“Federal law and Peace Corps internal policies provide due process protections to employees under investigation for misconduct,” Peace Corps spokeswoman Karla Alvarado-Chavez said in a statement. Peace Corps CEO Carol Spahn, pictured here in a screenshot from a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, has said the Peace Corps was limited in how it could respond to John Peterson’s actions by agency policies and laws. Courtesy of the U.S. At an employee town hall in January, she said agency officials were restricted in handling the case by “laws and required processes” and stressed that federal law did not allow foreign service workers to be suspended without pay while under investigation. A spokeswoman declined to explain why Peterson’s actions required such a lengthy investigation. Peace Corps CEO Carol Spahn, who has been nominated to lead the agency as a Senate-confirmed director, has repeatedly declined interview requests about Peterson. But if people don’t really understand what their rights are and what they might be entitled to in order to protect their interests - and protect the interests of kids who are very young and might need support for a pretty long time - it just doesn’t seem fair.” “And there’s some value to speed and quick recovery. “They give up all their rights for this relatively low award,” Fryszman said. She said she was particularly troubled because the woman Peterson killed, Rabia Issa, had two underage children who did not appear to have been appointed guardians to represent their interests, which almost certainly would have been the case if the incident occurred in the United States. Far less consideration was given to those Peterson harmed, including a grieving and impoverished family, despite the agency’s aspirational mission of spreading “world peace and friendship.”Īgnieszka Fryszman, a lawyer who specializes in international human rights cases, reviewed the settlements for USA TODAY and raised concerns over the apparent lack of legal representation for Peterson’s victims. The financial records, obtained by USA TODAY through Freedom of Information Act requests, illustrate the broad protections afforded to federal workers involved in even the most egregious behaviors. In exchange for the payouts, the victims agreed to not make any legal claims against the agency or Peterson. The records do not indicate that Peterson’s victims had their own legal counsel during the settlement talks, which concluded about six months after the crash. The Peace Corps paid more to the Tanzanian law firm it hired to negotiate the settlements with the deceased woman’s family and two other women Peterson injured, according to an invoice from the firm. Meanwhile, the agency paid the family of the woman Peterson killed about $13,000, records show, despite a federal law that allows the Peace Corps to settle such claims for up to $20,000.įamily members of late Rabia Issa and a freelance Tanzanian reporter pray at the grave of the late Rabia at Msasani graveyard in Dar es Salaam Tanzania. Peter Mgongo, For USA TODAY When he finally resigned in February 2021, after the agency revoked his security clearance, Peterson’s final paycheck had just $602 in deductions related to the fatal incident, including the cost to tow the Toyota RAV4 he wrecked. That included nearly $20,000 in unused vacation time and a $1,500 “special act or service award” paid about a week after his return to America, records show. taxpayers paid Peterson, a Peace Corps employee, more than $258,000 over the next year and a half. ![]() But before he could be criminally charged, Peterson’s employer - the United States government - whisked him back to America and put him on leave while he was under investigation. ![]() John Peterson sat in a Tanzanian police station in August 2019, capping off a chaotic driving spree that left a mother of three dead on the streets of Dar es Salaam. Peterson never faced charges in Tanzania or the United States.
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