Iowans lose jobs amid claims of wrongdoing, retaliation • Iowa Capital Dispatch

An Iowa woman who was fired from her job as a hospital child-care assistant is facing criminal charges of sexual abuse.

State records indicate Antevia Porter, 31, of Burlington, was employed by Burlington’s Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center earlier this year as a part-time child-care assistant.

She was fired in June for attendance issues, some of which were tied to court appearances and incarceration. She was arrested on June 19, 2024, on a contempt of court matter related to child support, and was arrested again, at work, on June 26, 2024, on what unemployment records describe as “different charges.”

After she was fired, she sought unemployment benefits but was denied for reasons of recurring absenteeism, with the judge in the case noting that the hospital had been “exceedingly generous” in its application of the hospital’s attendance policy.

Court records show that Porter’s Jube 26 arrest was on a charge of second-degree sexual abuse of a 5-year-old child.

According to police, the alleged victim reported being sexually abused in Porter’s home by Porter and two other individuals and was able to describe for police a device that was used during the alleged assault. Police subsequently obtained a search warrant for Porter’s home and allegedly retrieved a device similar to what the child described.

Porter has pleaded not guilty to the charge and a trial is scheduled for April 8, 2025. Porter could not be reached for comment, but in a September court filing related to child-custody issues she informed the court that “while I do have pending criminal charges, nothing has been founded and I am 100% innocent… I would not hurt anyone, especially children.”

Other Iowans whose unemployment claims recently went before an administrative law judge include:

— Mila Baskayeva-Johnson, who worked for Boone County Hospital as a certified nursing assistant until September 2024 when she was fired. On Sept. 17, 2024, she was providing care for a sleeping patient who was a drug user known to have potential dangerous and violent episodes. She was in the patient’s room with a doctor, a nurse, and a supervisor when the patient, who had just been placed in restraining straps so the staff could draw a blood sample, woke up and began yelling, “Hot! Hot! Hot!” while flailing about.

In what she later described as an attempt to calm the patient and cool him down, Baskayeva-Johnson took a drink of water from the patient’s glass near his bed and then sprayed the water from her mouth onto the patient’s face. She was fired one week later.

During the subsequent hearing on her request for unemployment benefits, Baskayeva-Johnson acknowledged spitting water onto the patient’s face and said that in her culture that is a common practice used to calm people. She also indicated that during her training she was never taught to refrain from spitting water onto patients.

She was denied unemployment benefits with Administrative Law Judge Blair Bennett ruling that her “actions were far outside those acceptable from anyone in the medical industry. Even allowing for (her) statement that her culture would not see this as improper, she knew or should have known the incredible unsanitary (effect) of mixing her saliva with water she just drank from the patient’s glass to spit or spray on the patient.”

— Kathleen Kelly, who in October resigned from Heartland Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery of Des Moines where she worked as an emergency medical technician and certified medication aide. She resigned after the management allegedly refused to address her concerns of racial slurs being frequently used in the workplace. She also alleged some of her colleagues made comments that were sexually suggestive and she expressed a concern that an individual who was hired to work in the operating room, in her view, lacked the appropriate credentials.

She was awarded unemployment benefits after her resignation, with the judge in the case stating that her decision to quit due to “inappropriate racial and sexual language (and) cussing and arguing amongst employees is undoubtedly a good-cause reason to quit.” Officials at Heartland did not testify at the hearing and declined to comment when contacted by the Iowa Capital Dispatch.

— Kyle Grimm, who in August was fired from his job as a children’s crisis intervention specialist at Inside Out Wellness and Advocacy. According to state records, prior to working for Inside Out, Grimm provided therapy to a minor in 2020 and 2021, during which time he was engaged in a sexual relationship with the child’s mother and consumed alcohol in the presence of the child. In March 2023, the Iowa Board of Behavioral Science charged Grimm with ethics violations and his license was suspended indefinitely. At the time, the board stated his practice posed “an immediate danger to the public health.”

In May 2023, Grimm voluntarily surrendered his mental health counselor’s license. Later, he applied for the job of children’s crisis intervention specialist at Inside Out – a job that doesn’t require licensure as a mental health counselor. During the hiring process, he allegedly deflected questions about working as a mental health counselor by saying it was a “long story” as to why he no longer pursued work in that field.

In August 2024, a client informed Inside Out of a news story that referenced Grimm’s past licensing issues and Grimm was fired. A judge recently denied Grimm’s application for unemployment benefits, finding that he “was materially dishonest in his interviews with the employer.”

— Deneen Hamner, who was fired in September from her job as a correctional officer for the Lee County Jail where she had worked since April 2010. On July 14, 2024, Hamner allegedly emailed her boss, Jail Administrator John Canida, with a complaint against her supervisor, alleging he harassed her, bullied her and treated her unfairly. Canida allegedly failed to respond to the email. On July 26, Hamner allegedly sent her complaint to a captain who investigated the complaint and concluded it was unfounded.

Immediately thereafter, the county allegedly began investigating Hamner for a series of incidents. In one of those incidents, Hamner was talking to her supervisor and putting on her gear, which included a body camera, at the beginning of her shift. At one point, Hamner turned around and her supervisor was allegedly standing directly in front of her, talking loudly with a reddened face. Hamner was startled and switched on her body camera because, she later claimed, the supervisor had been harassing her for months. In another incident, Hamner was allegedly booking a female person into the jail when the woman made a derogatory comment about Hamner’s mother, prompting Hamner to reply, “My mom’s dead, b—-.”

The county concluded Hamner violated jail policies by turning on her body camera while speaking to a supervisor and by cursing at an inmate and gave her the option of resigning or being fired. During her previous 15 years of employment at the jail, she had received one written warning. She refused to resign and was fired the next day.

Administrative Law Judge Daniel Zeno recently awarded Hamner unemployment benefits, noting that the county didn’t initiate its investigation of Hamner until she filed a complaint against her supervisor. The county, Zenor ruled, had “turned Ms. Hamner’s complaint into an investigation into Ms. Hamner and terminated her employment for incidents (that occurred) two to three months prior.”

— Jennifer Greenwood, who worked for Virginia Gay Hospital from June 2018 through Oct. 3, 2024, most recently as a receptionist.  She was fired for allegedly accessing a co-worker’s medical records twice without permission and for no work-related purpose, a violation of the federal Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. She was denied unemployment benefits.

— Roberta Emery, who worked for the Homestead of Knoxville nursing home from July 2022 through September 2024, when she was fired her job as a full-time direct care worker. In August 2024, she had allegedly been given a warning for failing to perform the required hourly checks on residents in the memory care unit and for failing to toilet residents when necessary. A few weeks later, the employer allegedly learned Emery still wasn’t attending to residents’ needs, was failing to assist them in going to the bathroom and was not providing the residents with their prescribed medications.

Emery was also accused of falsifying records to indicate she had dispensed the residents’ medications, but a review of surveillance video allegedly indicated that claim was false. Emery was denied unemployment benefits.