Whistleblower Discovers Embezzlement in Non-profit Agency For AIDS Clients

                      
I am a Whistleblower.  I didn't plan on it, I simply have a hard time ignoring the needs of AIDS patients and clients, especially when federal ,state and private contract money has been approved and dispensed for them. I was the first AIDS Coordinator in the 80's. I remember vividly as a young nurse begging for the smallest benefits for my patients. I discovered embezzlement in the non-profit agency where I was working as a senior PAC case manager for AIDS clients, in Daytona Beach, FL. That was in 2002. I reported it to the director of the agency, who promptly fired the coordinator who was in charge of that particular grant (under HUD the HOPWA contract).  However, the embezzlement continued and overflowed in other programs and contracts.  I reported this to the various federal agencies responsible for the funds.  The first OIG (Office of the Inspector General) agent assigned to investigate my allegations took 18 months to investigate. He didn't even make a field visit, he simply asked the person I alleged was embezzling funds to "FAX" him the documents he wanted. He closed the case and left me completely abandoned. Because of that I lost everything, my job, home, possessions and the most precious and important thing in my life.  Now I have to start my life all over again with nothing.  I was brutally attacked twice in one day in my own office by a subordinate co-worker wheeling a knife who was angry that I reported the theft. She was afraid she’d have to go back to “blue-collar“ work, I was the only one in the agency (I found out later) with degrees as well as being a nurse. The second agent is the one who reported my allegations proved valid and has taken 2 years with the investigation, and assisting the US  Attorney's Office.  Congressman Wexler in Boca Raton, FL asked that HUD's OIG re-open the case based on my history working with HIV+ and AIDS patients and my health education risk reduction programs  Thankfully they did. In January of 2005, I received a letter from DC stating my allegations proved valid and a corresponding investigation with the state had also begun.
The Whistleblower Project in DC gave me the name of two attorneys who are taking over the employment part of the case, but even they are confused. Florida states I am completely fed, and the feds say the agency was under the county health dept, so I'm state. I didn't even have a fork left from my beautiful loft on the lake, and they are arguing as to who is responsible for making me "whole" as the Whistleblower Statute promises.
It is going to sicken me but I have to tell you I lost my 11 year old son because of this. I have an attorney who is trying to get him back to me. On January 29, 2007, he will have been gone 3 years. My ex-husband who abused and abandoned us in 1995 left Florida for IL and never returned.  He never contacted my son or me.  My son never received so much as a birthday card from him or his family in IL.  Suddenly during the trial for the attacks in my office, he appears at my door (8 years later) with his new wife waving a picture of her (their) new home in IL. and represented by an attorney who shares the same office in Daytona Beach with the attorney defending the agency I Whist blew on. There are thousands of attorneys in Daytona Beach he has been in IL for 8+ years and yet he insists this was a coincidence.  He had a former agency employee at the Hearing (which took place while I was in the hospital for a surgical procedure) who said I was "delusional" about the embezzlement allegations. This was in 2004, the new agent proved me correct in January of 2005. The judge, the attorney and my ex decided ex parte that I was unable to make parental decisions. Without the divorce file (showing the abuse and restraining orders from the original county, which was Palm Beach) the judge gave my child away to an abusive ex who dodged being a responsible parent all these years.  He was awarded temporary custody, and the right to make ALL decisions for my son without my knowledge or input. All of this insanity was because of my Whistle blowing.  The ex took Zak from me as he was holding onto my leg and kissing the shoe of the sheriff begging not to go. That's the last visual I have of my child, although I have legal custody I cannot see him and our phone calls ( which began after he was gone 10 weeks) are taped. If the ex doesn't like what I'm saying or I start to tell Zak what is now going on he hangs the phone up. This man was gone for 8+ years and never made an attempt to see Zak or call him or send him a card, now he wants to take the only thing I love in the world away. They knew I wasn't delusional, they knew I was telling the truth about this agency.  There is no reason to sabotage a job a single mother loves for any reason.  At the hearing (where I wasn't represented by an attorney, or even present) there was no doctor or therapist, no one from DCF, no abuse or neglect charges or even allegations, just an angry former employee, a “suspicious” attorney and a disturbed ex husband.   Apparently in Volusia County’s Family Court anyone can portray themselves as a psychiatrist or psychologist or even a representative of DCF.  All you need is a vicious attorney and a scanned picture of a row house in IL.
The agency was finally closed down this summer, 2006. But Zak is still gone. Four judges in Volusia County have recused themselves in the middle of hearings instead of vacating the original moronic judge's ruling. The closing of the agency "The AIDS Coalition of Volusia & Flagler Co., Inc" was reported in the Daytona Beach News Journal and still this court will not give me my child. They will not admit they made a horrible mistake. This new judge (the 5th one) wants to start from the beginning as if I was newly divorced. I need help and no one knows what to do. There is no case law on what has happened to Zak and me. My baby even attempted suicide and was Bakered.  I think everyone reading this should know how many laws and statutes there are to protect people like me, but when it comes down to initiating the compensation, recuperation and protection everyone seems to walk around confused.  I appealed this insane judge's ruling and wrote my own appellant brief, but I lost on grounds of venue which were more insane than taking away a child and giving him to someone who has been out of the picture for 8+ years, who has a history of abuse and violence, and was ordered by three Palm Beach County judges to seek and complete long term therapy.  Volusia County Family Court accepted the psychiatric diagnosis of a former AIDS Coalition employee and their “too close for comfort” attorney. Because that is all they could come up with, there was no one else to say anything untoward about my parenting skills,  considering I was the only parent in Zak‘s life.  At one time I worked three jobs to keep Zak in a great pre-school.  I worked triage as a nurse from home on weekends to give him the extras.  Fortunately, Congressman Wexler’s office listened to me and fortunately attorney Fenner has stood by me since 2005, and fortunately the new OIG agent did (and continues to do) his job and really cares.  Because there is no incentive given to Whistleblowers to do the right thing in Volusia County. And I still walk around wondering what happened?  I lost everything I ever owned and loved over this.  The irony is I wound up losing my home so my AIDS patients and clients wouldn’t lose theirs.  I pray everyday (for Zak’s sake especially) that I did the right thing.  I miss him so much that sometimes I can't even breathe.