Scapethroat!!! I mean Scapegoat!!!

'CLOSET' AFFAIR POISONS FIRED-EMPLOYEE LAWSUIT
By DAVID SEIFMAN
A LAWSUIT filed against the Health De partment alleging time-card shenanigans has taken a bizarre turn into accusations the Poison Control Unit director and a female subordinate were engaged in a different kind of shenanigans. The lawsuit filed by Tom Tucker, a former poison-information specialist, claims he was fired on Sept. 20, 2007, for reporting illegal practices to the Department of Investigation that included "time-card stealing." To bolster his case, Tucker's lawyers deposed administrative aide Marie- France Vincent, who oversees timekeeping records. Under questioning, Vincent acknowledged that she wasn't comfortable talking about her bosses. She soon learned her instincts were sound. Tucker lawyer Walker Harman asked a question that brought the July 23, 2008, deposition to a halt: "Did you ever observe Ms. Zappala and Mr. Hoffman engaging in a sexual act?" he asked, referring to unit chief Dr. Robert Hoffman and administrative manager Maria Zappala. "I take the Fifth on this one," responded Vincent. After a flurry of legal activity, it was decided to postpone the proceedings until Feb. 25, 2009. The same question came up again. "Right now, I don't recall," Vincent said this time. "I don't remember." ". . . Are you saying that it's possible that you did observe this?" came back Harman. "No, I just don't remember right now," she said. But in a separate affidavit filed in Manhattan federal court, another employee, Joseph Bueno, stated: "Ms. Vincent informed me that she walked in on Dr. Hoffman and Ms. Zappala engaging in sexual relations and was subsequently being intimidated and threatened by Dr. Hoffman." Reached by The Post, Hoffman said he wasn't allowed to talk to the press and referred calls to the Health Department, which declined comment. Zappala denied that she and Hoffman were ever caught in a compromising position, and said this was the first time she had even heard such a charge. "The whole thing never happened," she declared in her own deposition on Feb. 11, 2009. Tucker claims that officials at the Poison Control Unit routinely padded timesheets, sometimes to equalize salaries of Health Department employees and those paid through Bellevue Hospital. david.seifman@nypost.com

http://www.nypost.com/seven/06072009/news/columnists/closet_affair_poisons_fired_employee_law_172979.htm