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Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Destruction of documents “shocked” Secret Service official

By Rebecca Carr | Wednesday, March 19, 2008, 03:40 PM

A senior U.S. Secret Service official testified in federal court today that he was “shocked” to find out that an agency inspector had destroyed original documents sought in a long-running civil lawsuit alleging discrimination against African American agents.

R.W. Slama, the special agent in charge of the Philadelphia field office, was called by the government as a witness to explain why he sent an e-mail containing a news story about the document destruction to colleagues.

It is against the service’s rules to send information about previous testimony to potential witnesses. Two of the e-mail recipients had been told that they might be called as witnesses.

Under questioning by Michelle Johnson, an assistant U.S. attorney representing the service, Slama said he did not intend to send the Feb. 21, 2001 e-mail to potential witnesses.

Slama said he did not know that they were going to be called to testify in the case.

The civil lawsuit, originally filed in 2000, alleges that African American agents are routinely leapfrogged by white agents who scored lower on promotional exams. It also says some of the African American agents allege that they endured the use of the word “nigger” on the job and were forced to do less desirable work because they were black and “talked the language of the street.”

Another agent had e-mailed Slama the news story about senior inspector Carrie Hunnicutt’s testimony in the case. Hunnicutt said that she had placed original documents concerning the service’s search for documents in a “burn bag” just two days before she was scheduled to testify in the case.

When he read the story, Slama said he was so upset that a fellow agent could have taken such an action that he forwarded the news story to the others with the words: “Oh Boy!” emblazoned across the top of the e-mail.

Johnson asked Slama why he forwarded the news story.

“I did not want to see an agent in my management conduct themselves like that,” said Slama, referring to Hunnicutt.

Slama said he takes the mission of the service so seriously that he tells his agents that they are held to a higher standard than the public right down to the way they mow their lawn or shop for groceries. “I am extremely proud of the Secret Service,” Slama said. “I was shocked.”

Hunnicutt said she destroyed the documents after she copied them onto a computer file. But later testimony revealed inconsistencies with some of the original documents that escaped destruction and what was inputed into the file.

Today was the 15th hearing held by U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson to determine whether to sanction the service a fourth time for failing to produce credible testimony and evidence in a timely fashion.

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Robinson (pictured) has already sanctioned the service three times. Legal experts say that is a highly unusual number especially against a government agency. The service is appealing all of those sanctions.

Nearly 60 African American agents have filed sworn affidavits backing up the plaintiff’s claims.

Reginald G. Moore, the lead plaintiff in the case, has risen to the senior executive level of the service. In interviews, he has said he is determined to fight the case to the end so that the service permanently changes the way it promotes agents.

E. Desmond Hogan, a lawyer at Hogan & Hartson representing the plaintiffs for free, asked Slama what portion of the news story upset him the most.

“Destroying original evidence,” Slama said. “That is something that never should have been done.”

Slama said that he requires his criminal investigators to preserve all evidence.

“When someone destroys evidence like that, it is wrong,” Slama said.

But under questioning by Johnson, Slama said that he did not have personal knowledge that Hunnicutt destroyed evidence.

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