Pacific Northwest National Laboratory versus Joe Huffman
Critical information for free speech advocates, civil rights
supporters,
and customers, employees, and future job candidates of PNNL.
___________________________
On May 4, 2005, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, my
employer at the time, targeted me for investigation because I was a civil rights advocate.
They scoured through my personal blog until they found what they thought was
proof of wrongdoing.
They made no specific allegations of improper behavior, and didn't allow me to present any evidence or witnesses in my favor.
On June 3, 2005 I was fired.
--Joe Huffman
Civil Rights
Activist, Free Speech Advocate, Gun Rights Spokesperson
Pink Pistols Activist, supporting the right to self-defense for gays,
lesbians, bisexuals, and transgendered
Certified Firearms
Instructor, Boomershoot Director
 | News Release July 25, 2005 (Word document) |
| Advocate Freedom and Get Fired (The story for the average reader) |
| What You Should Do |
| Advocating Freedom Considered Harmful (technical report based primarily on the analysis of logs files for my websites) |
| Research Notes |
| Contact information for the PNNL people involved. |
Joe Huffman versus Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
| Thursday, July 21 2005--I sent PNNL this FOIA and Privacy Act Information Request. It was received the next morning. |
| Friday, July 22 2005--I sent PNNL this email requesting any factual information corrections on this website. There was no response. |
| Thursday, July 28 2005--I received a check from PNNL for $0.00. |
| Thursday, August 18 2005--I receive this response (page two is here) to my FOIA and Privacy Act requests. Basically it said I had already received all I was going to receive from PNNL. The DOE might send me more information and PNNL had forwarded part of the request on to them. I called and clarified a misunderstanding about my personnel file--I didn't have all the contents yet. Mr. Talbot agreed to look into it. |
| Wednesday, August 24 2005--I received my security file from the Department of Energy. Enclosed was the first specific allegation of wrongdoing on my part. This allegation is completely false and I explained this to HR on May 26th. As I then suspected, they didn't believe me. They could have verified my story with any number of my co-workers, the customer, the IT department (who would be aware of any traffic of that nature on the network), by looking up the IP addresses associated with those websites, or a call to my hosting provider. They apparently did none of those things. |
| Tuesday, September 6, 2005--I received my "Field File" from PNNL which contained my performance reviews and goals. It only contained one tiny note related to the investigation. This simple, and mandated by law, concession from them took nearly three months and a FOIA/Privacy information act request that was originally denied (page two is here). They "reconsidered" and finally sent it. |
| Monday, September 12, 2005--I sent a FOIA request for information on PNNL programs that used my personally developed code, without license, to the DOE via their web site. |
| Wednesday, September 14, 2005--DOE sent a letter acknowledged my FOIA request from two days earlier and forwarded the request to PNNL. |
| Tuesday, October 18, 2005--PNNL responded to me claiming they were not able to find any existing documents or records consistent with my FOIA request of September 12, 2005. If this was true then they would have had to rewritten numerous computer programs, updated all their customers that had copies of those programs, ensured those customers deleted all the old copies, and deleted large portions of their source control archives in those two months. |
| Monday, October 30, 2006--The lawsuit was filed against Bryan McMillian, Torrie McMillan, and Battelle. Follow the court filings here. |
| Friday, December 22, 2006--I received word the papers have been served on McMillans. I'll be having a much more Merry Christmas this year than last! |
| Friday, December 29, 2006--The Tri-City Herald published an article about the lawsuit. |
Contact:: JoeH@pnnl.info
Last update: January 08, 2007