March 17, 2009
A state arbitrator has upheld the firing of Jennifer Schultz, 23, for operating an escort service on her cell phone while she was responsible for disabled boys at a Buffalo group home run by the state Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities (OMRDD).
Calling Schultz cavalier and remorseless, state arbitrator Frederick Day affirmed OMRDD’s dismissal of Schultz after a 2007 report by the state Inspector General found that she ran an escort service at work, neglecting the children who lived at the 24-hour facility on Courtland Avenue in Buffalo.
In a 13-page opinion, Mr. Day rejected Schultz’s claim that she could multitask and concluded that she made nearly 1,000 personal calls in a two-month span totaling 2,645 minutes -- more than 15 percent of her work time -- on the phone, in violation of OMRDD policy. During this time, she checked and returned messages linked to newspaper advertisements for “Hunks and Transsexuals,” “Beautiful Hawaiian and Black Girls” and other escorts.
Schultz’s misdeeds were outlined in a December 2007 report by the state Inspector General, which found that Schultz handled more than 14,000 personal calls in one year at work, some to Buffalo-area motels and many related to the escort business. Previously, Schultz had been docked three vacation days after she and a co-worker sent photos of the co-worker’s genitalia via cell phone to Schultz’s boyfriend.
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