Former supervisor supports fired employee’s allegations

A former supervisor of Nino Maurice Freeman has corroborated Freeman’s claims that he was… A former supervisor of Nino Maurice Freeman has corroborated Freeman’s claims that he was treated unfairly while employed by Pitt’s Computing Services and Systems Development department.

Bill Lytle, a former senior manager for CSSD’s telecommunications department from March 2002 until July 2003, described Freeman as a solid worker who was singled out by colleagues for unclear reasons.

“I had no problems with Maurice,” he said, in an interview with The Pitt News. “I know that others did.”

Lytle added that he believed Jinx Walton, director of CSSD, was “definitely directly involved” in the alleged unfair scrutiny of Freeman.

According to Lytle, Freeman was identified as a problem “from day one” of Lytle’s employment at Pitt. Lytle said he was encouraged in e-mails from superiors to find fault in Freeman’s work, though he added that he found Freeman’s work to be satisfactory.

Lytle described the arrangement as a “stressful situation,” which wore on his conscience and eventually led to his resignation.

“It was a living hell,” he said. “There were days when I was shaking to go to work.”

Lytle eventually arranged an “exit strategy” and officially resigned from CSSD on July 7, 2003. He said he confided in a colleague that he was leaving because he “couldn’t work in that situation anymore.”

“I find it hard to believe that the University I love so much knows this kind of thing goes on,” he added.

Walton said Thursday, Sept. 16, that she had never heard of employees resigning as a matter of conscience, but did not return multiple phone calls to her office this week.

“We would never consider asking someone to do something that wasn’t morally appropriate,” Walton said.

But a former information security officer at CSSD, Clay Holland, said in an interview with The Pitt News that he also resigned as a matter of conscience — specifically, because of ethical disagreements with Walton. Holland said he was put under pressure by Walton to fire an employee, Bill Bergman, because “she didn’t like his voice.”

Holland added that he made it clear to co-workers that his resignation was based on an ethical choice, and that the primary reason he quit in January 2003 was because he wouldn’t fire Bergman.

Bergman said he was fired in March of that year, two months after Holland left CSSD.

“In that department, if Jinx likes you, you can do whatever you want,” Bergman said. He added that he holds Walton “100 percent accountable” for his termination, which he believes was unwarranted

“I’m still waiting for them to show me something in the terms of employment that I violated,” he said.