By Scott McCabe
The Washington Examiner
WASHINGTON — A veteran D.C. firefighter accused of misconduct has been paid not to work for more than two years.
Natalie O. Williams, a D.C. firefighter and paramedic since 1988, was placed on paid administrative leave after she was accused of selling cardiopulmonary resuscitation certification cards, sources said.
According to documents obtained by WTOPs Mark Segraves, D.C. Fire Chief Dennis Rubin received a complaint from the NoMa Business Improvement District saying the organization had received an invoice for CPR training provided by the fire department. The invoice was printed on D.C. Fire and Emergency Medical Services letterhead and instructed the $120 payment be made to Williams, rather than to the department.
NoMa Business Improvement District President Liz Price said the complaint was sent around July 9, 2008.
It seemed peculiar and out of the ordinary, Price said.
D.C. fire department spokesman Pete Piringer said the matter was referred to the D.C. inspector general and Williams was placed on leave Sept. 18, 2008. However, a document provided to The Washington Examiner indicates that Williams may have been on administrative leave going back as far as June 6, 2007.
Williams, who gets paid $72,000 a year plus benefits, remains on the payroll because the department is waiting for the results of the inspector generals investigation, Piringer said. He added that the case has been sent to the U.S. Attorneys Office for a possible criminal investigation.
Its no longer in our hands, Piringer said.
Roger Burke, of the Inspector Generals Office, said departmental policy prevented him from commenting whether or not an employee was under investigation. But he said fire officials can fire an employee without waiting for the inspector general to investigate.
The fire department can fire an employee if they want, they dont have the wait for the inspector general, Burke said. They know better than that. They learned the hard way in the [David] Rosenbaum case.
Rosenbaum, a New York Times reporter, was brutally beaten with a metal pipe while walking his dog near his Northwest Washington home. Paramedics misdiagnosed him as being drunk and drove him to the wrong hospital. He died two days later.
A paramedic who had been fired by the city months later was ordered to return to work because the fire department didnt get rid of the employee within 90 days of the incident.
When Rubin was hired in 2007, he vowed tothe practice of placing employees on administrative leave and letting them linger for years at a time.
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