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Ex-staffer denies omitting, admitting
By ANNE LINDBERG, Times Staff Writer PINELLAS PARK -- Officials fired a senior staff assistant in the city's personnel office, saying she had admitted to breaking drug laws and falsifying records. But the employee, Doris Prather, said she has done nothing wrong and was "railroaded" because she notified city officials when she sought help with her addiction to pain medications. "I've not been charged with anything. . . . I didn't admit to anything," Prather said. "I feel that my past drug addiction, that they're using it against me. I feel like I've been railroaded." City officials declined to comment, saying there is an open police investigation. The available personnel records speak for themselves, Pinellas Park spokesman Tim Caddell said. The records were released late last week after the St. Petersburg Times filed a lawsuit to obtain them. Prather, 48, had worked for Pinellas Park since late 1999. She received evaluations of "outstanding" or "exceeds expectations," the two highest rankings, in most categories. In August 2001, she was named a runner-up for the Superior Municipal Service Employee of the Month Award. In October, she won the award for employee of the month. She also earned a total of $153.75 for suggestions that improved the workplace or saved tax money. When she was fired in May, she was earning $25,812 a year. Before her employment in Pinellas Park, Prather said she hurt her back and became addicted to pain medications. She worked for a doctor at the time, she said, so she was able to call in a prescription for herself. In 1996, she was charged with obtaining a prescription by fraud. Prather said she kicked her addiction and completed pretrial intervention. Adjudication was withheld. Her attorney told her the records were sealed and that she could deny having been arrested. When she applied in 1999 to work for Pinellas Park, she said on the application that she had no criminal background. Prather said she understood that the city did a background check and apparently found nothing. She thought everything was fine. Prather repeated the denial of a criminal background when she applied last October for the city's Citizen Police Academy. Prather said she thought she was within her rights to do so. The city didn't see it that way. "Doris did not disclose her criminal background to me, either before or after I hired her as a city employee," Tom Owens, head of the Pinellas Park human resources department, wrote in a May 7 memo to assistant city manager Mike Gustafson. "Withholding or falsifying information in city records is a violation of city personnel rules and regulations," Owens said. Prather said she had a relapse within the past year. She went to one doctor for a herniated disk in her back. She saw another, who performed surgery on her elbow. She saw a third for dental work. Each gave her a prescription for pain medication. The trouble was, according to city records, that "Doris obtained a prescription for a controlled substance without disclosing to the prescribing physician that she had obtained a controlled substance from another doctor within the same 30-day period." The violations occurred on June 5, 21 and 29 last year, according to city documents. They also happened on Jan. 18 and Feb. 8, 10, 11 and 19 of this year. Prather broke the law at least six times, Owens said in the May 7 memo. "I didn't think anything was wrong with that," Prather said Tuesday. "I was not doctor-shopping. . . . My motive was not to get pain medication, it was to get these problems fixed." Owens also wrote a May 7 reprimand to Prather that claims she "admitted to having committed six first-degree misdemeanors between June 2001 and February 2002." Prather, however, said she never admitted to anything. What really happened, Prather said, was that she saw herself relapsing and, in February, checked herself into a detox center. Prather said she told city officials where she was going and why. Now she regrets doing that. Her job problems stem partly from that admission, she said. Sometime during the spring, Pinellas Park police asked to talk with her. They apparently had arrested a friend and her daughter. One of them mentioned Prather's name, and she voluntarily talked with police to explain that she had done nothing wrong. "I also feel that the police had no business notifying my employer in the first place," Prather said. "I wasn't charged with anything, still haven't been charged with anything." The situation has been hard, she said. "All I do is hide out in my house. I've been humiliated," she said. "It's been very hard because I've done nothing wrong. . . . I've lost everything. . . . I pray every day they'll clear me of these charges."
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From the Times South Pinellas desks Letters |
