Former employee sues BISAC

By JOHN BURNETT

Tribune-Herald staff writer

A former executive assistant at Big Island Substance Abuse Council has filed suit against the substance abuse treatment organization alleging that she was wrongfully terminated for exposing financial misdeeds by BISAC’s former chief executive officer.

The civil lawsuit, seeking unspecified general, special, compensatory and punitive damages plus back pay and attorney’s fees, was filed Tuesday in Hilo Circuit Court by attorney Ted Hong on behalf of Raylynn Carvalho. The suit claims that Carvalho, who had been executive assistant to former BISAC CEO Dr. Stephen Zuniga, discovered on July 21, 2011, that Zuniga “had unlawfully used (BISAC) funds for personal reasons” and “had reported the unlawful misconduct” to Patricia Engelhard, BISAC’s board president.

Carvalho claims that after reporting the alleged misappropriation of funds, Zuniga “began a campaign to intimidate (Carvalho) and force her to resign or have her terminated.” She also alleges that after Zuniga “separated from” BISAC and was replaced by Dr. Hannah Preston-Pita on June 5, 2012, she was told that her position as executive assistant was being eliminated and that she could apply for an executive secretary or office assistant position. Carvalho alleges she did so and didn’t land either job.

“We allege that the reorganization is a pretextual termination or a pretextual reorganization,” Hong said Wednesday, adding that the lawsuit is “about Raylynn’s wrongful termination for doing the right thing and the board’s failure to also do the right thing.”

“She had told them that Dr. Zuniga was doing something that was unlawful. The employer decided to take it out on her (and) kill the messenger as opposed to addressing the problem directly,” Hong said.

BISAC had not been served with the suit as of Wednesday and Englehard declined to comment. Preston-Pita did not return a call seeking comment on Wednesday.

Carvalho alleges that after she went to the board to report the alleged fiscal misconduct, Zuniga started a campaign of systematic harassment. Allegations include that he twice ordered her to clean medical records of Kona Outpatient Clinic clients “that had been stored for a number of years and covered in rodent and insect feces and urine,” that he angrily confronted her and yelled at her that she couldn’t contact Englehard over internal matters, that he denied her an ergonomic chair for a “known disability involving her back, spine and neck,” that he would come up behind her, unannounced, “and verbally threaten, yell at and/or harass” Carvalho, and that he threw dog hair on her, knowing that she “was severely allergic to dog hair.”

The suit claims that while the alleged harassment occurred, Carvalho was aware that Zuniga “was the subject of a financial audit” by BISAC, and that Zuniga had improperly told another employee that the employee was the subject of an internal investigation due to whistle-blowing by Carvalho.

Neither Zuniga nor Preston-Pita are defendants in the suit. Zuniga, a psychologist, is now executive vice president of ClaimTrak, an electronic health records firm in Gilbert, Ariz.

Hong said he doesn’t believe that Carvalho has found employment. Asked what his client is seeking, Hong replied: “Raylynn’s a professional. She has a very good résumé as an executive assistant doing work for the nonprofit and this hurt her professionally. So we would like to see some kind of recognition about her professional standing and hopefully, compensation for having done that to her. … As far as the monetary value, I’m sorry, I couldn’t put a monetary value on it. It’s a little early in the game, so it’s difficult to say.

“Employers have got to realize they’ve got to do the right thing. You can’t treat employees like dirt. And even though it may be difficult and even unpleasant in terms of doing the right thing, in this day and age, employers need to do the right thing.”

Email John Burnett at jburnett@hawaiitribune-herald.com.