Interesting article about a police officer who sued the police department because to people were promoted based on bogus degrees. He is getting a retroactive raise, his legal expenses covered, and will be retiring effective March 11th.
Kolakowski applied in 2003 for a promotion to the newly created position of deputy chief. The borough ultimately chose John Bouthillette, who was also a lieutenant, to become deputy chief; and promoted John Casey from sergeant to lieutenant.
Bouthillette and Casey, according to Kolakowski’s lawsuit, used college degrees from a fraudulent Internet diploma mill, where college degrees can be purchased without ever actually taking courses or exams. The borough considered those degrees to be legitimate and awarded the men points for the degrees during the promotional process.
Organizations need to pay special attention to how they word their policies when it comes to educational institutions. Just saying that degrees need to come from an “accredited” institution doesn’t help. In this case the “university” created an accrediting institution and then accredited themselves.
