MoH recipient Day faces firestorm over Fla. job - Military News | News From Afghanistan, Iraq And Around The World - Military Times

MoH recipient Day faces firestorm over Fla. job

PENSACOLA, Fla. — The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating claims that the high-profile war hero who administered the Public Defender’s Office in Okaloosa County came to work, drank coffee, read the newspaper, then left for the day.

Retired Air Force Col. George “Bud” Day was 83 when newly elected Public Defender James Owens hired him in 2009 to supervise the eight-employee office in Shalimar. His salary was $84,000 a year.

Day is one of the area’s most revered military men, having received the Medal of Honor and some 70 other decorations for his bravery and service during the Vietnam War. He spent more than five years in a North Vietnamese POW camp, sharing a cell for part of the time with Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

Owens defeated Kelly Richards in the Republican primary and Tony Henderson in the general election in 2008 to become public defender for the 1st Judicial Circuit, encompassing Escambia, Santa Rosa, Okaloosa and Walton counties.

During both campaigns, Day endorsed Owens. The two were pictured on billboards, and Owens’ campaign website prominently featured Day’s endorsement.

In a Jan. 26 letter to Gov. Rick Scott, State Attorney Bill Eddins stated that the FDLE had requested the assistance of his office in its investigation of Day and Owens.

“These complaints allege that Mr. Day may have been paid for work that was not performed, as well as possible false documentation,” Eddins wrote in the letter.

Eddins requested that a special prosecutor from outside the four-county circuit be assigned to the investigation to avoid the appearance of any impropriety or conflicts of interest.

“Mr. Owens is the elected public defender for this circuit and works closely with my office,” Eddins wrote.

Day and Owens could not be reached for comment.

During a brief phone call this afternoon, Day said the allegations were politically motivated — Owens is up for re-election this year.

Day has been on unpaid leave from the Public Defender’s Office since June 15, 2010, but has a private law office. His legal assistant, Patty Ann Taniss, said he has been treated for esophageal cancer, is recovering from the effects of radiation and chemotherapy and told her he was not up to talking with a reporter.

Chief Assistant Public Defender Mike Van Cavage returned a phone message left for Owens. Van Cavage acknowledged that an investigation is underway but said neither Owens nor anyone in the office would comment.

‘Coming ... and leaving’

Ann Rogers was an investigator at the Shalimar office from January 2009 to March 2009. She said the FDLE questioned her about Day earlier this week.

“So when everybody found out Bud Day was getting [$84,000] a year and they saw that he was literally coming in, drinking a cup of coffee and leaving every day, everybody was not happy about it, obviously,” she said Thursday.

Rogers said she usually arrived at work between 8 and 9 a.m.

“Usually, when I got there he was just leaving,” she said. “I never saw him in the office after 9 o’clock. I was only there the first three months. Whether that changed later, I don’t know.”

Rogers said she was fired in March 2009. She said she was told she was terminated because “things weren’t working out.”

Gene Polk, 50, a former assistant public defender who worked in the Shalimar office from March 2010 to November 2010, gave a similar account. He said he was fired from the Public Defender’s Office for reasons that are not clear to him.

Polk, now a partner in the law firm McGuire and Polk, said he respected Day’s military service, but he never saw Day doing any work.

He said the FDLE has not contacted him.

“I hope they do,” he said. “I’m ready to put my hand up and take an oath and testify to what I saw over there.”

Polk said when he worked in the Shalimar office, Day did not show up regularly.

“He would show up every other week, pour a cup of coffee, walk around the office for a little while and read his newspaper,” he said. “There would never be a client file on his desk anywhere to be seen. And then he would leave. And you wouldn’t see him again for two weeks.”

Owens’ support

Shortly after Owens took office, he defended hiring Day.

At the time, a number of employees were privately complaining that Day had virtually no experience in defending criminal cases and that his hiring amounted to political payback for his work on behalf of Owens during the campaign to replace 36-year Public Defender Jack Behr.

In addition to Day’s status as a war hero, he also has been widely acclaimed for filing a class-action suit for breach of contract against the U.S. government on behalf of military retirees who were stripped of their military care benefits when they became eligible for Medicare at age 65. He won the case in federal district court in Pensacola in 2001, but an appeals court overturned the decision in 2002.

“He’s a colonel, he’s led men before,” Owens said when he named him supervisor of the Shalimar office. “He’s being hired for his leadership skills and managerial skills.”

Day, who had a small law office at the time, said he tried a high-dollar theft case the fall preceding his appointment but acknowledged he had not worked much in the criminal defense realm.

“I think there’s a need for a new look at the supervision of these offices,” he said then. “We’ve got a new public defender. He’s got a little different goals and objectives than the previous public defender.”