ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. – St. Johns County is currently facing two lawsuits from former employees, including one that updates an earlier News4JAX I-Team investigation.
The lawsuit, filed on behalf of former county employee Ava Pyszczymuka, alleges retaliation under the Florida Whistleblower Act. Pyszczymuka claims she was punished after reporting misconduct.
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Attorney Gene Nichols, who is not involved in the case, explained how the Whistleblower Act protects public employees who make valid complaints.
“She made a valid complaint about an incident... Instead of it being rectified, she got punished for it,” Nichols said.
The situation began in August 2024 when Pyszczymuka was informed by an employee about sexual harassment by a security guard. She reported the issue to supervisors, but management allegedly refused to escalate it to human resources.
Pyszczymuka then took the complaint to HR, which led to the security guard’s removal. However, she was reprimanded with a “corrective action notice” accusing her of overreacting.
Nichols noted in reference to that security guard’s removal, “There’ll be a question as to why that didn’t happen before and why did she have to take it to the next step when nothing got accomplished.”
The lawsuit states that Pyszczymuka reported retaliation concerns to HR in September after receiving the corrective action notice. When HR did not respond, she escalated the issue to County Administrator Joy Andrews.
In January, Pyszczymuka received a poor performance review, scoring 2 out of 5 in “self-awareness,” with the county citing the corrective action notice as justification.
That same day, she claims that she was yelled at by her supervisor, an incident that was reported to HR.
After receiving no response, she sent her concerns to all five county commissioners. The commissioners called for an investigation that week.
An anonymous source provided the email Pyszczymuka sent to the commissioners, which News4JAX reported on February 5. The following day, she was escorted out of the building and placed on administrative leave without explanation.
Pyszczymuka remained on administrative leave for several months. Although the county conducted an investigation, her attorney says she was never interviewed.
She was ultimately fired on April 14. Nichols said the county attorney, Rich Komando, will defend the case. “Mr. Komando is going to know backwards and forwards the Whistleblower Act as are these lawyers. So when that happens, it’s all gonna come down to the facts,” Nichols said.
In a separate case, former St. Johns County Fire Chief Scott Bullard alleges the county breached the collective bargaining agreement when he was forced to resign and denied a return to his previous rank of Battalion Chief.
Bullard’s civil trial is scheduled to begin Monday.