A lawyer representing 3 whistleblowers says Fort Worth cut the truth from transcript
Fort Worth officials have been hiding facts related to a case about the firings of a police chief and two information technology employees, an attorney says.
The latest incident involves a transcript of a recording a witness was told was complete, but it wasn’t, according to Stephen Kennedy, who represents former Fort Worth Police Chief Joel Fitzgerald in a whistleblower lawsuit filed against the city in June.
Kennedy also represents William Birchett and Ronald Burke, who each worked in the city’s information technology department and who have also filed whistleblower lawsuits against the city.
Kennedy said he contacted the city in October saying a city attorney provided a witness with a transcript of an audio recording that was missing several pages of dialogue and was made by Texas Department of Public Safety auditor Oswald Enriquez.
Enriquez is responsible for making sure the city follows federal and state rules for restricting access and maintaining the confidentiality of certain information contained in a federal crime database to which the city has access.
“This was no innocent error,” Kennedy’s letter states.
But city officials argue that the deletion of the dialogue was not their error. The transcription service the city hired made the error.
The city said in a statement that it had no obligation to transcribe a recording that Enriquez provided, that he made secretly of a conversation he had with city employees. Enriquez received copies of the incomplete and the complete transcript during a deposition on Oct. 17, according to Kennedy’s letter.
“No misrepresentations were made, and Mr. Kennedy’s statements to the contrary are baseless,” a statement from the City Attorney’s Office said.
The parts that were left out substantiate claims that Fort Worth did not follow federal regulations and put the city’s access to important law enforcement and public safety information at risk, Kennedy says.
The transcript includes the words “Recording ends” on page 50 and a certification from the court reporter that the transcription is complete, the letter said. A copy of the transcript produced by the city attorney and a copy provided by Kennedy are included with the letter and marked as exhibits.
A letter from the transcription service provided by city officials says the audio file is more than one hour and 20 minutes long and the transcription process was stopped after about 45 minutes because the remainder of the audio could not be heard well enough for transcription.
Another letter from the transcription service said the city was not given information saying that parts of the audio transcription were not provided to city officials in a timely manner and that the lack of that information placed the city in an unfortunate situation.
An attorney with the city wrote that she disagreed with the transcription company’s decision about the “assessment of audibility” of the recording and said she would address the issue with those responsible.
“They (the city) either did it intentionally or they were asleep at the wheel,” Kennedy said. “Either way it’s inappropriate.”
Kennedy said he did not believe the city’s explanation.
“There is no ambiguity in saying that the recording ends,” Kennedy said. “The words ‘recording ends’ do not mean that I cannot hear the rest of the recording. It means the recording stops.”
Then there is the matter of the certification at the end of the transcript that says — “Transcription is a true and accurate record of the proceedings to the best of my knowledge, skills and ability.”
Kennedy said his transcriptionist was able to make out most of the words in the recording, and the words that she did not understand were substituted with the word inaudible or indiscernible. Kennedy said he was able to make out what was said in the recording.
In another letter provided by the city from City Attorney Kelly Albin, she said that she is not clear what the city could have hidden from Enriquez about a conversation he had during a meeting he attended, and which he recorded and saved.
“Nevertheless, I thought it worthwhile to make it clear that the City provided the entire audio recording to Veritext for transcription (which was apparently outsourced) and unfortunately, what we received was the incomplete transcript that you both saw,” Albin’s letter states.
Calls seeking comment from the company the city of Fort Worth used to create the transcript, Veritext, and the company the job was outsourced to, WordZXpressed, were either not returned, or the request for comment was declined.
The meeting
The recording transcript is a replay of a meeting that allegedly took place on Dec. 19 last year between Birchett, Enriquez, Fitzgerald, Deputy Police Chief Julie Swearingen, Lt. Michael Williams and city employees Heather Herriage and Michael Munday.
The remainder of the recording is a conservation Enriquez had during lunch with police personnel later that afternoon.
Enriquez said during the initial meeting that six years ago it was discovered that the lack of a certain type of encryption software made the police department’s data vulnerable and that he received assurances from city employees that the issue would be resolved.
“And I was told it was and it wasn’t,” the transcript said.
Enriquez said the incorrect information was also shared with the FBI, according to the transcript.
The data security issues were revealed publicly when Birchett filed his lawsuit in May. Included in Birchett’s lawsuit was information that hackers had taken more than $516,000 in city funds and deposited the money in an offshore account.
It was revealed later the losses to Fort Worth were closer to $700,000.
An arrest has been made in connection with some of the missing money and a trial is pending.
The lawsuit combines issues related to the phishing scams with a Texas Department of Public Safety audit and the city’s compliance with an FBI crime fighting database, but they are unrelated, according to the city.
According to pages 36 and 37 of the transcript, Enriquez discussed a possible data breach issue with city employees during the December meeting, expressing the opinion that the city had been lucky.
“Well, you know,” Eriquez said. “You’re just very, very fortunate that you haven’t been breached or something has happened to expose. It’s like I tell — I tell everybody this every day when I go do an audit. You don’t want your name on the front page of the newspaper. Because it all goes downhill from there real quick. And then everybody loses confidence in you and then now that you’re susceptible then more people will try to do stuff. So I want to avoid that 100 percent. I want to keep this on the down low, try to get this resolved and just move on.”
Enriquez also discussed the consequences of a breach during lunch with some city employees, when Fitzgerald was not present. That part of the conversation was omitted from the city’s transcript, according to Kennedy.
“I’ve had a couple of other agencies that have come down to this and I’ll tell you, it’s not pretty,” Enriquez said. “... And like I told the chief, I go, the fortunate thing is that you haven’t been breached. ... Because once that happens I’m not touching your agency with a 10-foot pole.”
During lunch, Enriquez also asked if city officials believed Birchett’s job was safe, and Heather Herriage replied, “No,” according to a transcript provided by Kennedy.
Lt. Michael Williams said probably not, then added: “I can’t say for sure. Probably going to get — probably make up some — yeah, they’ll use some other B.S. to -.”
About two weeks later, Birchett was placed on administrative leave and later fired, Kennedy says in his letter.
This story includes information from Star-Telegram archives.
