For those that don’t know, Village Green Companies fired a young man named Colin Bruley on June 12 after he saved a woman’s life in the apartment complex where he both worked and lived. His termination papers accuse him of ‘gross misconduct,’ mainly because he carried a shotgun with him while administering first aid to a neighbor who had been shot.

My post after reading about it led me to writing my weekly newspaper column on it, which led me to a conversation with Mr. Bruley himself. After seeing how his former employer was breaking their rule about confidentiality, I felt another conversation with Mr. Bruley would be insightful.  It was. . . .

Village Green violates its own policy?

As the circumstances surrounding Bruley’s dismissal were being investigated by Jim Schoettler of the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, Village Green’s director of public relations told him “We’re not in a position to discuss any employment issues outside of [with] the employee.”

Schoettler also wrote: “She declined to comment further, citing confidentiality rules.”

Interestingly, after Village Green was bombarded with bad press for firing Bruley, their confidentiality rules went out the window. In Times-Union follow-up stories on June 21 and June 22, Village Green’s President and COO George Quay was singing like a canary about Bruley being a bad employee.

In addition to “having weapons in the workplace and failing to notify superiors about the incident,” other factors were considered in Bruley’s dismissal.

Quay said Bruley:
a) owed back rent
b) had bounced a rent check
c) was facing eviction

First let’s look at the hypocrisy: The company holds Bruley to a rule about weapons, but Quay—the company president—can’t hold himself to his own rule about confidentiality? What’s up with the double standards?

The Misleading Character Assassination

Words mean things. When Quay says “weapons in the workplace” he’s hoping people think Bruley had a gun in his office. This is misleading spin. Bruley’s gun was in his bedroom, not his office.

Quay also puts his own spin on what Bruley did that night: “A statement signed by Bruley and released Thursday by the company said he grabbed the gun after hearing yelling and other commotion, went outside and then learned the woman had been shot.”

Quay is then quoted as saying, “We can’t have a resident, or in this case a resident who was also an associate, taking a cavalier attitude and arming themselves until they understand the specifics of the situation. He made a decision that could have been dangerous.”

From having talked with Bruley previously, I knew Quay was spinning things. I had an idea of what happened, but I wanted it confirmed. I picked up the phone and called Bruley again.

My suspicions were correct: Bruley did not write that statement. In fact, he didn’t even read the statement before he signed it.

Here’s why:

In my previous post I mentioned that Bruley was on medical leave at the time of the incident. The reason? He had an eye infection at the time that caused him to be extremely sensitive to sunlight. He could barely see during the daytime. He simply told his property manager what happened and she took notes. Then she typed it up and had him sign it.

What Colin Bruley is guilty of is trusting his supervisor.

Specifically, when I asked about how the gun made it outside, Bruley said “I heard somebody yelling ‘help me, help me!’ I picked up the gun, took it to the door and set it against the chair. I stepped outside and heard her say that she’d been shot. After that I went back inside and got my gun.”

The point is, when signing the statement his supervisor typed up, Bruley didn’t  notice that she missed that detail. “I trusted her,” Bruley said. “I just talked through the events and she took notes. I trusted that she wrote everything down.”

Bruley also says Village Green never talked with any of the tenants who were eyewitnesses to his actions. “Not one of them were asked by Village Green to give statements.” He says every one of them will back up his version of what happened, and that they’re willing to testify about it in court.

No lease was in place!

Bruley then told me another bombshell: “Right after she had me sign that statement she had me sign a lease.”

What?

“When they transferred me from Michigan to Florida they never had me sign a lease. They’re pretty lenient with their employees. The day they fired me was the first time I signed a lease. They’ve been saying that my lease ‘has been missing’ from the office,’ but the fact is I never signed one until that day.”

So Village Green . . . not having a signed lease will not look good if this goes to court.  Better get one signed, eh?

And if you’re wondering if this can get any crazier, the answer is yes: 

“That thing they said about the bounced check? That’s a total screwup on their part. Like I said, they’re pretty lenient with their employees. They gave me a $1500 moving allowance, but it cost me a lot more than that to move down here. And, I took a $400/month pay cut. So I asked if I could play catch up on the rent, and they said fine.”

“So one of your supervisors told you it would be okay to be late with your rent?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“What about the bounced check? The late payment?”

“I was told I had until May 25 to pay that rent. I wrote them a check somewhere around the 9th of May. But that was considered “late,” and they told me all late payments have to be made with a money order.

“So I got a money order and gave it to them. But they deposited both of them—the money order and the check! Naturally, by taking money to buy a money order, there wasn’t enough to cover the check—so [after they deposited the check] I was overdrawn.”

To add insult to injury, Village Green initially asked Bruley to pay a $50 non-sufficient-funds fee for their blunder. He managed to get through to them that it was their mistake to begin with, so they waived it.  (Although he’s thinking they might try to make him pay it now.)

What about the eviction?

By the wording Quay uses, it sounds like the eviction was in process because of the late rent (which Village Green supervisors authorized) and the bounced check (which was Village Green’s banking mistake). Bruley says “I have never been given an eviction notice, and never has one been put on my door.”

However, Bruley learned through casual conversation with one of Village Green’s regional maintenance supervisors that associates who are receiving partial compensation in reduced rent have to move after they get fired – or start paying full rent.

This is the “eviction” that Quay is talking about.

So, from this perspective, in a lame effort to patch a gaping hole in the artery of his company’s reputation, Quay loses all credibility.

First they fired him.  Now they’re trying to cover their rear ends by smearing his character in unethical ways:  Violating their own policy of confidentiality; Laying blame on him for doing things they authorized him to do; and perhaps the slimiest of all, saying he bounced a check when it was their own banking error that caused it to bounce in the first place.

You know how sports teams have mascots?  Perhaps Village Green needs a mascot, too.  I’ll suggest a weasel.  And how ‘bout we give that weasel a name . . . like, “Hypocrite?”

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