May 5, 1996 UPDATE: KOCH HAS CHANGED THEIR COMPANY NAME, ITS NOW CALLED GULFSOUTH PIPELINES, I GUESS THE OLD NAME WAS NOT A REPUTABLE NAME ANYMORE - GEE, I WONDER WHY?
"KOCH-CANNED" Koch Oil & Gas Company,Inc. (and its management), at one time WAS the best Corporate Oil Co. to work for. I had been with them for 15 years & 2 months, until one afternoon when there were 2 middle management personnel waiting for me at my little 8x12 office building. They informed me that upper-management felt "that due to the recent events that had taken place in my area," (Diamond 361), I was "no longer considered Koch material." I was just asked to gather up my personal belongings and they drove me home, no PINK SLIP (whatever that is), nor any offering of SEVERANCE PAY. (I did get my final paycheck 2 days later by Airborne Express). What in the world did that mean? Was I fired, layed off or what?, I was in a state of total shock. Anyway, the only reason or reasons that I can think of as to why I was Canned, is that in the past month I had a problem with another new employee, Walter Skinner, telephone number 504-564-3529, lives in Port Sulphur, Louisiana, (Truck Driver) who was accusing me of deleting his messages on the answering machine, and I was not getting some of mine also, someone seemed to be erasing them. Well, I decided to try to find out why we were not getting our messages, for I was more or less being accused of erasing those messages. I attached a voice activated recorder to the answering machine, in hopes of getting a back-up copy of the incoming messages, I then put the recorder in my LOCKED filing cabinet, of which only I have a key, since I installed the lock myself. The recorder had been in operation for 1 day and when I checked it the next afternoon, I found it to be not working as I had planned it to, it was making a recording of everything, which I did not want, so I disconnected the recorder, but just then Walter had drove up, so I would just wait until the next morning to remove the recorder. But by that time, he had broken into my locker, like he and Terry Morales (the other driver), lives in Napoleonville, La.,telephone number 504-369-2954, had done many times in the past, and found the recorder, he then phoned Gary LeRock (Area Manager), saying he "had heard a loud clicking sound coming from my file cabinet, (which he failed to mention was LOCKED),so he OPENED (Broke into) and found the recorder". I now realize that what I had done was wrong, but are they any less at fault for what they had been doing also them-selves. To me, you don't just open a LOCKED filing cabinet. I also noticed that some personal items had been dissapearing from my file cabinet in the past. Also, the recorder I used makes NO clicking sounds or any other type of noise what-so-ever. Gary LeRock, supervisor of the Kenner office, had driven to Diamond from Slidell that night and took the tape out of the recorder. Well, the next morning, I picked up the recorder on my way to weekly safety meeting in Kenner. While there, Gary questioned me about the recorder, I explained it to him what I was trying to do & he also wanted me to give him the recorder, which I had in the truck ,since he already had the cassette tape from the recorder he had gotten the night before. I was then told I had to drive to the Laffayette office to meet with John Early and Ross Lumbert about the matter. I also explained to them the reasons why I had done it and that I had realized that it was not the right thing to have done. They said my future would be decided before the 3 hour drive back to Kenner. I don't even remember the drive back to New Orleans. When I arrived back at the Kenner office, Gary LeRock called me into his office, sat me down and explained the circumstances to me, saying he liked me as a friend and said that I was a very good employee, and that the outlook for me was not too bright. My knees where shaking and tears were building in my eyes, I just knew right then I'd be standing in the unemployment line the next morning. He said he just got off the phone with John Early, & he then asked me if I thought if a week off without pay and a written letter of appology to the Truck driver (Walter Skinner) for what I had done would be fair punishment? He said its either that or I would no longer be a Koch employee..I gratefully accepted the week off without pay, and wrote a sincere letter of appology to BOTH truck driver's and even had them delivered by certified mail to assure that they arrived to them. Upon returning to work the following week, I found my file cabinet no longer had ANY lock on it, nor did anyone know anything about why it was missing or who did it. ....(but I didn't let it bother me). I was called back to the Kenner office for another meeting with Gary LeRock and my team leader Terry Cancienne that week. They treated me to Lunch and afterwards they discussed my situation to me and explained the severity of the matter. After they had finished talking, they asked if I had anything to say. I asked them "does this mean I still have a job or am I being fired?", and my supervisor, Gary said " You're not going to be fired, but you'll have to walk a fine line for a long time." So, to me, I feel this matter was not the reason they had terminated me, or why I am "No longer Koch Material?" I was then given a list of expectations to work on, and I was doing just that, me and the Truck driver was on very good working terms also, since I had written him a letter of appology. That no pay week had gone by and I came back to work, hoping to make things better than they had been in the past, I was even going to try to have a porta - toilet put at Diamond 361, (of which they never had one nor any running water since the terminal was built in 1962. Then early one morning, the same week I had came back to work, a facility in the field called me to say that there was oil leaking on a pumping unit and crude oil was going into the Marsh, which is an environmental hazard, with Koch guidelines that have to be followed in order to have it cleaned up. The Goast Guard, NRC, and the DEQ (Department of Environmental Quality) all had to be notified upon discovery of that type problem. I was totally following those guidelines, from start to finish, and that incident was cleaned-up in about 3 days. It cost the company thousands of dollars along with possible fines from the above mentioned Government agencies, (if they feel the clean-up was not properly performed upon later inspection). The spill was caused by a Mechanical Seal on a pumping unit that had failed (which is beyond mine or anyone else's control), and filling up a sump tank and then spilling into the water, causing the spill. Anyway, that was the first event, the second event took place a week later, caused by the same thing, the Packing on another pumping unit had failed, causing the sump tank to overflow into the water again, to be safe on this one, I had hooked up a make-shift shutdown device using 1/8 inch stainless tubing, in-case the sump did overfill, it would shut down the pump atleast. I went back and checked it late that evening, and the shutdown device did work, but, due to head pressure on the product tank, crude oil was still trickling coming out from the packing aroung the pump-shaft and going into full sump tank and then dripping into the water, even after the engine and pump had stopped running, I closed all valves and began the standard procedures for reporting and clean-up, about 3 gallons got into the water. Again, I followed the procedures for an oil spill, but this time my supervisor (Terry Cancienne) asked if I could clean up the oil myself without having to spend thousands of dollars for another clean up crew, and I said that I could, I put out sorbent pads, I contained it from spreading by means of a sorbent boom across the waterway, and by noon the next day the area was cleaned up. This was on Saturday, March 16th, 1996. I notified the Coast Guard to inspect the site, they took my word that I did the best possible cleanup and did not need to come out to the site. Come Monday morning I had a Koch Company Mechanic (Charles Hymel) out, which normally I could not get a Mechanic out that soon, they were so short-handed. Charles and I worked on the pump unit all day, repairing it so that it would not happen again anytime soon. "If the World did not have Mechanical failure's, we would truly have a worry-free place to work and live in." That same evening at 4 pm, my World, as I had known it for the past 15 years had suddenly come to a hault, when those still echoing words "No Longer KOCH Material" was said to me. Anyway, in my mind, I was being accused of causing those two environmental accidents (spills), which was beyond my control. And being accused of an oil spill is illegal in most states. At Least thats what was said to me by Gary LeRock, after he had found out that I had called Bill Caffey, CEO of Koch Industries in Wichita, phone #1-800-666-9050 (no longer a working number), He told me "I sure wish you hadn't called Mr. Caffey". I asked him "why not?, I was getting no answers from him as to why I was being canned or terminated." So I went up the Chain-of-Command, kind of like you do in the Military. He really wasn't happy about me calling Bill Caffey in Wichita. But I didn't care, I was no longer as he said "Koch Material". Gary then told me while on the phone "SOMEONE HAD TO BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE EVENTS THAT HAD TAKEN PLACE IN THE PAST FEW WEEKS". Again I asked "what events?" and I still never got a straight answer from him, he just sorta changed the subject. One other problem with Koch Oil is, when an outside contract company has to have 3 million dollars worth of liability insurance before they can do any sort of mechanical work on any Koch equipment, its very difficult to find a local company with that much insurance to do that work. There is no other Oil Company in this area that I know of that requires that much insurance from an outside service company. The evening that I was terminated I also learned of another employee, with 20 years or more service with United Gas, now Koch Gateway Pipeline, owned by Koch Industries, by the name of Cornell Green (Black Male), phone #changed, who had also been terminated that morning, basically for the same reason that I was let go for, and also in the same manner as me. They told him it would be in his "best interest" to find a job elsewhere. I understand that he was cleaning up a site that had large amounts of Mercury (a hazardous chemical) laying all about the site, in Coke bottles, coffee cups, on the ground and that he also followed Koch guidelines for cleaning up the facility. In doing so, seems he had also made someone very upset for filing those reports. He told me a man in a suit brought him into the local Koch Office office, began yelling and cursing at him, saying he could go to federal prison for what he had done, and he didn't even know this man other than he was from the Main Koch office in Witchita, Kansas. They also allegedly had him sign some sort of document, he thinking if he signed it, his job would be safe. This was on Friday, the second day of his two days they gave him off without pay. That same day they made him go clean the site up and dispose of the Mercury, come Monday, they gave him his walking papers with no reason why. It seems someone with Koch would like employee's NOT to report such incidents like that, but they don't want to come right-out and themselves say "Don't report it". So Damned if you do, and Damned if you don't.
April 17, 1996 (or about)
I was working for a friend at the Port Sulphur Parts Store, when an employee from Koch Oil in Wichita came in asking for me, he informed me his name was Gary Stokes, with Koch Security, from Wichita, Kansas. He was asking about a Motorola Trunking phone that I had, that belonged to Koch, I said I do have it, its at my home in a closet, and he asked if he could get it from me, I said yes...he offered me a ride to my house to get it, on the way there, Mr. Stokes started to ask questions about me, like, he had heard that I fooled with electronics and related stuff, I told him yes, also work on computors, fishing and woodworking.... he then asked if I was in the service, I told him yes, in the Navy, aboard the aircraft carrier USS Ranger, I worked in the XO's office as a yeoman...he then informed that Koch was thinking of pressing federal charges against me for illegal wiretapping of the answering machine which is located in Diamond, La. at the gathering terminal that I was in charge of when working for Koch Oil and Gas. I said if thats what they want to do, i guess they have that right...I then explained to him what led me to doing that in the way that i did, and he told me it was a really stupid thing that I had done, and I agreed with him. He then asked me if I knew that one of the crude oil storage tanks had begun leaking in Diamond and made a nice mess at the terminal, I told him that someone had mentioned to me that there must be a problem there, cause they had seen a lot of people in white suits around one of the tanks up there at the terminal. To me that could only mean one thing, a cleanup crew picking up hazardous material. I figured that one of the rusted, patched areas on that tank gave away or a truck driver ran the tank over and created a spill, other than that, I told him thats all I knew about it...so he started to asked me if I had anything to do with it, I said, "don't go there Mr Stokes, if they have an oil spill there, someone else did it or a leak just happened to start after they got rid of me". I also turned over a barrel pump I had here at home also... ..he then gave me a ride back to Napa, said he could not see the reason for Koch getting rid of a Loyal employee like me, said it was nice to meet me, gave me his business card and said if I needed to discuss anything further with him to just give him a call, and then said goodbye.
AUGUST 19, 1996
I Arrived home from work about 8:30 pm, my wife said that Buster Duplessis had called for me, an employee with Koch Oil and Gas, who lives just across the River. He is African-American. Home phone# 504-333-4965. I called him back at his home and he told me he was no longer a Koch employee, I asked what happened? He told me that on August 12th, he gave his two week notice, cause he felt his time with Koch was short, the following Monday John Early, and Gary LeRock came to him at work and said he was being seperated from Koch Oil and Gas and any affiliates, at which time they presented him with a document to sign stating, that if he signed it, that he would not file any type of Law-suit against them. They also offered him a $5,000 payment not to discuss anything that he knew about Koch Industries with anyone, or what was contained in the document they wanted him to sign. He was given 10 days to sign the document. He did not sign it. Then John Early stated that the money offered WAS NOT severence pay. Buster then asked about his company benefits, turned in his company belongings and told them no hard feelings, and left and went home. They would not give him any reason as to why he was seperated from the company also.
AUGUST 21, 1996
At around lunch time, I was at my new place of employment, I was hired as a Harbor Master at Cypress Cove Marina, I was out of the store at the time, but when I got back, Phyllis, the cashier there, said 2 guys in suits was looking for me, said she thinks they were police, they came back a few minutes later, I knew them both, not very well, but we had met on occasions since I know most of the police in this area. They were Ryan Hebert and Charles Guey, detectives for Plaquemines Parish Police department...they said they were here to talk to me about Koch oil and a complaint that was filed against me for harrasment, about me calling some beeper numbers and entering in unknown phone numbers. I admitted to the calling of some of the employee's beepers and putting in strange numbers, but that was the extent of it, that it harmed no one and did not cause any type of damage of any kind. Practical joking to me, since they used to do it to me also in the past, which i didn't mind. They then explained about the leak in the tank in diamond, that had happened a couple months ago, had looked like it was an intentional thing, that either someone punched a hole in it or put a bullet hole in the tank with a gun..and that someone at Koch Oil feels that I'm the person to blame for it, he said that the truck driver, Terry Morales, that they spoke to earlier, said that it was probably K.K. (my nickname), and also about a week later, someone called Shell oil and had them shut down a pump, and caused a storage tank to get more oil pumped into it than they wanted in the tank....I explained to the detectives that when I was a Koch employee, that pump was always going down due to power failures or someone with Shell shutting it down, and when Shell's pump goes down for ANY reason, Koch's pump goes down also, until someone resets the breaker switch, then flips the starter switch to start it back to pumping again, which is the reason why I checked it every evening, to make sure it was still running. And it was not running 4 out of 10 times that I had checked it. I was being honest with them, I did do some of the beeper things to them, since they did them as jokes to me in the past, as well and they probably still do it to each other to this day. They said they knew it was me calling the beepers, cause they did some sort of wire tap on my home phone and that most of the calls to the beepers were placed from my home. But they said the call to Shell was place with a cellular phone, of which I don't even own a cellular phone...only employee's with Koch Oil have Cellular phones. Detective Ryan Hebert then said that the leak in the tank was reported to the Department of Environmental Quality the day before it had happened, but did not say by who. He then told me, the truck driver, Terry Morales told THEM that, but I wonder, how did the truck driver know when it happened, and when it was reported?. In my experience with the truck drivers, they never went near that tank while they were unloading at the terminal, they just went sat in the dog house until the truck was unloaded, then headed out for another load of oil. I said that tank could have been leaking for days, if its the size hole that they say it is, cause the tank also had a 16 inch water bottom, and no more than a few inches of crude oil on top of that. I asked if its illegal to report spills, No its not, cause the number is listed in the phone book, and spills have been reported numerous times before in the past, even by myself, (which is probably why I am no longer a Koch employee), because they trained me to do it that way. Or, so they say to do it that way anyway. They said they just wanted to inform me of whats going on, said Goodbye, got in their car and left. It was then that I decided to seek legal help.
AUGUST 22, 1996
I spoke with a trusted friend of mine today, who works in the legal field, I told him what had happened with the 2 Detectives coming to see me at work, he asked if they had read me my Rights before asking me any questions, they did not, and he said I didn't have to answer any of their questions until they had read me my Rights, and that anything that I spoke to them about, was not legally obtained, so anything I said to them cannot be used against me for that reason.....
SEPTEMBER 4, 1996
Ryan Hebert and Anthony Buras, both detectives for the Police Department, came into the Marina again today, not on official business, but while I had the chance, I asked Ryan Hebert exactly "Who" at Koch was accusing me of putting a hole in the crude tank at Diamond, he said to me that it was Stokes, who is an employee of Koch oil in Wichita, Kansas. We talked a little while more, on non-related subjects and they both then left....
SEPTEMBER 12, 1996
Today I was called at work by Curtis Bowers, a detective for the Plaquemines Parish Police Department, he informed me that there was a warrant out for my arrest on charges of telephone harrassment, he told me it was a misdermena charge and that if I would come to the Police Parish Lockup and turn myself in the next morning, that there should not be any problems with me bonding myself out of jail.... So that is what I did, I drove to lockup, I signed a lot paperwork, they finger printed me, palm printed and took 3 photo's of me and set a court date of October 7, 1996 at 9:30 am at the West Pointe-ala-hache Court house. They did forget to inform me that there was a $7.00 department fee for them to print and photograph me, of which I did not have the money on me, so they trusted me to come home and get the $7.00 and return to pay them... All this over a Truck Driver accusing me of deleting his answering machine messages........ I finally went to court, pled "no contest" to Judge, was fined $283 in fines and court cost, was ordered not to have any contact with the victims in this case (what victims?) and went home. and thats my Bio....
PS - If Koch Industries has Middle Management personnel like this associated with them in other States, I am Glad that I am no longer an employee of that company. I wonder if Mr. Charles Koch knows how some of his Management Personnal are alledgely running his company? I read that his Father alledgedly was anti-comminist, it seems to me some of his management people are just the opposite. Also, when Walter Skinner was first hired by Koch and he said to me that everyone he met with Koch Oil was "assholes", I did not really care for him much after that.