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One year later…

August 10, 2008: The home of ATF Special Agent Jay Dobyns was burned to the ground by arson. His family was inside the home at the time and narrowly escaped injury or death.

The ineffective investigative management skills of the ATF Phoenix Field Division management team and ATF’s executive leadership in Washington, D.C. were again clearly demonstrated by their inability to comprehend the significance of that event.

After failing to investigate beyond concluding the fire was arson and when challenged about “dropping the ball”, ATF panicked and punted the investigation to the FBI.Not surprisingly, the FBI apparently shuffled some papers and called it a day without much effort.

The almost surreal reprisals that ATF perpetrated on Dobyns before the arson have been conclusively and publicly validated in reports to the President by the Office of the Inspector General and Office of the Special Counsel. Those oversight agencies documented for Obama and Congress just how reprehensively ATF performed in their abject failure to address credible threats of death and violence against Dobyns. Dobyns reportedly reached a settlement with ATF over those initial failures, however, the terms of the agreement are sealed so I cannot comment on the particulars.

Eleven months after the settlement was signed, Dobyns home was destroyed. That unfortunate event gave ATF an opportunity to prove that they did, in fact, have their collective "eyes on the ball". However, like a terrified Little Leaguer in his first at-bat, ATF watched the third strike blow by and were literally and figuratively called “Out!”

Predictably, rather than attempting to remedy past malfeasance and incompetence, ATF’s reaction has been to lash out with new and even more outlandish and vicious acts of reprisal. To wit, the following are but a few of the actions that ATF management has taken against one of its own highly-decorated veteran Special Agents:

• Spread rumors that Dobyns was a “suspect” in the arson (and was thus willing to murder his own wife and children);
• Suddenly revoked the undercover documents and anonymous “backstop” identities that Dobyns needed to conceal his residence location and vehicle identification, and thereby protect himself and his family from deadly serious threats of violence by some of the most brutal criminals gangs and sociopaths on the planet;
• Threatened to terminate Dobyns if he did not resign. However, months later, long after Dobyns called their bluff, looked across the table and told them to, "Take your best shot.", ATF has attempted not the slightest disciplinary action of any kind against him.  To call ATF's shot callers "paper tigers" would be unfair to the rest of the neutered cats of the world.

Again, just to be perfectly clear, ATF undercover Special Agent Dobyns’ home was destroyed with his family inside, and ATF's primary reaction was to threaten to terminate Dobyns! Forget about the “screwing your own employees” aspects…if you believe that law enforcement exists to protect citizens against violent crime and apprehend the criminal thugs that commit such crimes, a hard look at ATF’s management will quickly make you reconsider.

The latest reprisals against Dobyns are well easily proven by ATF’s own documents and chronicled in two pending federal lawsuits. Still, ATF steadfastly refuses to accept the slightest responsibility for its almost unbelievable misconduct, and is instead contesting the lawsuits based solely on jurisdiction and venue, while addressing none of the substantive allegations.

The OIG and the OSC have reportedly given ATF’s Internal Affairs branch another chance to come clean by asking ATF to conduct an internal investigation regarding Dobyns’ allegations. Anyone care to place a wager on how that will pan out?

So now, a year later, ATF remains frozen in its tracks, unable to get out of its own way. We have credible information that Dobyns recently asked Director Melson for a one-year status report regarding the investigation of the crimes committed against him. However, to date, there is apparently nothing to report, ostensibly because nothing was ever done from an investigative standpoint in the first place. ATF clearly believes that if they just ignore the problem for long enough, it will go away. This time, however, that calculated strategy isn’t going to work for them.

We have also learned that the collective attitude of ATF management is basically that, “Dobyns has already been provided a settlement and will not get another one no matter what we did or didn’t do.” ATF clearly interpreted their pre-arson settlement with Dobyns as a free pass that allowed them to commit any future abuses and unlawful acts that their managers saw fit to dispense. We are confident that they will live to see the errors of that position.

As a former top-level labor representative with over 20 years of experience in a federal law enforcement/investigative agency, I think it accurate to say that ATF has essentially written the definitive book entitled, “How Not To Handle a Whistleblower.”

The Dobyns case has become the “poster child” for federal agency malfeasance, corruption, fraud, waste, abuse, criminal misconduct, ethics violations, employee intimidation, endangerment, harassment, retaliation, whistleblower reprisal and creating/encouraging a hostile work environment.

As the saying goes, “ATF can’t even do the wrong thing right.”
 

As an "ATF" family member and one of the many wives sons and daughters of Agents that have decided the internal workings of ATF have gone too far and cost too many so much, I have decided to no longer sit silent. The unethical abuses heaped upon my husband and so many other Agents like him for standing tall and upholding the oath they took, must end. ATF does not get to ignore the devastation they have heaped upon these brave souls and more importantly their FAMILIES. They also do not get to ignore that the families of those targeted are also NOT fair game for their cover-ups and reprisals.  That ATF indirectly attacks the families of its own agents has been well-documented. Complaints are swelling even from within the ranks of headquarters. We will no longer allow the waste, fraud and abuse of those in power to destroy what field Agents have all stood for and demanded that their families support. For the last 3 years, my children, family and I have sat idly by at my husband's request, under the naive assumption that "the system works" and "justice always prevails".  There are examples of ATF management campaigns to fabricate allegations, assassinate the character and destroy the livelihoods of, and punitively transfer any agents (and their families) who stand up to improper and unlawful conduct.  Corrupt ATF lawyers use bogus documents and misinformation to defend their corrupt bosses. The Directors and Assistant Directors are always fully aware of, and in many cases,  have personally orchestrated these despicable and flagrantly illegal acts. In blatant and entirely unwarranted acts of pure retaliation against my Husband, he (and of course, our family) has been transferred FIVE times in the last 36 months. These and other acts, including outright character assassination, have been flimsily camouflaged as "disciplinary action", yet when deposed and under oath, not a single RAC, ASAC or SAC could identify a single "improper" act worthy of discipline!  My husband's character has been savagely smeared nd he has been overtly threatened with far worse than being transferred. My children have had to leave schools and friends too many times.  We live in constant fear about our future and well-being.  The stress of watching my husband having to walk into a hostile work environment every day is indescribable.  Knowing he does it not only for us but for all the agents and their family members who have suffered due to corruption within ATF is little comfort.  Our faith in the federal government and ATF has all but disappeared.  This has to stop!  I speak with family members who have suffered far worse than we have.  ATF exceutives such as Mr. Sullivan, Mr. Carter, Mr. Hoover, and now Mr. Melson, sit idly by, studiously ignoring irrefutable evidence of significant wrongdoing by senior ATF management, yet continue to cover for and unlawfully protect them. Shame on you, Mr. Carter and Mr. Hoover in particular for speaking of your "love" for this agency and its agents, while constantly looking the other way while good agents and their families are crushed by your minions. When the Number 2 man in ATF publicly states that "speaking out (against ATF) is an act of career suicide", there can be no doubt that the situation is completely out of control.  The recent public humiliation suffered by my friend, Gwen Dobyns (wife of veteran undercover Agent and New York Times Best Selling author, Jay Dobyns) perfectly demonstrated the extreme arrogance, corruption and untouchable mentality of ATF managers.  When the Dobyns home was burned down by criminals with Gwen and the children sleeping inside, ATF did not send one agent to ensure the security of their own agent and his family, nor conduct even the most laughably token investigation.  Instead, in a standard act of character assasination, they "unofficially" implied that Jay himself (who was 100 miles away on ATF business at the time) was a suspect!  All because Jay, like my husband, refused to bow down to the criminal acts of corruption, misconduct and incompetence that ATF managemnent demands that its agents accept without question.  It's nauseating and outrageous. Agents who file complaints and expose corruption have their lives and careers destroyed over a trivial typo on a voucher, an innocent comment twisted out of context, or something equally ridiculous.  And ATF management can't find something to use, they'll simply make it up.  On the other hand, a SAC who was publicly exposed as having lied under oath to federal investigators, abused her position, and committed overts acts of criminal discrimination and retaliation, received a "hero's" retirement sendoff rather than demotion, disgrace and possible prison time.  How does that work, Mr. Carter?  How is it that one of your lead attorneys repeatedly falsified documents aimed at viciously attacking one of your own veteran undercover agents,  but rather than being fired and prosecuted, was quietly transferred to another agency with ZERO adverse consequences??? I respectfully urge and implore everyone who reads this to immediately write your congressional representatives and demand accountability, before this agency is simply disbanded.  Senators Feinstein, McCain, Leahy and others have been advised of these facts in writing and have declined to open this dirty Pandora's Box. This was once a proud agency bound together by the common desire to make our country safe for all citizens.  However, ATF now spends much of its time and taxpayer funds to conceal and perpetuate their abject lack of leadership and personal integrity.  My family and many others have taken our own savings, children's college funds, car funds and vacation funds to fight for our children's security against the very people who are supposed to provide that security.  I am not an ATF agent.  I do not know the Bureau's intricacies.  I do, however, know the toll it has taken on my family and the families of many agents across the country.  What happened to common decency?  Clearly, it is not a required let alone desirable attribute for management positions within the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. Sincerely, Family members in support of Cleanupatf

An ATF Communications Specialist had worked for ATF for six years, managed communications in several field divisions and was a key player in the communications support for the DC Sniper investigation.  Despite having multiple graduate level degrees and many fully successful performance evaluations, after challenging an ATF supervisor, ATF made a retroactive determination that this person was incompetent and proceeded to create such a hostile work environment that the employee resigned his position and left government service. Throughout ATFs attempt to retroactively discredit the Specialist, he was assaulted by a coworker on duty. The assault was report and went virtually unaddressed. Litigation is currently pending and an EEOC complaint has been filed related to a hostile work environment and race discrimination.

An  ATF Agent completed an undercover infiltration of a violent crime gang.  ATF managers abused this Agent during and following his assignment. This abuse included intentionally relocating him across the country from his children and harassing him with a hostile work environment.  The Agent considered an agency hero for his completion of this and many other dangerous assignments ultimately and prematurely resigned his position from ATF.

Two ATF Agents completed the undercover infiltration of an outlaw motorcycle gang.  Following the completion of their investigation they received death, violence and intimidation threats from the suspects and their followers. ATF entered into numerous verbal and written agreements with the Agents for relocation and reassignment only to completely mishandle these responses, failing to properly protect or backstop the Agents moves and creating severe heartache and anxiety for the agents and their families in a most dramatic and traumatic time in the lives of the Agents and their families.

Two ATF Agents filed EEOC complaints against their ASAC and RAC alleging harassment and a hostile work environment.  The reprisal and retaliation following their complaint were so great that both veteran agents (each with over 10 years experience) resigned their agent positions with ATF and immediately accepted identical agent positions with other federal agencies. Following sworn depositions the accused ASAC was heard to publicly state, “Agents lie about me every time they file a complaint against me and I have no problem lying about them to defend myself.” This ASAC was forced into retirement as a result of multiple and ongoing abuses which contributed to millions of dollars in settlement at taxpayer and agency expense.

Career senior Special Agent becomes the target of reprisal for refusing to ignore excessive abuses in the Southwest Field Division. After two years of lengthy litigation, EEOC complaints and reported misconduct by ATF managers, the agency agrees to settle with the Agent, reinstate back pay, legal fees, and rescind disciplinary actions. This only occurred once it was revealed that an attorney from ATF ethics division submitted fraudulent information alleging false criminal acts by the agent to the administrative judge, in defense of ATFs discriminatory and retaliatory actions. The Attorney was allowed to leave the agency after a second occurrence of falsifying documents, to another Federal agency without legal bar ethics implications or disciplinary action by ATF.

Special Agent, Southwest Border Field division, becomes involved in a dispute with the agency based on trivial and abusive actions by ATF management. After 3+ years on administrative leave without explanation or resolution, the agency agreed to a sizable settlement with the Agent as yet another example of wasted taxpayer funds and agency resources. One of the protracted issues under examination related to the allegations against the agent was minor and insignificant errors on travel vouchers. The managers involved in this flagrant waste fraud and abuse and abuse of authority remain in ATF management.

ASAC Chicago reports significant fraudulent expenditures of by the Special Agent in Charge. A group Supervisor with knowledge of these abuses and violations is interviewed and testifies truthfully. The ASAC is punitively transferred to Washington D.C. and the GS is transferred in an extreme act of reprisal is transferred from his supervisory position to the Operations Officer position in New York. The ASAC filed litigation and to prevent the SAC who was accused of the violations from having to testify in a hearing, the agency paid a large settlement at the agency and the taxpayer's expense. Due to specific whistleblower restrictions, the GS decided to leave the agency and is now employed and by another Federal agency that is now benefiting from the $100,000+ of training and experience he took with him when he left ATF.

A West coast compliance investigator won a favorable EEO complaint (Administrative Law Judge Decision) in 1992, based on disparate treatment (based on race), denial of training and denial of promotion.  ATF responded with '' SHE WOULD NEVER GET PROMOTED" It has been 18 years and she has not been promoted. ATF managers were true to their word. This in spite of the fact that, she successfully completed NPT training in 2004 as the class president, all other investigators in her class have a present grade of GS-12 or GS-13. In 2003/2004 she filed an EEO for reprisal, denial of a promotion, reasonable accommodations under the ADA and a hostile work environment that included the use of the "N" word by a superior in order to "keep her in her place". ATF ignored her pleas. Her performance appraisals went from fully satisfactory/exceeding fully satisfactory to unacceptable in a 6 month period.  She attempted to resolve this matter with the Special Agent in Charge, notified Internal Affairs and the Ombudsmen office. I was ultimately forced to seek the protections of the EEOC and I was still ignored. In May 2006 I was terminated and tracked down by armed Agents to escort me from the building.  She prevailed with a favorable decision in 2007 for wrongful termination. ATF was ordered to reinstate her pay and restore her annual and sick leave for the year. ATF has not restored her leave and she has requested a breakdown of the actual pay which was entered into my bank account and has continue to be ignored. She filed an EEO in 2007 for denial of her promotions (reprisal), a hostile work environment and reasonable accommodations as part of a class action complaint filed by multiple employees in the SFFD. At the present she has not heard from the ATF EEO managers.