By Ken Booth

Guest Columnist

Dept. of Veterans’ Affairs Secretary Col. Joey Strickland

La. Dept. of Veterans Affairs Secretary Col. Joey Strickland said today the late night shredding of records at the Monroe Veterans Home “does raise eyebrows.”

This, fast on the heels of the discovery of a heretofore unknown mysterious replacement of the hard-drive in the Home’s security system five years ago upon orders of the then Administrator Ken Houston.

The hard-drive issue surfaced with discovery of the original 2012 work order from a West Monroe security firm.

Houston was ousted at the end of last month and replaced by Ms. Marquita Mikhaliak who had previously held the post of Assistant Administrator.

Strickland said today he dismissed Houston when he learned that the ex-Administrator had skirted all protocols and asked the State Board of Ethics if the Home could hire Ms. Mikhaliak’s wife as an upper level RN. The wife, Mary Charlene Murphy, was not hired.

That Houston chose to go around him and the leadership of the Department with this Ethics question, Strickland said, “was something I could not tolerate.”

In a letter today, The Secretary said he will visit the Monroe facility Wednesday with two Under Secretaries to personally check on continuing allegations of improprieties there.

“We will have our Legal counselor Julie Baxter Payer who is meeting with Congressman Abraham and a couple of spouses from the home that we have been working with at the Monroe Home,” Strickland said.

He also acknowledged that an OIG detective has briefed Payer about a 2016 marriage by an RN there to a Navy Veteran resident who had come into a sizeable “full pay” settlement. In that case the RN befriended the Navy vet, took him from the Home to Hamburg, Ark. and married him and returned him to the home the same day. She then quit the next month.

The veteran spent about three hours with an OIG detective  last week. The investigator was said to have been back at the Home today.

“I am going to lay down the law on the quality care treatment of our veterans and families,” wrote Strickland. “Those who fail to comply will be fired.”

In addition to his fact-finding mission to the Home Wednesday, Secretary Strickland said he would be back at the end of the month “for a Town Hall Meeting with local veterans and Home residents with key staff so they can tell me about any concerns.”

(Ken Booth, now retired and living in Arizona, is a former longtime investigative reporter for KNOE-TV in Monroe.)