A former employee of the Hunterdon Humane Animal Shelter is suing the shelter and its ex-director Theresa "Tee" Carlson.
Attorney David Zatuchni filed suit on behalf of Ewa Kutylowska claiming she was illegally terminated. She claims she was fired in retaliation for cooperating with the New Jersey SPCA, which brought criminal charges against Carlson.
According to the lawsuit filed in Superior Court in Flemington on May 11: in Mid-March, Kutylowska, who has worked for the shelter for 19 years, was told she was being terminated, but at first was given no reason.
Kutylowska did clerical work for the shelter including managing animal records, correspondence, payroll and depositing checks in the shelter's bank account, according to the suit. She also managed the microchip program and posted available pets on Petfinder and Facebook, the suit said.
Carlson was arrested in January 2014 and charged with multiple counts of animal cruelty related to the deaths of nine cats at the shelter. The NJSPCA also filed a lawsuit in Superior Court and Judge Edward Coleman granted the state group control of shelter operations for the next six months.
Kutylowska "was relieved to have the NJSPCA assume management, as she knew shelter conditions had deteriorated to an egregious state under Ms. Carlson's leadership," the suit said. "Among other things, the shelter was dirty and overcrowded, animals were fed inferior quality food and not provided needed veterinary care, and sanitation protocols were not implemented and followed, such that the spread of disease amongst the animals was rampant."
In July 2014 the receivership was ended but several conditions were placed on the shelter by Judge Coleman. Those conditions included the expansion of the board of directors and minimum attendance requirements for those members. The shelter also agreed to retain the services of Humane Society Management Services (HSMS) and later hire a permanent shelter manager.
According to the lawsuit, shortly after the receivership was terminated, Carslon started showing up at the shelter once or twice a week and began interfering with HSMS's management. "She attempted to prevent HSMS from implementing its own health protocols and those recommended by previous manager, Dr. (Chad) Tindall, the New Jersey Department of Health, the American Humane Association, and Dr. Suzanne Smith, who served as HHAS's supervising veterinarian from July to August, 2014."
According to the lawsuit, before the state took over, Carlson routinely directed employees to euthanize animals by injecting the lethal drugs directly into their hearts. The technique is generally used only as a last resort when an intravenous injection is impractical. HSMS generally prohibited workers from euthanizing animals and instead had veterinarian do it, the suit said.
According to the lawsuit, Carlson also had the shelter's mail redirected to her own, private address even though it was Kutylowska's job to manage mail. Carlson then allegedly returned "unimportant" mail to the post office for delivery to the shelter. She also kept checks instead of giving them to Kutylowska to deposit, the suit claims.
In November 2014 the board of directors announced that it would no longer be using HSMS and later appointed a shelter worker, Ashley Meyer, as the shelter's team leader/manager, according to the suit.
Soon Carlson began coming to the shelter daily, "delivering orders to Ms. Meyer, Ms. Kutylowska, and the other employees as if she was effectively in charge of operations and intent on reversing all policies and procedures implemented by the NJSPCA, HSMS and mandated by New Jersey Law," the suit said.
After Kutylowska and Meyer complained to HHAS board member Walter Wilson about Carslon's interference with management, Carlson had Meyer's authorization to sign checks revoked and canceled her credit card, making it impossible for Meyer to make any transactions required as part of her job. Carlson then authorized herself to sign checks, the suit said.
In December 2014 Kutylowska complained to the Prosecutor's office about Carlson's conduct. In January she filed a written complaint with the NJSCPA, according to the suit.
Also in December, the board of directors met with fewer members than required, in violation of the conditions of the terminated receivership, the suit said.
Later the county Board of Health filed a notice of violations. Among those violations were the lack of a supervising veterinarian, which was also contrary to the conditions imposed by Judge Coleman.
In January Meyer, fed up and dismayed with Carlson, resigned, the suit said.
Meanwhile, after several delays, a trial on the criminal charges was set to begin in Pohatcong Township before Judge Louis Mellinger. The case had been transferred there because of a potential conflict of interest in Hunterdon.
Instead, on Feb. 23, Carlson and her attorneys, Victor Rotolo and Haekyoung Suh, worked out a settlement with county Prosecutor Anthony P. Kearns III and assistant prosecutors John Burke and Jeffrey Weinstein.
All the complaints were to be held in abeyance for 12 months and dismissed if Carlson agreed to several conditions. They included that she have no managerial control of the shelter in Alexandria Township. She is allowed to remain a non-voting member of the shelter board and she may continue fundraising operations for the nonprofit group.
According to Kutylowska's suit, "Ms. Carlson flouted and ignored the terms of the consent order as soon as it was written. It was clear to Ms. Kutylowska that Ms. Carlson believed the 'rules did not apply' to her and was and was intent on manipulating and controlling HHAS affairs on all levels."
Carlson continued to represent herself as shelter "President" on outgoing correspondence and paperwork, according to the suit. She also directed a shelter employee to slide the mail under the locked door of her office at the shelter, the suit said.
In mid-March Kutylowska was first suspended and then told she had been terminated by the board. A month later she was provided with a long list of alleged complaints even though she had never been warned about any misconduct, much less reprimanded before, according to the suit.
"Defendants terminated Ms. Kutylowska for one reason alone, in retaliation for her whistle-blowing conduct," the suit said.
Although the criminal case was resolved; the receivership lawsuit is still pending.
Carslon filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit as it pertains to her. A hearing on the motion to dismiss is scheduled for May 29 in Somerville.
Documents supporting the motion cite the fact that Carlson is no longer managing the shelter, contrary to what Kutylowska's suit claims.
Meanwhile, the issue of the Hunterdon SPCA's charter is still pending. A status conference on that matter is set for June 3.
Lillian Shupe can be reached at lshupe@njadvancemedia.com. Follow @njdotcom