrlich (R) stood in front of the State House and charged that there was a campaign at work to make his administration look bad.
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Michelle Lane, a registered nurse who held mid-level posts on Ehrlich's transition team and in his administration before being fired last summer ... accused the governor's aides of trying to smear her, and she threatened to distribute damaging correspondence she received from Steffen if Ehrlich's staff did not leave her alone. She included one sample, in which Steffen describes efforts to "start cleaning house" at a state agency.
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Lane's attorney, Daniel Clements, said, "It is grossly disturbing that the governor is trying to blame his problems, and his errors, on the person who has attempted to bring these matters to public light."
Clements's description of Lane as a whistle-blower is bolstered by memorandums and e-mails she wrote to top state officials while serving as an Ehrlich appointee in the Maryland Department of Human Resources and the Office of Children, Youth and Families. In one September 2003 memo to M. Teresa Garland, the special secretary for children, youth and families, Lane described how she uncovered violations of a court decree that required the state to limit the number of foster children assigned to each state social worker.
Lane wrote that she "discovered that there were children assigned to workers who were no longer employed by the state." She said this illegal practice explained why an internal audit found foster children going without a check from a social worker "for months at a time -- with the most severe case, a young girl, who had not been visited for seventeen months."
She sent a similar memo to Jervis S. Finney, the governor's chief counsel, under the heading, "Action Needed," and said "goals have not been met and three children have recently died, by homicide, within a four month time frame." She said that despite her protests, the Ehrlich administration refused to respond. On June 8, 2004, Lane was fired from her state job.
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The governor said yesterday that he did not read the letter but passed it on to others in his administration. [Note, other sources report that Ehrlich said he had read the letter.] The exchanges Lane had with Steffen appear to be the fodder for the threat she made last month in the e-mail to the governor's top aides. . . . she wrote. "Every time I hear about Ehrlich people engaging in this whisper campaign about me, I will release information. These emails are merely the tip of the iceberg."
Ehrlich Alleges 'Blackmail' By Former State Employee, by Matthew Mosk, Washington Post Staff Writer, March 25, 2005; Page A01 [Complete article]
[...]
Michelle Lane, a registered nurse who held mid-level posts on Ehrlich's transition team and in his administration before being fired last summer ... accused the governor's aides of trying to smear her, and she threatened to distribute damaging correspondence she received from Steffen if Ehrlich's staff did not leave her alone. She included one sample, in which Steffen describes efforts to "start cleaning house" at a state agency.
[...]
Lane's attorney, Daniel Clements, said, "It is grossly disturbing that the governor is trying to blame his problems, and his errors, on the person who has attempted to bring these matters to public light."
Clements's description of Lane as a whistle-blower is bolstered by memorandums and e-mails she wrote to top state officials while serving as an Ehrlich appointee in the Maryland Department of Human Resources and the Office of Children, Youth and Families. In one September 2003 memo to M. Teresa Garland, the special secretary for children, youth and families, Lane described how she uncovered violations of a court decree that required the state to limit the number of foster children assigned to each state social worker.
Lane wrote that she "discovered that there were children assigned to workers who were no longer employed by the state." She said this illegal practice explained why an internal audit found foster children going without a check from a social worker "for months at a time -- with the most severe case, a young girl, who had not been visited for seventeen months."
She sent a similar memo to Jervis S. Finney, the governor's chief counsel, under the heading, "Action Needed," and said "goals have not been met and three children have recently died, by homicide, within a four month time frame." She said that despite her protests, the Ehrlich administration refused to respond. On June 8, 2004, Lane was fired from her state job.
[...]
The governor said yesterday that he did not read the letter but passed it on to others in his administration. [Note, other sources report that Ehrlich said he had read the letter.] The exchanges Lane had with Steffen appear to be the fodder for the threat she made last month in the e-mail to the governor's top aides. . . . she wrote. "Every time I hear about Ehrlich people engaging in this whisper campaign about me, I will release information. These emails are merely the tip of the iceberg."
Ehrlich Alleges 'Blackmail' By Former State Employee, by Matthew Mosk, Washington Post Staff Writer, March 25, 2005; Page A01 [Complete article]
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