In July, the Merit System Protection Board, a quasi-judicial body that safeguards the merit-based principles of federal employment, heard testimony in a whistleblower retaliation case brought by an administrative officer at the Van Zandt VA Medical Center.

The judge has not yet ruled in that case, brought by Jay DeNofrio of the hospital’s Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Services department.

On Thursday, a different MSPB judge presiding by teleconference from Philadelphia, heard testimony on nearly identical complaints from co-whistleblower Tim Skarada, a department supervisor who like DeNofrio reluctantly revealed that mental deterioration had rendered their friend and superior Dr. Frederick Struthers a danger to patients.

Under questioning by attorney Steve Wicks, who also represented DeNofrio, Skarada testified that Chief of Staff Santha Kurian ignored the disclosures about Struthers, then revealed their identities to him, according to Skarada’s testimony.

Kurian further poisoned the work environment by frequently disparaging him and DeNofrio to other employees, Skarada testified.

Skarada and DeNofrio went to hospital Director William Mills, who was sympathetic at first but who eventually ordered them to stop their reporting on Struthers, saying that the doctor had been tested and found to be OK, according to testimony.

The pair then went to the Office of Special Counsel about Struthers.

Because of the disclosures Skarada lost responsibilities and prerogatives, he testified.

He was shut out of committee meetings, cut off from continued participation in a leadership program and denied his choice of an employee to work in his department, he said.

Various aspects of his work were found to be unacceptable by Gina Homan, who became his acting chief for a short time in 2015, he testified.

According to Homan’s testimony, Skarada was unable to handle “competency” documentation, was resistant to her guidance, showed “sexist” disrespect for her and acted as an “upward” bully.

His behavior contributed to a churn in leadership in his department, where there were about seven chiefs or acting chiefs in about that many years, testified nurse practitioner Thea Krause.

And he violated privacy rules by instructing a patient in the use of a cane in a corner of a waiting room, according to testimony.

Skarada testified the hostility of the work environment led to other employees being afraid to associate with him.

Mills convened an administrative investigation board against Skarada in December 2015 based on complaints by Homan, Krause and privacy officer Therese Blocher, Wicks said after Thursday’s testimony.

The AIB ended in May, but it wasn’t until July that Acting Director Judy Hayman told Skarada that the investigation had found him guilty on all counts: harassment, intimidation and privacy violations — but that management wasn’t going to act on any of those findings, Skarada testified.

The AIB accusations could have led him to lose his job, he said.

At various points during Thursday’s testimony, Administrative Judge Gregory Smith expressed skepticism of the plaintiff’s presentation.

“I am having a hard time figuring out how someone convened all these people to lie and collude,” the judge said.

Testimony will continue today.

Under the judge’s questioning, Wicks said his client is seeking $150,000 in compensatory damages and a cease-and-desist order.

The judge scoffed at that amount, saying that the VA would in no way consider the value of the case to be anywhere near that.

The VA has indicated it would not even be willing to pay $5,000, which helped torpedo settlement talks, Wicks said.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.