Ten Weeks After Suspension, Collins Still in Limbo at NorCo Jail

One or two weekends ago, the Easton NAACP has its annual summer picnic. Northampton County Executive candidate Lamont McClure was there. Executive John Brown apparently went to the wrong venue, though he did try to attend. It's unfortunate that he missed it. In addition to missing out on some excellent food, Brown also lost out on an opportunity to hear constituents who are a shade darker than he sees among the so-called Lehigh Valley elite. They have questions, and they vote. One of those questions is why Brown has allowed David Collins, the County's first ever black captain at the jail, to sit in limbo. He's been suspended (the county calls it "administrative leave") for nearly three months Corrections and HR Directors Dan Keen and Amy Trapp look for an excuse to fire him. They'll wait until after the election before lowering the boom because it might cost Brown votes on Easton's south side. A second question is whether Keen and Trapp might have interfered with a possible criminal investigation.

I've told you about Collins before. He rose through the ranks to become the jail's first African American captain at a jail with only one captain and in a county where minorities have been historically under-represented. In his 15 years with the county, he has never been disciplined for any infraction. Though he's a big man, he has an artistic side and sometimes teaches inmates how to draw at night. His evaluations have all been off the charts. Though he's a big man, he has an artistic side and sometimes teaches inmates how to draw at night. But on July 13, he was suspended and walked out of the jail for "unfounded allegations" concerning Corrections Director Dan Keen.

Some months before the rug was pulled out from under him, Collins was at a training seminar with Keen and several lieutenants. While he was sitting in a training session, Collins received a text from Keen, asking him to meet him in the hotel lobby because Keen wanted to talk to him. When Collins met him there, Keen suggested that the two go to the hospitality room for some privacy.

Alone, Keen asked Collins what he had heard about Keen's so-called "double life."

Keen said that at different training events, he had heard that from people in other counties but had no idea what was meant by it.

Keen eventually dropped the matter, but Collins noticed that he was treated differently after that day. Whatever this "double life" is, Keen wants nothing said about it.

Collins tells me he had a hearing before HR Director Amy Trapp and Keen on August 25. When he asked her why he had been suspended, she told him, "It's for your protection." And then, like Nancy Drew on The Case of the Floating Crime, she drifted from one topic to the next in an effort to find something ... anything with which to hammer him.

"We'll get back to you," she said when it was over.

The reality is that Collins is a whistleblower, as I told you before. He is being victimized for reporting, in good faith, instances of wrongdoing or waste. He was even grilled over his contacts with me, all of which were initiated by me and after his suspension.

What bothers me more than anything is his investigation into the assault of one female inmate by another. Collins reviewed video of the incident, which shows this inmate walking into the open cell of another, after which she was physically assaulted and ended up with a broken nose.

The assaulted inmate's cell door had been left open. That could happen only if the corrections officer in that area was either negligent or in on it.

The corrections officer was suspended (with pay) while Collins investigated. He turned over the video and his own findings to Keen.

After a few months, Trapp reinstated this corrections officer with no discipline. She told Collins the information he provided was insufficient.

He asked whether she reviewed the video.

"What video?" was her answer.

Keen sat on evidence of what was definitely evidence of criminal assault by an inmate. He sat on what might also be a conspiracy involving a corrections officer. He is required by his own Code of Ethics to furnish that information. I think it's unlikely that the corrections officer acted criminally, but that determination should be made by a District Attorney.

Not Keen. Not Trapp.

When administrators at the jail turn their heads the other way, corruption begins.

We need more people like David Collins at the jail, not fewer.

By the way,since his suspension on July 13 with pay, the taxpayers of Northampton County have shelled out
$10,000 in salary, and about 70% that amount in benefits, so that Collins can sit and do nothing. .

Is this fiscally responsible?