Demoted state Fire Marshall and Criminal Investigations Chief Carolyn Kelly has settled a complaint against her bosses in the state Justice Department. The two sides struck a deal Monday as the state Employment Relations Commission was planning to hold a hearing. Kelly will get her full salary back, $87,000 a year, along with retirement benefits. She will return as the Investigations Chief until December 1 at which time she’ll take seven months of leave then retire.
Kelly’s lawyer says it lets her get on with her life.
Justice spokesman Kevin Saint John says it avoids a long appeals process.
The former DOJ official was demoted last May and took a $30,000 pay cut. That was after Attorney General JB Van Hollen said she wrote e-mails to her coworkers asking how much it would cost to hire a hit man for Van Hollen and his top staff. She also called them weasels. Her attorney said they were nothing more than jokes.
Kelly was also accused of delaying a release of records in the department’s probe of last fall’s Crandon shooting massacre.
