Wisconsin Labor and Industry Review Commission --
Summary of Wisconsin Court Decision relating to Unemployment Insurance

Subject: Barbara M. Wallace (Hrg. No. 95005789MD) v. Department of Corrections and Wis. Dept. of Industry, Labor and Human Relations (DILHR), Case No. 96-CV-0960 (Wis. Cir. Ct., Dane Co., January 24, 1997)

Digest Codes: MC 630.20

The employe had worked as a prison guard in Michigan, and had become romantically involved with one of the prison inmates. She violated numerous rules including an instance of sexual intercourse with the inmate while she was on duty, smuggling marijuana into the prison, and giving the inmate photographs of herself in the nude. The Michigan prison authorities initiated an investigation of her activities but she resigned her job before the investigation was completed. At the time she resigned, she had also been fined and placed on probation for possession of marijuana.

Approximately three years after her resignation, she applied for work as a prison guard in Wisconsin. On her employment application she failed to reveal the marijuana offense, and listed "returning to school" as her sole reason for leaving the Michigan job. She was eventually hired as a Wisconsin prison guard, but approximately six months after her hiring the employer received a letter from a Michigan prison inmate indicating that the Michigan prisons had discharged the employe for these various offenses. This prompted an investigation in which the employe initially denied all her rule violations in Michigan, as well as the marijuana possession. Subsequently, she admitted these offenses and was discharged.

Held: Affirmed. The record supports the finding that the employe deliberately falsified her employment application, and that this constituted a substantial interference with the employer’s interests. The employe attempted to introduce new evidence that the Wisconsin Department of Corrections knew about her past offenses when it hired her, but the court rejected this evidence because it had not been submitted to the appeal tribunal or to the commission.

Please note that this is a summary prepared by staff of the commission, not a verbatim reproduction of the court decision.

[ Search UC Decisions ] - [ UC Digest - Main Index ] - [ UC Legal Resources ] - [ LIRC Home Page ]