SCENARIO:
James Holloway, CPA worked as city
treasurer for a West Texas town. He also did a small tax practice on the side,
mainly for individuals and a few small businesses in the area. Within the last
two months, two complaints have been lodged with the Texas State Board of
Public Accountancy.
a)
Denise Patterson was hired by Mr. Holloway to
work in the finance department with Nick Jones as her immediate supervisor.
After working in the department for 18 months, Ms. Patterson became pregnant
and was ordered to bed rest with high blood pressure and pre-eclampsia. She
informed her supervisor that she needed Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) due to
doctor’s orders. Mr. Jones stated that Ms. Patterson should call work daily to
do work from home. She explained that
the doctor had ordered bed rest and no work until after the baby was born (the
baby was due in five weeks) and was faxing the doctor’s orders on work
restrictions. Unfortunately, Ms. Patterson lost the baby and had health
concerns that kept her of work for eight weeks. During those eight weeks, Mr.
Jones called Ms. Patterson daily to check on progress of work projects and
insisting on immediate return to work. He also ranted about the quality of her
work. Ms. Patterson phoned Mr. Holloway
and HR to report the situation. HR
stated that the actions were not compliant with FMLA or ADA.
Ms. Patterson was able to return
to work after twelve weeks. Mr. Jones then began harassing her about work
quality, changing work assignments daily, and giving short deadlines for the
assignments. Ms. Patterson again appealed to Mr. Holloway and HR that she felt
that Mr. Jones was undermining her work, not providing vital information
necessary to accomplish her job, and was being harassed, retaliating and
humiliating her. Mr. Holloway and HR decided that Ms. Patterson would report
directly to Mr. Holloway instead of Mr. Jones in the future. Unfortunately, Ms. Patterson had another
health emergency; her husband called and left word about the emergency on Mr.
Holloway’s voice mail on a Saturday. Mr. Holloway responded with an email that
stated “Please do not perform any work at home. Contact me as soon as you are
cleared to work and expect to return to work.” Two days later she tried to
contact Mr. Holloway after the doctor extended her bed rest. She did not have a
response to either a voice mail or email. Two days later she received a
certified letter notifying that she had been terminated for misconduct in not
daily calling Mr. Holloway.
Ms. Patterson has filed a charge of discrimination and retaliation while
employed at the city finance department and with Mr. Holloway as supervisor.
b)
In his tax practice, Mr. Holloway provides tax
services to Sharon Joy and Kathy Sue Delight, owners of The Healing Touch, a
spa nails and massage salon. Mr.
Holloway did employment, quarterly tax and income filings for the owners
individually and for the company. He also kept the books for the company on
Quickbooks. Ms. Joy called wanting copies of the last two years tax returns and
wanting the current details of the company books. Mr. Holloway had a three week
cruise planned and did not call or go by the business until a week after his
return from his cruise. In the meantime, Ms. Joy lodged a complaint against Mr.
Holloway for retaining her records, as she really needed the books of the
company. Mr. Holloway dropped by the Healing Touch on a Friday afternoon to
talk to the owners. Ms. Joy was most upset that he had not brought the copies
of the tax returns or the company’s books with him. However, he received his
normal complimentarily massage after talking to the owners. While he was
receiving his massage the Healing Touch was raided as a prostitution parlor.
The owners were arrested on being madams of a brothel, promotion of
prostitution, and possession of cocaine and heroin with an intent to sell. All
customers or patrons at the business at the time of the raid were charged with
prostitution.
