Westmoreland v. Department of Veterans Affairs

Jerry Westmoreland petitions for review of the September 30, 1999, order of the Merit Systems Protection Board (Board), No. CH-0752-97-0692-B-1, upholding the Department of Veterans Affair’s West Side Medical Center, Chicago, IL, (agency’s) determination that Mr. Westmoreland was absent without leave (AWOL) from his employment, but mitigating the agency’s penalty of removal to a 30-day suspension. Because the Board’s determination that Mr. Westmoreland was AWOL, as well as the Board’s decision to mitigate the penalty to a 30-day suspension, was not arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of…