Please Help Me Fight for Everyone’s Unemployment Rights In MD!!

Remember my winning this case is a win for hundreds of others in Maryland who like me stood up for their God given rights, got terminated, applied for Unemployment and got denied. They either didn’t have the money to argue it, didn’t know they could argue it, or didn’t think they could win.

My Win is a Win for many others here in Maryland!

God’s Task For Me:

  • Expose the corruption in the Maryland Unemployment Insurance Office (UIO)
  • Expose how broken the Maryland UIO system really is and that my case can have a positive effect for hundreds if not thousands of others in Maryland who were illegally denied benefits for being fired from their employment for not following the mandates.
  • Bring awareness to other deserving Christians who are suffering at the hands of uninformed employers and the corrupt Maryland Unemployment insurance system
  • Install one spoke in the wheel to build a future where Christians don’t have to be persecuted financially for their beliefs, mainly the belief that our rights come from God, and that God created us to be whole the way that we are, no government or employer intervention necessary.

3 times the administrative court in the UIO has ruled with decisions that are against the laws for legal proceedings and against the regulations. First by denying benefits and requiring repayment without all parties present, second by using a constructive methodology (making things up), third by applying criteria from one statute to another on which the other was silent.

Plea:

While I appreciate everyone’s sympathy for my situation, sympathy is not warranted. Praise to God that I have a solid case against the Unemployment Office is more warranted. If you feel sympathetic to my situation, please turn that sympathy into financial assistance for my journey by making a generous donation right nowhttps://www.givesendgo.com/G36Y4! This journey is not easy and is not cheap! God will provide the funds, and my prayer is that you see it in your heart to help out.

And this is absolutely not a story about my suffering from a medical condition that prevents wearing a face covering. This is actually irrelevant in this case.

No, this is actually a story about how the systems that are set up to provide services to those when in need, are unjustly interfering with recipients who are qualified from actually receiving those benefits and services because of the current political environment in which we are currently engulfed. In fact this is my story of how the current political environment has truly strengthened my faith in God and in my divinely designed path forward to stand up for God. Show your support by donating to help cover my legal fees to move this forward!

Details:

I’m a software engineer at heart and last year at this time (April 2021) was gainfully employed even though I was ducking behind doors and peeking around the corners of the hallways where I worked before heading out of my office, to ensure the nazi mask monitors didn’t see me in the hallways without a face covering. Yes, like all other places of employment I was required to wear a face covering when in certain areas of the building. I couldn’t and I wouldn’t.

Yes, I believe that no one should be forced to wear a face covering and I believe that every human being has a medical condition that prevents them from wearing the mask. However I did and still do have a more severe issue that is easily measurable and easily exacerbated when my face is covered.  In the state of Maryland the Governor’s directives broadly allowed for a medical exemption from the mandated face covering, and I had already applied that paragraph of the directives to enter many stores.

So after 8 months of trying not to get caught, HR finally trapped me in my office and brought it to a head. I cooperated with getting the requested doctor’s note, working from home until we could come to an agreement, and assisting in anyway I could to keep my job. However my home is not conducive to the focus needed to produce software or analysis. So when I requested to return and be exempt from the mask policy as the Governors directives allowed, I was fired instead. And understand that the Governor’s directive did not require any note from any doctor, this is how broad it was. And it allowed an exemption, not a termination or an agreed upon accommodation. So I was cooperating beyond what was actually required.

Please Help Me Fight for Everyone’s Unemployment Rights In MD!!

So I applied for unemployment and after about 10 weeks my case was finally adjudicated and approved by the Unemployment Insurance Office (UIO) after I provided the same letter from my doctor that I had provided to my employer. And they nicely paid all the back pay for the time period I had been waiting.

Then another 2 months go by and now the status of my benefits suddenly is changed to denied and I owe it all back – the full $10,000 they paid up to this point. Unbeknownst to me the employer appealed the UI offices decision to approve my benefits and had a hearing without me. I find it interesting that this court did not go out of their way to ensure that I, the beneficiary of insurance claim, was present for the hearing. In the state of Maryland in other similar situations as this, such as credit card debt and garnishing of wages, this court would not have been allowed to make a judgment without the debtor being present.

Hired a good civil rights attorney and we appealed and I was granted a new hearing. But this cost me $600. Keep track, ok? It’s important. At the time of the hearing the UIO court’s portal was experiencing technical difficulties and the judge stopped the hearing ruling it needed to be rescheduled. My attorney billed me another $600 to send all the documents to everyone involved and to clean up everything so that we could go forward. Another 3 months of waiting with no compensation.

One of 3 exclusive conditions must be met in order to be DENIED UI benefits – 1) to have voluntarily quit (which I did not, and the employer agreed to this fact), 2) to have been terminated due to gross misconduct, and 3) to have been terminated due to gross misconduct connected with the work. And the burden of proof is on the employer to prove the misconduct.

However we found it necessary to prove there was no misconduct, and did so easily by the fact that I had a performance appraisal 2 months prior to being terminated where no gross misconduct was ever mentioned, nor was the mask policy even mentioned. The employer had the burden of proof to prove the gross misconduct and could not.

The ruling from this administrative hearing stated basically that yes we did prove there was no gross misconduct.  All parties agreed that I did not voluntarily quit. Well, except for the judge. The judge took it upon herself to just flip the case on it’s head, jump on the side of the employer, and claimed that because I was not willing to provide the details of my condition, and those actions were voluntary, then I voluntarily quit and did not provide the medical information necessary to receive benefits under a voluntary quit situation.

Please Help Me Fight for Everyone’s Unemployment Rights In MD!!

Strike 2. Please remember that no employer has the right to know your medical history or conditions. If they have a hired doctor on staff that doctor may know, but I find this action questionable as well. One of our God given rights is our right to privacy and our right to make our own medical decisions.

Of course we appealed that ruling because it is not lawful for the judge to change the basis of the case, nor is it lawful for the judge to be biased and take sides which she clearly did. There was never any question that I was terminated. Both the employer and I agreed that I was terminated. For the judge to then rule that I was not terminated is unjust, illegal, and a blatant lie. The corruption is starting to surface at this point. This of course cost me another approximately $600 and another wait period of 2 months. Show your support by donating to help cover my legal fees to move this forward!

So at this point this administration has promised to provide benefits, then took them away creating an unconscionable debt, added to my costs of survival by requiring a lawyer to support their unjust actions, and supplied their decisions in a very untimely manner. Do you see how they are putting the financial squeeze on me in hopes that I just simply drop the case? That’s my interpretation of the situation and their strategy. They are an insurance company so as with most insurance providers, actually receiving the benefits is difficult, because paying the benefits is counter to the company’s business model of making profits. And in this situation they are basically discriminating against those who were terminated due to following God’s word and God’s law.

So for this last appeal my attorney provided case law to support how unjust the judge’s ruling was and provided an in depth appeal that was solid. Or so we thought.

Please Help Me Fight for Everyone’s Unemployment Rights In MD!!

Remember my winning this case is a win for hundreds of others in Maryland who like me stood up for their God given rights, got terminated, applied for Unemployment and got denied. They either didn’t have the money to argue it, didn’t know they could argue it, or didn’t think they could win.

My Win is a Win for many others here in Maryland!

And here comes strike 3. The ruling on the last appeal again turned everything on its head and now this judge in the upper level court claimed that the previous judge had all the facts wrong. And they presented new facts. And in the new facts they claimed that my doctor’s note was not enough to support my claim for medical exemption because my doctor happens to be a licensed doctor of Chiropractic instead of a MD. And as a result, according to this judge, I was terminated and the act of not getting the medical note from a licensed MD constituted the gross misconduct and thus my benefits would be denied under the termination with gross misconduct statute.

HuH?? I cooperated and got the doctors note. No one stated that it had to be a medical physician. There was/is no policy written that stated this, nor was it a part of the Governor’s directives for exemption. And what the judge now did was actually applied a requirement of one of the statutes that didn’t even apply in this case. So besides more lies from the judges, there is also a gross misapplication of the statutes on the judges’ part.

Even the employer recognized my doctor’s qualifications by requesting more information from her. If the employer did not see her as qualified, they certainly would not have asked HER for more information!

I have been in court in the past where the witnesses and attorneys lied, but never have I been in a court where the judges out rightly lied as has happened in this case more than once. The unemployment office in Maryland obviously does not want to pay out benefits to those people who lost their jobs due to the mandates, even though in many cases like mine the statues support those benefits being extended to these employees.

So after spending the last 10 months living off of credit cards, it’s a little bit difficult to find the funds or the credit to appeal one more time now to the circuit court in Maryland. But this needs to be done. These people need to be held accountable for their unjust and illegal rulings. I believe going forward on this exposure of corruption is exactly what God wants me to do. So I’m setting up a crowdfunding campaign to get the necessary funds to bring this administrative office to justice.

You may be asking yourself this question at this point – Why haven’t I simply found another software engineering job with a different employer? Well, that’s a pretty common question, with a pretty simple and obvious answer – If I can’t wear a face covering for one employer I’m not going to be able to wear it for any other employers either. Show your support by donating to help cover my legal fees to move this forward!

You may be asking yourself this question at this point – Why haven’t I simply found another software engineering job with a different employer? Well, that’s a pretty common question, with a pretty simple and obvious answer – If I can’t wear a face covering for one employer I’m not going to be able to wear it for any other employers either. Show your support by donating to help cover my legal fees to move this forward!

Please Help Me Fight for Everyone’s Unemployment Rights In MD!!

Remember my winning this case is a win for hundreds of others in Maryland who like me stood up for their God given rights, got terminated, applied for Unemployment and got denied. They either didn’t have the money to argue it, didn’t know they could argue it, or didn’t think they could win.

My Win is a Win for many others here in Maryland!

I have however taken steps to start operating independently as a private person online as a digital marketer, but it has been slow to take off, and my home is not really conducive to the focus needed, but I’m doing the best that I can. So I am taking actions to earn income outside of the corporate world so that I never again have to worry about my health and my rights being destroyed by an employer. Unfortunately my cash flow just isn’t enough at this point to cover the costs of yet another legal action in this fight against the unjust actions of this administrative court.

And I’m not just doing this to recover the money the UI office owes to me. There is still some amount of return on my attorney fees, but it’s no longer about the money. No, at this point I need to be blazing the trail for others here in Maryland who are in similar situations with the UI office. Many probably don’t even realize that the system is unjustly denying their benefits because they don’t have the time or the money to engage a lawyer or to learn all this. This system is truly broken here in Maryland, and the only way it is going to get changed is if someone with a solid case against them takes that case forward. And God has indicated this to be my task, and so it is.

I only need $3500 to pay my great attorney. It’s not much and I’m confident this story will fall on the ears of other Christians who also understand the Constitution and our necessity to stand up for our rights and stand up for justice. I am not just standing up for my rights as a person, a human being. Show your support by donating to help cover my legal fees to move this forward!

I feel that when my/our rights are violated as they are in this case, that is a slap in the face of our Creator. So my fight is not just for we mere humans!

No, I’m standing up for God in this fight!

Hoping you see it the same way and can contribute generously. Show your support by donating to help cover my legal fees to move this forward!

Remember my winning this case is a win for hundreds of others in Maryland who like me stood up for their God given rights, go terminated, applied for Unemployment and got denied. They either didn’t have the money to argue it, didn’t know they could argue it, or didn’t think they could win.

My Win is a Win for many others here in Maryland!

Thank you!!

Documents from the hearings will be uploaded and available here shortly.

Update 30 May, 2022 – The petition has been filed and can be viewed here. Moving forward!! Yeah!

Please Help Me Fight for Everyone’s Unemployment Rights In MD!!

Remember my winning this case is a win for hundreds of others in Maryland who like me stood up for their God given rights, got terminated, applied for Unemployment and got denied. They either didn’t have the money to argue it, didn’t know they could argue it, or didn’t think they could win.

My Win is a Win for many others here in Maryland!

Update 22 July, 2022 – My arguments have been file and the case filing can be view on Maryland Case Search site using case number – C-02-CV-22-000867. https://casesearch.courts.state.md.us/casesearch/inquiryDetail.jis?caseId=C02CV22000867

Main Argument of the Appeal

Here is the Memorandum of Law that my great attorney filed proving the above – that the hearing judge did not have the authority to apply a provision from one statute to another which was silent on it.