Hey y’all. Jim Jr. here.
A lot of things have happened in the last few weeks. The Attorney General’s office, under David S. McLaughlin, Senior Assistant Attorney General, released a letter on March 28th stating that
at least some of Ms. Dietzler’s activities likely constituted criminal conduct that warranted further investigation and possible prosecution. The fact that Ms. Dietzler was not terminated makes a successful prosecution extremely challenging; moving forward with a prosecution would thus be an unwise use of taxpayer resources. I expect the University shares my disappointment in how this case was handled. State employees who engage in deceptive and criminal conduct should be reported to the OIAC so that appropriate action can be taken to best protect the interests of the university system and Georgia taxpayers.
For more on this, see our post from April 2 on the story Jodie Fleischer covered on WSBTV https://whatsapoorwhistleblowertodo.wordpress.com/2016/04/02/wsbtv-story-april-1/
The ironic part about this letter being released is that the Attorney General’s office still has not contacted my mother about this issue at all and she is the person most directly impacted by this whole mess. She has a 360-page notebook with 32 sections and is the only one who knows the entire story.
https://whatsapoorwhistleblowertodo.wordpress.com/waiting-for-the-attorney-general/
Ten days later, on April 7, Athens-born actor Tituss Burgess appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to promote the Netflix series he stars in “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.” During this appearance, he previewed the graduation speech he would give should he be invited to the commencement ceremonies. In it, he referred to the University of Georgia as a “shady school.” I’m not sure if he was referring specifically to this issue regarding my mother or if he knows about more shady goings-on at UGA. If he isn’t aware of this issue, I think folks from Athens should let him know what’s going on in his hometown. Here’s the clip where he mentions Athens,
And finally, on April 15, William Perry of the Georgia Ethics Watchdogs had a press conference at the Arch where he released and personally delivered a letter to UGA President Jere Morehead with several recommendations, which can be found here (Letter to President Morehead). He also had flyers on hand with contact information for people who wish to contact President Morehead and Attorney General Sam Olens to express their outrage and/or disappointment at the handling of this entire issue. If you’re reading this, I highly recommend you contact both of these gentlemen and making your voice heard. (GEW Take Action20160416_14105486).
For more on the press conference William Perry held and UGA’s response, here is the article from the Athens magazine “The Flagpole,” which has been very helpful in spreading the news about what happened to Mom.
Until there’s more to share, so long for now. Hopefully, the next time I come on here it will be to report that UGA and the AG’s office have started doing the right thing, not just what they want done.
What's A Poor Whistleblower to Do? 