Advertisement
A former home supervisor claims she told administrator Bill Crowley that Rich Calcut was misusing donations but he did nothing and later eliminated her job for speaking out.
Calcut, the home’s former public information officer, pleaded guilty earlier this year to embezzling $260,000 from veterans organizations and will be sentenced today in Waupaca County. Prosecutors say they’ll recommend up to two years in prison; his attorney will try to spare him any time behind bars.
The case has been an embarrassment to the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, which runs the home with more than 700 veterans in King, about 110 miles north of Madison.
But in legal testimony last month, Crowley denied allegations made by the home’s former activity services director, Cathy Leaverton. Leaverton claims she warned as far back as 2004 that Calcut was mismanaging donors’ gifts. The department laid her off last year after eliminating her job in a reorganization; she claims it was retaliation.
Crowley and other veterans officials recently testified in an employment appeal by Leaverton and another laid-off worker seeking their jobs back. The Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission has yet to rule on their appeal.
Crowley said he recalled Leaverton coming to him with concerns about how veterans groups that support the home were asking for donations to be used. In response, he said he told his aides to be more specific in asking for money to support specific projects.
But asked directly whether Leaverton ever complained Calcut was misusing donations, Crowley testified: “I don’t recall that she did.”
Leaverton has contended she warned Crowley about Calcut in 2004 after donors complained their money was not used for the purposes they wanted. She has said she warned Calcut was the only person managing donations and deciding how to use them and that led to the potential for misappropriation. Leaverton has said she renewed her complaints in 2005 and 2006.
An investigator with the state’s Equal Rights Division in January ruled there was no probable cause to support Leaverton’s whistleblower complaint because she did not put her warnings in writing.
She did produce an e-mail from December 2005 asking Crowley to create a committee to manage donations because they were being misused. But the investigator found it was unlikely the department “would have waited over a year and a half to retaliate against Leaverton.” Her attorney, Nicholas Fairweather, is appealing that decision.
Calcut, a 23-year home employee, took money from accounts funded by veterans groups like the American Legion and AMVETS to support recreational activities for veterans. The theft started around 1999 and continued through 2007, prosecutors say.
