SONOMA (CA)
The Press Democrat
June 14, 2018
By Mary Callahan
A Sonoma County jury has awarded $1.1 million to the plaintiff in a whistleblower case against the Hanna Boys Center, finding the former clinical director was wrongly terminated for speaking up about bullying, drug use and other unaddressed concerns at the home for troubled boys.
Tim Norman, who worked as the center’s head of clinical care for 31 years before his November 2016 dismissal, said the verdict came as a huge relief after many years of stress and a three-week civil trial.
But Norman, 73, said he also was struck by the contrast between the speed with which the jury understood his plight and what he called the failure of the institution’s own trustees to respond to concerns with direct implications for client health and safety.
“That’s the thing that is very unclear in my mind,” Norman said. “They didn’t seem to be paying attention to their fiduciary responsibility. Because, they’re really in charge.”
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