By Larry Hannan
The office of State Attorney Angela Corey faces potential sanctions and will have to pay thousands of dollars in taxpayer money after failing to turn over all documents in a wrongful termination case filed by a former employee.
It prompted a scolding by U.S. District Judge Timothy Corrigan and follows similar criticisms in the failed prosecution of George Zimmerman.
Julie Lyncker, a former clerk in the Nassau County office, says she was fired after she complained about the way former Assistant State Attorney Wesley White treated her. Lyncker says her civil rights were violated and the firing was an illegal retaliation for reporting wrongdoing in the office. She is asking for undisclosed damages.
Monday, Corrigan agreed to delay the case after lawyers representing the State Attorney’s Office admitted they didn’t provide opposing attorneys key evidence until Saturday. A jury was scheduled to be picked Monday and the two sides were supposed to turn over all materials months ago.
The judge sent 40 potential jurors home and told Corey’s attorneys that the office would have to recompense the court for the $2,500 it cost to bring the jurors in.
“This stuff hits the case where it lives,” Corrigan said. “And it’s hard to understand how this happens.”
Corey also was accused of withholding key findings from Trayvon Martin’s cellphone in the Zimmerman trial and faces potential sanctions there. Zimmerman was acquitted after claiming self-defense in Martin’s death.
Leonard Hackett, a private attorney hired to defend the State Attorney’s Office, confirmed he discovered emails discussing the firing of Lyncker between senior staff on Saturday while prepping a witness who was going to testify in the case.
He immediately turned them over to Joseph DeBelder, Lyncker’s lead attorney. But DeBelder said he needed to depose Corey, former Chief Assistant State Attorney Dan McCarthy and several other employees again because of what the emails said.
In previous depositions Corey and McCarthy both said McCarthy decided to fire Lyncker, and Corey wasn’t involved. But one of the emails turned over Saturday had McCarthy telling White that he gave the “Boss” an option to retain Lyncker and a second option that would fire her.
“Boss” could only be Corey, and the emails suggest that Corey made the final decision, DeBelder said.
White and McCarthy, who have both left the State Attorney’s Office, declined to comment Monday. After the hearing, Hackett told the Times-Union that McCarthy made the final decision to fire Lyncker but declined to discuss the newly discovered emails.
Hackett said he couldn’t guarantee there weren’t other missing emails and Corrigan said that left him no choice but to delay the case.
“The thing about these emails is they are directly on point,” Corrigan said.
DeBelder said he wants to question Corey and McCarthy a second time under oath and also wants to depose former information technology director Ben Kruidbos, who was fired by Corey after he testified last month about being concerned prosecutors did not turn over information to Zimmerman’s defense team.
DeBelder said it appears the emails in question were collected and printed out by Kruidbos. White, who is planning to represent Kruidbos in a wrongful termination lawsuit against Corey, said his client would have no comment on his role in the Lyncker case.
Lawyers for Lyncker also want to be allowed to conduct a forensic review of the state attorney’s email system to determine if there is more correspondence they should have. Whether that is allowed will be discussed at a future hearing.
Corrigan said the State Attorney’s Office will have to pay the cost of all future depositions in the case because it was responsible for the delay.
In her lawsuit, Lyncker said White, who was then the top Nassau prosecutor, repeatedly asked Lyncker if she was having sex with former Nassau Sheriff Tommy Seagraves and tried to use Lyncker as a go between to improve his relationship with the sheriff.
Lyncker, who denies having an affair with Seagraves, said she refused to help White and complained about the way he was treating her to Corey and McCarthy, but they fired her after she complained.
Lawyers for Corey said Lyncker’s complaints were looked into, but when they questioned other Nassau employees, they found out that Lyncker engaged in inappropriate behavior and was fired because of what was discovered.
That inappropriate behavior includes talking about sexual acts and people she’d like to have sex with in the office, slapping male colleagues on the butt and wearing inappropriate clothing.
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