A Van Zandt VA Medical Center employee who has fought hospital management for years has filed more complaints in connection with his whistleblower status, alleging that the old revelations, along with some new ones, have led to losing out on a promotion and to additional mistreatment.

Jay DeNofrio, administrative officer with Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation Services, was the appellant in a hearing this week be­fore the Merit System Pro­tection Board, a quasi-judicial body that safeguards the merit-based principles of federal employment.

Neither DeNofrio nor the VA provided much contextual information after two days of testimony ended with three more witnesses still to be called before an administrative law judge presiding by video hookup from Philadelphia. The matter is at least indirectly connected with a prior MSPB case that DeNofrio lost last year, then lost again in April in a ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

Prior to his initial claims in 2013 that a Van Zandt doctor was impaired with de­mentia, DeNofrio re­ceived perennial outstanding evaluations and regular promotions, but afterward, he was denied promotions, including one for a compliance officer post for which he was more qualified than the employee who was chosen, DeNofrio testified under questioning by his lawyer Steve Wicks on Wednesday.

The process used for choosing that compliance officer fell short of VA re­quirements and thus failed to bring his own qualifications to light, DeNofrio testified.

Barbara Wallace, an employee of the VA in Pittsburgh and member of a panel that helped choose who was to be hired as compliance officer at Van Zandt, participated in an “inappropriate” email conversation that seemed to poke fun at DeNofrio but didn’t let his status as a whistleblower affect her work on the hiring panel, Wallace said. Her previous experience working with DeNofrio had actually been “very positive,’ Wallace said.

An employee of the VA in Wilkes-Barre involved in the hiring of the compliance officer wasn’t told by management to artificially lower DeNofrio’s job application score, she testified.

Also apparently leading to relation were his recent claims that many residents of the Community Living Center weren’t receiving proper therapy, leading to declines in their health, including bed sores, according to DeNofrio.

He said his work duties have been subject to manipulation by management.

Under one recent PM&R interim chief, they were reduced to the point of absurdity, such that early on Mondays, he’d be essentially out of work for the week, DeNofrio testified.

Requests for additional assignments were ignored, he testified.

The next interim chief, Dr. Heleno Souza, restored those duties, DeNofrio testified.

After taking over, Souza told him that he’d been instructed by Director Sigrid Andrew to “come after me” — to which Souza had replied “absolutely not,” as DeNofrio was an “excellent employee,” DeNofrio testified.

Those claims were all untrue, according to Souza, who testified later.

Andrew didn’t ask him to go after DeNofrio, or anything like it, Souza said.

No one else told him to go after DeNofrio, either, Souza added.

Andrew didn’t ask him to go after DeNofrio, either, said Interim Chief of Staff Dr. Sam Magee. Likewise, Magee didn’t ask the PM&R chief who preceded Souza to reduce DeNofrio’s duties, Magee testified.

Nor did Souza discuss DeNofrio with him in a negative light, Magee testified.

DeNofrio has been subjected to 13 management investigations since his initial revelations about the doctor, DeNofrio testified. None resulted in disciplinary action.

In response to one of the more recent ones, DeNofrio filed a complaint with the VA’s Office of Special Counsel, he said.

Multiple employees have filed complaints against DeNofrio, according to hearing testimony.

Those complaints were in response to DeNofrio “constantly filing reports of contact against me and my coworkers,” and “basically making us feel uncomfortable in our jobs,” said Melanie Thomas, a speech language pathologist.

“He was supposed to make our jobs easier,” Thomas said.

Instead, he “constantly” questioned their productivity and accuracy, she said.

He also broadly applied the demeaning label “entry level,” she said.

He had no justification making “making clinical judgments,” she added.

Her complaints were not filed in retaliation for his being a whistleblower, Thomas testified.

Filing the complaint against DeNofrio was the collective idea of the PM&R staff, said Robert Lihvar­chik, a physical therapist who now works at the State College clinic.

DeNofrio may have helped trigger the complaints against himself with a Twitter post, suggested VA lawyer Marcus Graham.

It was addressed “to all the people that couldn’t stand me this year.”

“Next year will be worse,” it stated.

“I never posted anything hostile to anybody,” DeNof­rio said. “No one was named.”

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 949-7038.