Time Has Come Today

A Cleveland magistrate received a stayed six-month suspension from the Ohio Supreme Court.

As a magistrate, Dunn was required to work eight hours per day, 40 hours per week. If he worked less than eight hours a day, he was required to use his accrued leave time to make up the difference. Pursuant to the juvenile court’s flexible-schedule policy, Dunn submitted a request to work from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. beginning in December 2015. The court approved his request.

Beginning on June 13, 2016, and continuing every two weeks thereafter, Dunn received an automated e-mail from Kronos, the court’s electronic time-card program, stating:

Please review and approve your time card; your signature indicates that you have verified and approved the accuracy of your time card. Please be advised that falsification of electronic time records is a work rule violation and may result in discipline including removal from employment.

The juvenile court audited the biweekly time cards that Dunn submitted from March 15 to September 2, 2016. The court compared the times he reported on his time cards to a record of his employee-identification-keycard swipes and video footage from courthouse security cameras. The audit showed that Dunn had falsely entered his start or end time into his Kronos time card on 90 of the 122 work days during that period and received $5,051.04 in pay for 121.8 hours that he had not worked.

Dunn’s time discrepancies ranged from a few minutes to over five hours and inflated his work time by an average of 1.35 hours per day. For example, on March 31, 2016, Dunn entered the parking garage at 8:18 a.m. and left the parking garage at 10:52 a.m. On his time card, however, Dunn falsely reported that he arrived at 7:30 a.m. and left at 3:30 p.m. that day, thereby inflating his work time by 5.43 hours. Despite the fact that he failed to accurately record the times that he commenced work, ended work, or used leave time, Dunn personally approved 10 of the 13 audited time cards.

At a September 2016 disciplinary hearing conducted by his employer, Dunn submitted a written statement explaining that nausea and sleeplessness—the side effects of cancer treatment—had caused him to be late for work and to take longer breaks. He also testified that his absences had not affected his job performance and that he had kept current with his assignments.

Sanction

While recognizing that Dunn’s misconduct “tarnished the reputation of the judiciary,” the board concluded that his immediate acceptance of responsibility for his misconduct combined with his immediate offer of repayment and his cooperative attitude toward the disciplinary process warranted the imposition of a lesser sanction than that imposed in Kramer. Therefore, the board recommended that Dunn be suspended from the practice of law for six months and that the entire suspension be stayed on the condition that he engage in no further misconduct. Having reviewed the record, we agree with the board’s findings and recommendation.

Cleveland.com reported on his resignation from the bench. (Mike Frisch)