By Jeannie O'Sullivan

Law360 (June 16, 2020, 10:10 PM EDT) -- New Jersey's former assistant health commissioner filed a whistleblower lawsuit Tuesday alleging he was fired after alerting ethics authorities that he'd been asked to administer scarce COVID-19 tests to relatives of Gov. Phil Murphy's chief of staff as a favor.

Ex-Assistant Department of Health Commissioner Christopher Neuwirth claimed his May 28 termination came a few weeks after an ethics officer suggested he consult with a criminal defense attorney before moving forward with an ethics complaint. After that meeting, Neuwrith was left out of critical communications involving the state's coronavirus response during the height of the pandemic, according to the Mercer County Superior Court complaint.

The state then claimed that Neuwirth lost his job because of outside consulting work he'd performed, even though he'd disclosed the work and gotten approval for it, the complaint said.

"As a result of the harassing and discriminatory conduct, plaintiff has suffered emotional distress and continues to experience ongoing emotional distress and significant economic damages," the complaint said.

Neuwirth's complaint names the state, unnamed companies and anonymous people as defendants, and asserts claims under the New Jersey Conscientious Employee Protection Act. He's seeking reinstatement; compensatory, consequential and punitive damages; and front and back pay and benefits.

Neuwirth's employment with the state dates back to 2011 and includes stints as the state's homeland security exercise coordinator and the DOH's director of public health recovery, according to the complaint. He began his latest position as assistant DOH commissioner in October 2018 following a two-year job in the private sector.

Between 2013 and 2016, and for a period in 2019, Neuwirth did consulting work for Margolis Healy and Associates. He "fully disclosed his business activities" with the firm and obtained approval to do so, the complaint said.

Neuwirth claimed he didn't do any work for Margolis Healy after the state's coronavirus response began in late January, after which he said he regularly worked 16- to 20-hour days with no days off through April.

Gov. Murphy announced a state of emergency in mid-March and began publicly emphasizing the need to expand the state's testing capacity with the goal of testing 50,000 people per day, according to the complaint. Murphy directed $6 billion in federal funding to Rutgers University to help increase production of saliva-based test kits, the complaint said.

On April 24, Neuwirth received a phone call from State Police Superintendent Patrick Callahan. Callahan asked him to collect saliva specimens from two relatives of Murphy's chief of staff, George Helmy, as a "favor." The specimens were to be tested at DOH's Public Health and Environmental Laboratories, the complaint said.

Neuwirth replied that he'd look into it and sent a text message to Callahan confirming the instruction. However, Neuwirth didn't want to fulfill the request because he considered it "unethical, unlawful, incompatible with public policy, a misuse of governmental resources and/or misuse of power," the complaint said.

Neuwirth then brought his concerns about the request to DOH officials, including Commissioner Judith Persichilli, who told him not to fulfill the request, according to the complaint.

Neuwirth then arranged a telephone meeting with DOH's internal ethics officer, Lubna Qazi-Chowdhry, for May 14, the complaint said. During the call, Qazi-Chowdhry said she'd consulted the State Ethics Commission and instructed Neuwirth to consult with a lawyer.

Taken aback, Neuwirth asked what kind of lawyer and what he should ask the lawyer, the complaint said. Qazi-Chowdhry responded that he should consult a criminal defense lawyer who could explain the "consequences of submitting the ethics complaint," the complaint said.

In follow-up communications, Qazi-Chowdhry said she wouldn't be handling his complaint and wouldn't directly answer any questions, the complaint said. Afterward, senior staff removed scheduled meetings with Neuwirth from his calendar and refused to share information with him.

On May 19, Neuwirth was summoned to a May 20 meeting with Murphy staff members. During that meeting, he was asked if he'd leaked confidential DOH information about the coronavirus response to the media. Neuwirth replied that he hadn't and didn't know who did, the complaint said.

On May 28, a human resources executive informed Neuwirth that he was terminated because his "services were no longer needed," the complaint said. However, the state has taken the "public position" that Neuwirth was fired for failing to properly disclose his outside work.

"We look forward to a putting forward a vigorous defense against this meritless complaint," Murphy representative Dan Bryan said in a statement emailed by the governor's communication's team. 

A representative for the state police declined to comment and a representative for the DOH didn't immediately respond to a request for comment. 

Neuwirth is represented by Christopher J. Eibler, Kathryn K. McClure, Robert W. Smith, Meghan Chrisner-Keefe, Lisa Ackerly Hernandez and David J. Franzmathes of Smith Eibler LLC.

Counsel information for the defendants was not immediately available.

The case is Christopher Neuwirth v. State of New Jersey et al., case number L-001083-20, in the Superior Court of New Jersey, Mercer County.

--Editing by Jack Karp.

Update: This article has been updated to include a comment from Murphy representative Dan Bryan.

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