On March 15, 1994, at the age of 41, I was injured and partially disabled while working as a Union Diver for Misener Marine Construction Inc. on the construction of a sewer line across Biscayne Bay, Florida. My injuries included decompression sickness and a herniated-cervical disk.

I was treated for the bends in a hyperbaric chamber at Mercy Hospital in Miami, and underwent surgery a couple months later requiring a bone fusion and titanium plating of my cervical spine.

I had suffered muscular atrophy on my right side while awaiting surgery and was instructed by my neurosurgeon to rebuild affected areas with weight training. I received workmans’ compensation benefit payments under the Longshore and Harbor Workers Act from Misener’s insurance carrier, Cigna, while recovering from my injuries.

In December of 1994 I was sent to New Orleans to be examined by Dr. Keith VanMeter, a renowned hyperbaric physician, in order to pass an Association of Diving Contractors physical and return to work. After a two-day battery of tests that included hyberbaric treatments and a C-scan I returned to Miami to await VanMeter's authorization to dive.

Before working for Misener they gave me a OSHA diving physical, including long-bone X-rays, and I passed with flying colors. I had no history of back or neck injury, nor been bent in my 15-year career as a commercial diver

I had injured my neck in a fall while dressing in a helmet two months earlier. A stiff neck resulted and subsided a week later. I didn’t consider it severe enough to report. The pain and stiffness returned occasionally and grew worse two days before I was bent.

The hyperbaric physicians said I initially herniated a disk that deteriorated while conducting five-hour dives on 40-ft. Z-tables day after day. The deteriorated disk compressed a spinal nerve making the location more susceptible to decompression sickness.

I requested hyperbaric-oxygen treatments recommended by a hyperbaric neurologist working with VanMeter to rebuild damaged nerves and disk tissue, but Cigna refused to authorize them.

My lower back also developed an ache after my fall, but I didn’t report the back pain because it wasn’t severe and went away when I stopped working. In March my back gave out when I was getting out of bed. I was totally disabled for a week and in pain for a month. My right foot and leg felt numb. I requested medical care from Cigna.

It wasn’t until July, 1995 that Cigna authorized an MRI of my lumbar spine. By that time my back had recovered and I had found temporary employment as a dive supervisor. Nevertheless, the MRI showed I had four herniated lumbar disks. An electromyographic examination of nerve conduction in my right leg taken on July 26 identified nerve damage believed to be from nerve compression in the lumbar spine, decompression sickness or a combination of both. I was advised by an attorney that I could not claim my back injury was work related almost a year after my injury, and I was denied medical treatment for it. My Union health insurance had expired because I wasn’t working.

During the year before my injury I had worked for four diving companies in Miami, Georgia, Alaska and Columbia. Without authorization to dive I found only short-term employment as a dive supervisor, and only twice.

My last job in the diving industry was managing life-support systems for divers on the salvage of Value Jet 592 in the Florida Everglades in July 1996. I knew I would have to report my earnings, and they would be deducted from my disability payments. I worked 12 hours a day for two weeks in the scorching heat of the Everglades while collecting human remains and scraping human hair from the boots and weight belts of divers when I could have earned the same sitting home drinking beer. I just wanted to work.

Initially, the company conducting the Value Jet salvage wanted me to dive, but I was not authorized to work underwater. When I learned the crater we were salvaging was only six ft. deep, I contacted a hyperbaric physician for permission to dive. He said no. I gave up hope of returning to my trade and decided to retrain for another when the job ended.

Following the recommendation of Cigna’s career counselor I enrolled in the College of Journalism and Mass Communication at Florida International University in the fall of 1996. I had 120 college credits from prior college in engineering and underwater technology but had not attained my bachelor’s.

When I calculated the earnings I had reported to Cigna should have been accounted for and my disability payments resume, I contacted them. Cigna said my benefits were terminated because I left the workforce when I enrolled in college.

I was covered under the Longshore and Harbor Worker’s Act of federal law. I contacted the Department of Labor and contracted an attorney for help. In November of 1996 I attended an informal conference with Senior-Claims Adjuster Walter Herman from the DOL. The official instructed Cigna’s attorney that the law required they continue disability payments while I retrained and warned that a Judge would order them to pay with a 10 percent penalty if they did not follow his recommendation to follow the statutes.

Two weeks later Cigna responded claiming they were not required to pay compensation benefits because there was no evidence I could not return to my profession and because my attorney had filed a law suit under maritime law.

Cigna had sent me to and paid three hyperbaric physicians, all of whom refused to authorize me to dive.

My attorney, Paul Miniclier of New Orleans, had recommended we file a Jones Act law suit when Cigna cut off disability payments, assuring me that the action would not affect my ability to regain benefits and continue my education.

On December 30, 1996 I sent a letter to Supervisor James King from the DOL identifying the doctors who had examined me. I also informed him if Miniclier’s law suit interfered with my claim for workmans' comp. benefits I chose whichever cure would reinstate benefits so I could continue my education.

Neither King nor his office responded to my letter.

A formal hearing before a judge was scheduled for January. I borrowed money from my parents to stay in school and made the Deans List. Two days after my last final I found a job as an extra on a motion picture set and worked 12 hour shifts at minimum wage through the holidays to earn some money.

In early January, 1997 I received a copy of a letter dated December 26 that my attorney had sent to claims adjuster Herman at the DOL canceling the Longshore hearing. On a note attached to the copy Miniclier claimed he had recently learned if we proceed with the Longshore hearing we waive the Jones Act suit and he “cannot recommend” doing that.

Miniclier had canceled the hearing without consulting me, knowing I would never give permission to do so.

I contacted the DOL and Miniclier by phone and told them I wanted to waive the Jones Act suit and proceed with the Longshore hearing. I had to drop out of college and look for a job.

On February 12, 1997 Miniclier faxed me a letter warning that if we pursued the Longshoremans compensation hearing we would waive the Jones Act suit and loose the opportunity to collect a large sum of money. Nevertheless, I signed written instructions for Miniclier to proceed with the Longshore hearing and mailed the letter back to him.

Still, Miniclier refused to follow written instructions and file for the Longshore hearing. He only requested documentation of the conference, which did nothing. So, I requested the necessary forms from the DOL and on March 3, 1997 received a LS-18 form and instructions on how to proceed in a letter from the DOL.

I filled out the form and submitted it to the DOL. I contacted Miniclier and informed him that I had applied for the Lonshore hearing.

In a letter to dated March 19, 1997 Miniclier instructed me to send him a copy of the LS-18 form I had sent to the DOL and warned me not to send anything to anyone without his review. Later, Miniclier submitted another LS-18 form on my behalf, but the letter he sent me proves he did so only after I submitted the LS-18 form myself.

Unable to find gainful employment I took a job as a security guard for Wakenhut at $8-an-hour. When injured my rate was $24.92/hour diving and $21.92/hour tending on the surface with an additional $3-an-hour going to union health and pension benefits.

At work, particularly while sitting in a chair, my lower back caused me great pain and my right leg would go numb while walking on patrol. I did not qualify for Wakenhut health benefits until completing my three-month initiation period and could not afford medical treatment.

Now that a second Longshore hearing had been applied for I feared Miniclier would again cancel it. I went to another attorney with intentions of firing Miniclier.

Longshore lawyer Clifford Mermell reviewed my case and contract with Miniclier. He warned that Miniclier could make enormous claims on my settlement if fired. Furthermore, Mermell would have to start from scratch and might not be prepared to represent me for several months.

Mermell also alerted me of a statute of limitations requiring that I submit a particular form within three years of my accident or two years since my benefits were terminated. I knew nothing of this. The three year period post injury had expired. The two-year limitation since my benefits were terminated would expire in four months.

It occurred to me that Miniclier and the US Department of Labor had been sitting on their hands and running me through a time-consuming shell game while my eligibility to claim Longshore benefits was about to expire. This would give Miniclier the opportunity to pursue his court case and possible $500,000 in earnings while the insurance companies that control the DOL could distribute my entitlement amongst their share holders.

Mermell gave me the form that had to be filed before my eligibility expired. I could not afford to fire Miniclier and start over. I gave Mermell $100 that I could barely afford for the consultation.

Mermell sent me a letter dated April 21, 1997 acknowledging that he would not be representing me and reminded me to file the claim form before time expired.

Just as I was about to complete my three-month initiation period with Wakenhut, their office called me with instructions to report to their office to meet with the woman who managed the health plan. On arrival the personnel director said I was terminated. I asked why, and he said he didn’t know. He said I had no reprimands on file and he only knew it had something to do with a fax sent to Wakenhut headquarters.

The next time I talked to Miniclier he said my files from Wakenhut had just been sent by Misener Marine. Misener had subpoenaed them. That was the only possible reason for my termination, corporate knowledge of my disability and participation in legal action I had instructed my attorney to forget about.

I looked for work with other security companies. When they asked why I left Wakenhut, I told them I didn’t know. No one would hire me.

Finally, I found a job working for $5.25 an hour for a small security company that required I sign a contract indenturing myself. I was legally prohibited from working for any other security company in the area for a year if I quit.

I worked graveyard shift at the entrance to a private island where rich people lived just west of South Beach, Miami. I had to stand most of the night. My back was killing me, my right leg would go numb and my right foot felt like it was on fire.

A couple months later the company got an account at the hotel in the Miami International Airport. I got a raise to $7 an hour and worked the graveyard shift where I ate the food people pushed out of their hotel rooms on trays. Sitting on a chair hurt as bad as standing, so I would recline on the lounge chairs in the pool area after I locked it up. I never got caught, or I might have been fired. I decided the first thing I would do when I collected my entitlement was get my back fixed.

Miniclier still refused to pursue a Longshore hearing, and in a letter dated September 30, 1997 he again tried to intimidate me into dropping the Longshore hearing with inaccurate mathematical computations. Again I signed written instructions for Miniclier to pursue the Longshore hearing.

Miniclier proceed with the Jones Act suit accumulating expenses that I would be held responsible for. In a letter dated October 8, 1997 I reminded Miniclier that I had instructed him both verbally and in writing to pursue the formal hearing, and I instructed him not to spend any more on the Jones Act suit. Then I sent a copy of the letter to the federal judge assigned to my Longshore case, Chief Judge John Vittone.

Neither Vittone nor anyone from his office replied.

I received notice from the DOL that a Longshore hearing was scheduled for me in January. I was certain Miniclier would cancel it again as he did the year before.

On October 24, 1997 I wrote a letter to Judge Vittone explaining that Miniclier had canceled my original formal hearing without consent and that I was afraid he would do it again. I asserted in bold print that I did not authorized him or his partner to cancel my new hearing.

I had the letter notarized at a Cuban barber shop, walked across the street to the Post Office and sent it registered mail. Later I received the Domestic Return Receipt stamped Oct. 31, 97 and bearing initials indicating that Vittone’s office received it.

Neither Judge Vittone nor anyone from his office responded to my letter.

When I was first examined for my neck injury Dr. Wolf ordered an MRIthat showed a badly herniated disk and C6-7 and a bulging disk as C5-6. The lower disk was operated on and plated. Dr. Wolf did not fuse the bulging disk, which slightly compressed a spinal nerve serving my left side, because I showed no neurological symptoms related to it.

A couple months before my Longshore hearing I developed pain and neurological symptoms on the left side of my neck including numbness in my left hand and muscle spasms in my left arm. I instructed Miniclier to make arrangements for an examination with Dr. Wolf. Miniclier claimed Cigna refused to authorize the examination, so I wrote a letter to Wolf urging him to request authorization for his medical services.

I received a copy of a letter from Miniclier to Cigna revealing that Cigna had authorized Wolf’s examination, and Miniclier had claimed I did not want to be examined by Wolf. Miniclier was afraid Wolf was obliged to Cigna and would diagnose me as fully recovered.

I immediately contacted Wolf and was given an MRI on January 12, 1998 that revealed the formerly bulging disk at C5-6 had completely herniated and was compressing a spinal nerve. Dr. Wolf recommended surgery if symptoms persisted or grew worse. My condition improved with anti-inflammatory drugs.

Days later I met Miniclier for my formal hearing in Fort Lauderdale. He chastised me when I told him I went to Dr. Wolf, but when I told him the results of the MRI Miniclier became very happy that my injuries had become more serious than previously diagnosed.

Miniclier brought a workmans’ comp. lawyer with him because, as I had unfortunately learned, Miniclier knew virtually nothing of workmans’ comp. law. Miniclier wanted to argue at the hearing that I was a Jones Act Seaman. I patently refused to allow it. However, I allowed him to ask the judge to decide my status, confident he would rule me a Longshore and Harbor Worker.

I understood my status would be determined as a matter of law, not my preference. I was not at liberty to discuss what I was not directed to. But I knew from my research that I was almost certainly a LSHW as I was originally classified. Furthermore, the judge would have read my files including letters to the DOL and Vittone asserting my choice to pursue the Longshore cure rather than Jones Act suit. I expected that to influence his decision and my conflict with Miniclier would end.

Miniclier told me if the judge ruled I was a Jones Act Seaman I would be eligible for “maintenance” --about $25-a-day-- under the Jones Act because I had not reached maximum-medical recovery now that my neck injury had developed new symptoms. I was relieved to know that I would be able to return to college however my status was ruled, but the LSHW cure, which I had worked so hard to regain, remained my choice.

Although my case was originally assigned to Chief Judge Vittone, Federal Judge Burke presided at the Longshore hearing. It was like the informal conference on November 1996 except that record of my earnings had to be submitted. By statute I was entitled two-thirds of the difference between what I earned before and after my accident. Despite my earnings Cigna owed me about $70,000 in denied payments since I was cut off in July, 1996. Also by statute, Cigna was required to continue paying me disability while I attended college full-time and pay two-thirds of the difference in my earnings after I returned to work.

We also presented evidence that my disability rate had been inaccurately calculated. As indicated on my paychecks. Misener had been paying the divers the lower pile-driver rate rather than the dive-tender rate while divers worked as dive tenders. The city later required Misener pay the difference. The additional pay , which was less than they owed, but what I accepted in settlement, had not been calculated in my earnings that were used to calculate my weekly compensation payments.

Because my back pain had originated after my fall and neck injury and because it fit the scenerio of disk disease caused by decompression sickness, I claimed it as a work-related injury. I acquired a notarized letter from my former dive partner bearing witness to my complaints of back pain while working with him for Misener.

During the hearing Miniclier asked the Judge Burke to rule whether I was a LSHW or Jones Act Seaman. The judge did not rule. After the hearing Burke held a long meeting with the attorneys in his chamber. After the hearing Miniclier told me the judge had 30 days to render a decision. I looked forward to receiving my entitlement and getting on with my retraining.

About a month later Miniclier informed me that a state judge ruled that I was a Jones Act Seaman as a matter of law. Without my knowledge Miniclier had flown from New Orleans to Miami and argued “on my behalf” that I was a sailor because I was working off of a barge.

I was helpless. The judges decision could only be challenged with an appeal that Miniclier would never agree to. I would have to hire another lawyer to argue I was a LSHW when I had only debts to my name. Even if I found a lawyer to represent me for a percentage of a LSHW settlement, his and Miniclier’s legal fees would leave me with nothing.

In March I received a letter from the DOL documenting Judge Burke’s order of dismissal. I was now officially ineligible for workmans’ comp. benefits. Miniclier and Cigna had won the battle to deny me LSHW eligibility. Two judges had made the powerful insurance company very happy. I had no alternative but to let Miniclier proceed with the Jones Act suit.

I remembered Miniclier’s promise that once ruled a seaman I was entitled to maintenance payments while awaiting trial. I needed this to return to college full-time. I instructed him to make arrangements for the maintenance payments.

Misener refused to pay the maintenance claiming I owed them all the disability I had been paid as a LSHW from the time of my injury in 1994 until my benefit payments were terminated in July of 1996.

My case would not be tried for more than a year. At 45 I could not afford to waste time and needed to train for an alternative career. My confidence in the American justice system was gone. I had to do the best I could.

I applied for a state grant and student loan at FIU, which I easily qualified for because of my academic performance and low income. I enrolled as a full-time student in the fall of 1998. I changed my major from television production to broadcast journalism as recommended by the counselor Cigna had sent me to in 1995 and attended college full time. I continued to work as a security guard on weekends.

I dedicated myself to academic study and kept my g.p.a. over 3.5. Every three months I would meet with Miniclier at the State Courthouse in Miami for trial only to be bumped until the next docket period because of court cases preceding mine on the waiting list.

Weeks would go by when my neck and back ached making it difficult to sit in class. I took advantage of the college swimming pool for the only form of exercise that did not irritate my back, but twisting my head for breaths of air sometimes irritated my neck. I went without medical treatment.

I drove a 1975 Mercedes 280 Coup that was a gem at the time I was injured in 1994. Now it was a rust bucket continually breaking down. I had to borrow money from my parents to keep it running until my court date or settlement.

According to my contract with Miniclier he would receive 33 percent of an out-of-court settlement and 40 percent if the case were tried. Court expenses that I originally understood to be postage costs included video depositions, airplane tickets and $300-a-night hotel rooms Miniclier would rent while representing me. Those costs would come out of my end.

After Miniclier’s cut and court costs the wage-loss portion of my claim, which represented the lion’s share, would be taxed by the IRS, although that sum would be extracted from what was left after Miniclier’s cut and expenses. At best, I could collect 25 to 40 percent, depending on the award, and the jury would not be allowed to know what portion of the award I received.

In July 18, 1999 while taking 15-credit hours in college I went to court for six days. The court case was more shocking than any part of this story, and I apologize for not having the transcripts to present as documentation. I wanted to buy a copy, but could not afford them then and cannot now. In the future I hope to acquire a copy and publish portions on this site.

Misener was represented by John Kallen and Robert Wallace. Before the trial both parties conferred for the opportunity for an out-of-court settlement. Miniclier asked Kallen for Misener's best offer. The attorney did not mention a number, but referred to a document. Miniclier claimed the offer was $200,000. Kallen simply repeated his reference to a document.

Later I learned that the document offered $350,000. I was left with the impression that only $200,000 was offered of which I would salvage enough to buy a used pick-up truck.

Apparently, both Miniclier and Kallen wanted to try the case and didn’t want me to interfere. Even at $350,000 I would collect less than what was owed in LSHW payments and future medical expenses, so I don’t claim I would have settled for that sum.

In court a jury of six--three Latin men, two Latin women and one gringo woman--who claimed no knowledge of diving were selected. Judge Siegel presided, instructing the jury they were to determine if they believed Misener was responsible for my injury as a result of negligence, and to what degree.

In court Miniclier got off to a good start by calling Misener’s dive supervisor, Richard Cole, to the stand. Cole was a likable construction worker who raised some cattle on his property in West Florida, but he was completely unqualified to be a dive supervisor.

On the stand Cole admitted he had never been formally trained as a commercial diver and had only become scuba certified just before supervising the sewer-line project I was injured on. He admitted never being trained to follow the safety manual and agreed many regulations from Misener’s safety manual--the US Diving Manual--had been broken. These included:

The requirement that a hyperbaric chamber be present at the job site while divers were conducting planned-decompression dives.

The requirement that each diver be assigned a dive tender.

My decompression schedule on the day I was bent was incorrectly calculated denying me seven minutes of decompression.

Miniclier called five divers who worked with me on the job. Four testified knowledge of my neck problem while working, and one specifically remembered from a conversation with me during the project that I had injured it in a fall while dressing myself in my helmet.

The jury was not permitted to know that I had been denied workmans’ comp. benefits. Miniclier told me if I mentioned workmans’ comp. the trial could be thrown out of court. So when I was on the stand I testified that when I enrolled in college to retrain I expected to receive "maintenance"--a Jones Act term.

Kallen immediately shrieked a loud objection. He and Miniclier approached the bench and whispered with the judge. Then they returned to their seats and Judge Siegel instructed the jury to "disregard" what I had just said.

The defense gets the last word. Kallen put a “diving expert”--a man who hired out to defense firms as an authority--on the stand. The consultant blatantly misrepresented the literature in the US Navy Diving Manual to the extent that any scuba diver would see he was a professional liar. The ignorant jury, however, could not make that judgment.

Miniclier’s cross examination was impotent.

Misener’s final witness was a scuba diver from the sewer department who had been trained to wear commercial diving gear so he could periodically be escorted by divers into the pipeline to inspect the seams as the job progressed. He testified that he never saw any safety violations during the course of the job.

Miniclier could have easily demonstrated the witness had no knowledge of what the safety regulations were, but failed to do so.

Miniclier asked for $1,100,000 in damages based on wage loss and future medical expenses as predicted by doctors.

In final arguments Miniclier argued that Misener was responsible for my loss of career and disability because they miscalculated my decompression schedule denying me seven minutes of decompression and were responsible for my neck injury because they did not assign me a tender to assist in dressing the diver.

Kallen argued that because my decompression schedule was miscalculated by only one foot it was insignificant, and although I was not assigned a tender one would have been provided for me if I had requested one. He then stated without reference to medical literature or opinion from a doctor that my neck injury was the result of years of diving with a helmet, and said the other divers had lied about having knowledge of a neck injury on the job because they were my friends.

Judge Siegel instructed the jury to decide if Misener was responsible for my injury through their negligence and to what degree.

The jury deliberated for less than 30 minutes. I could hear them laughing in the next room. They returned to the courtroom and announced they did not find Misener negligent for my injuries. I was awarded nothing.

Though my life had just been ruined, I was actually relieved that the nightmarish-shell game was over. I considered how lucky I was that I had not been dragged into an American courtroom, an innocent man, and charged with a capital crime. In fact, although I had always been a strong advocate of capital punishment, I can no longer endorse the death sentence because of my experience with the American justice system.

Misener claimed I owed them $70,000 in court costs and agreed to waive the charge if I would sign a document promising to never appeal the case or pursue a LSHW claim. Miniclier, who claimed I owed him $50,000 in court costs, encouraged me to sign. I refused. Judge Siegel was kind enough to lower Misener’s claim to $26,000.

All this because I was injured while working in America’s most hazardous profession as a Union Diver on a federally financed infrastructure project so people like the members of the jury could enjoy the miracle of modern plumbing. The fact that Misener Marine Inc. is a subsidiary of the Dutch-owned multinational group Interbaton insults injury. Neither Miniclier nor Misener tried to collect their claims knowing I had already lost everything to my name.

At the time of my trial I was taking five three-hour courses, two of which were condensed into a half-semester. I had missed three consecutive classes in these courses, equivalent to six consecutive classes during a full semester. I had to quit my weekend security-guard job to catch up.

Although I scored good grades in all other courses, I was awarded a “C-” in a core course that required a minimum grade of “C” to pass. I appealed for a passing grade pointing out that I had been awarded an “A” in the prerequisite print-writing course, Newsroom, by a highly qualified instructor the semester before. My instructor, a first-time adjunct teacher who moonlighted as a late-night copy desk sports editor for a local paper was not sympathetic.

As a result I was required to attend college for an additional semester in the spring to repeat the course before graduating. It was also the first time I had not made the Deans List as my transcripts document. My injury-related history continued to haunt me.

Before the end of the summer term I was driving to school listening to a local broadcast featured on National Public Radio when the show hosts invited listeners to call in and report horror stories in the workplace. Here was the chance for me to expose my tragic story to the sleepy masses.

I rushed through the traffic to make time for my call before class while listening to callers complain of unremarkable incidents at work, like women getting whistled at by male colleagues, etc.

I accessed a pay phone at the student center and made a local call to the station promising the greatest work-related-horror story ever told. On the air I summarized my experience evoking a concerned, almost withdrawn, response from the show hosts. In my hurry to relate the story I carelessly mentioned Misener by name while referencing the court case, a liability concern for the public broadcasters who did not know if my story was authentic. They quickly terminated the discussion, and I was unable to listen for a response because I was late for class.

During the Fall Semester I took 16-credit hours of courses and was selected as anchorman for FIU News from the senior class. My curriculum included an American government class. One day the instructor of this class, a Ph.D., proclaimed that workmans’ compensation was a constitutional entitlement for all US citizens. I raised my hand and claimed this was not so and revealed to the class the Jones Act that denies workmans’ compensation to US citizens classified as members of a crew of a maritime vessel while working in US navigable waters.

The professor was ignorant of the Jones Act and I don’t think anyone in the class believed me. I wasn’t surprised. I had worked as a commercial diver for 15 years, often as a member of a crew on marine vessels, and had no knowledge of the esoteric law until after my injury.

Since my trial, I had often pondered how an American jury could throw an injured worker out on the street like a broken toy. Surely, they must have assumed I was covered under workmans’ comp. laws because they were not allowed to be told otherwise. I believe they assumed I was suing in addition to workmans’ comp. coverage out of greed.

When I discussed the trial with former colleagues the two divers of Latin decent who testified in court on my behalf and met the jury insisted the reason for their betrayal was not so complicated. They reminded me it was a Miami-Dade jury and its members were surely bribed. I will never know.

In order to graduate with a degree in broadcast journalism from FIU students are required to complete a 100-hour internship with a news station. I initially began an internship with WTVJ NBC-6 during my fall semester. When I learned I had to continue for an additional semester to repeat a course, and because of my heavy-course load, I postponed completion of the internship until after I completed the semester. This gave me the opportunity to get off the news desk and out in the field during the busy holiday season.

It worked. I covered the Y-2K hype. I dove into the Elian Gonzalez circus, interviewing Jose Basulto, president of Brothers to the Rescue and Ly Tong, the anti-Communist dare-devil pilot who dropped leaflets over Havana on January 1, 2000. Ly gave me some copies of the leaflets he dropped over Havana.

Journalists I spoke with while interning recommended I contact my congressional representatives for help retrieving my entitlement. My cynicism for the government had prevented me from making the effort. I decided to give it a try.

On January 7, 2000 I wrote to my congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) and Senator Bob Graham (D) summarizing my story and requesting their help. Understanding what makes politicians tick I began my letters with the heading “AS DISCUSSED ON NATIONAL PUBLIC RADIO.”

Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen was the first to respond with a copy of a letter she sent to Secretary of Labor Alexis Herman dated January 25, 2000 urging his personal involvement in my case.

I was overwhelmed with happiness and embraced a renewed hope in the system. Knowing Ros-Lehtinen was an enthusiac leader of the Cuban-exile community I sent her my last flyer that Ly Tong had given me when I interviewed him after he returned from his daring mission over Havana.

Senator Graham responded with a letter dated February 24, 2000. He included a copy of a letter sent to him from the Office of Workmans’ Compensation that cited “the quality of legal representation he has received” as one of the factors that complicated my claim.

During the spring semester I was only taking the class I had to repeat in order to graduate. I had completed my 100-hour internship in January, so I began another with WTVN-7, a Fox affiliate. I was assigned to Anchor Marilyn Mitzel from their special assignments production “Healthcast.”

While interning I observed Patrick Frazier, the producer of another special-assignments segment, “Help me Howard” producing a one-sided package on workers scamming on the workmans’ comp. system. I brought to his attention that although false claims are made by some, other workers legitimately injured and disabled on the job are denied their entitlement, and their cases should also be represented. Then I told him my story.

Frazier expressed concern that injured workers would be denied their workmans’ comp. coverage, but denied knowledge of such cases. He apologetically said my story was just too big to be given justice on his segment and recommended I contact NOVA, a public television production. I considered it at the time, but wondered if a public television station would produce a documentary that so disgraced the government that finances it.

Eventually, an administrative law judge, Linda Chapman, was assigned to my case, and on April 27, 2000 she issued a Notice Of Hearing scheduled for July 31, 2000. Because I had no money, and didn’t trust lawyers after my experience with Miniclier, I planned to represent myself. When the DOL sent me a list of pre-hearing requirements, however, I realized I was unqualified to complete the tasks.

On request the DOL sent me a list of Florida lawyers who take LSHW cases. I interviewed the five located in South Florida, but none would accept the case, including one referred by the local pile-drivers union I had worked out of. They could only be compensated by the government for their services if I were recognized as a LSHW claimant. Because a judge had ruled I was a Jones Act Seaman, they got cold feet.

I reported the problem to the DOL and prepared, as best I could, to represent myself. I was required to send copies of my correspondence to the DOL, arguments and exhibits to Bob Wallace, who was representing Misener Marine.

I wanted to provide evidence that Miniclier misrepresented me and I had informed Judge Vittone. So I requested and received copies of my files from his office. These include the correspondence I sent him that are used as documentation in this story.

Wallace was required to send me copies of his correspondence with the DOL. I received a copy of a letter from Claims Examiner Walter Herman to Wallace dated May 19, 2000. Herman wrote: “It is assumed that Mr. Wansley will be providing you with copies of his “exhibits”, per Judge Chapman’s Pre-Hearing Order of 04/27/00.”

Herman is the claims adjuster who had presided at my original informal conference in 1996 and recommended Cigna follow the statutes and provide my compensation benefits. Now, by placing parenthesis around the work “exhibits” he was having a good chuckle with the attorney representing the subsidiary of a Dutch-owned international corporation over an injured and disabled American worker struggling to represent himself.

I wondered how many civil servants I had dealt with, who seemed sincere, were really whores in disguise, feeding off the wealth produced by hard-working Americans while serving corporate interests. I could picture them drinking with corporate lawyers at the country club, making bets on whether they could drive the disabled peasant to suicide. I didn’t trust judges or bureaucrats, but I was confident my elected representatives would not let me down.

I graduated with a bachelors degree in broadcast journalism in May, 2000 and began a job search. Without three-years experience I was unqualified to work as a reporter in the South Florida market, and at 47 I was not the best choice for entrance-level jobs.

The day Elian Gonzalez got snatched I was called in by WTVJ NBC-6 to help with the crisis. They had me carry 70-pound coolers of water and drinks to camera crews through blocks of tear-gassed streets in Little Havana. The personnel director I worked with asked if I could handle it. I lied and said I was fine, fearing if I mentioned my back problem I would loose the opportunity for full-time employment. Fortunately, my back didn’t go out on me, but it ached for a month, and they didn’t offer me a job.

I had to stay in Miami for my hearing scheduled for July 31, 2000. I had applied for work with radio stations as well as television and learned from requests for “voice-check tapes” that I had not been trained for the particulars of radio broadcast in my college curriculum.

I found a radio-broadcast program at the Miami Lakes Technical Education Center for about $400 a semester. I borrowed more money from my parents and enrolled. I studied radio broadcast and prepared for my hearing in federal court.

On June 29, 2000 Judge Linda Chapman issued an “Order Dismissing Petition for Modification” because the one-year statute of limitations to appeal Judge Burke’s Order of Dismissal on March 18, 1998 had expired--just like that.

On page 4 of the order Chapman wrote: “Indeed, the records reflect that the Claimant’s then-attorney, with the Claimant’s express authorization, filed the claim for relief under the Jones Act...” The copies of my written instructions to Miniclier to proceed with the Longshore claim even though it would disqualify me from pursuing a Jones Act suit and the copies of letters I sent to Judge Vittone reporting that I did not authorize Miniclier to pursue the Jones Act suit, all of which I submitted to Judge Chapman, were never alluded to. Perhaps Judge Chapman was wearing her blindfold when she reviewed those documents.

Another concern may have motivated Chapman to dismiss the hearing. Although I presented her with evidence that I was a LSHW rather than a seaman and submitted plenty of proof that Miniclier had pursued the Jones Act suit against my instructions, my case involved more powerful laws--The Constitution fo the United States of America.

In my last submission to Judge Chapman before her order of dismissal, I informed her that I would argue in court that I should be classified as a Longshore and Harbor Worker rather than a Jones Act Seaman because two clauses in the Preamble of the US Constitution are better represented by the LSHW Act than the Jones Act: “insure domestic tranquillity” and “promote the general Welfare.”

Although the preamble does not carry the weight of an amendment, in cases where a choice between two conflicting laws must be made, it is used to identify the intentions of those who constructed the constitution. In my case I was either to be classified as a LSHW or Jones Act Seaman. The Jones Act requires American citizens injured while working in hazardous environments prove to a jury negligence on the part of the vessel owner before becoming eligible for disability benefits. The LSHW Act. does not require workers prove negligence for their work-related injuries and disabilities before qualifying for benefits.

What federal judge would want to preside in a court where such an unchallengable claim was made by a mere proletariat? How could they not rule in favor of the LSHW Act. and misrepresent the interests of the insurance company without disgracing the court?

No judge who serves corporate interests before those of the people would want to preside in a courtroom where such an unchallengable claim is made.

I wrote a final letter to Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen and Senator Graham reporting the Judge Chapman’s order. Graham was a good cheerleader all the way and responded with disappointment and reminded me of the limitations of his office. Ros-Lehtinen never responded.

I wasn’t surprised by the outcome, only angry at myself for again fantasizing that the system worked and the government could be trusted. That will never happen again.

I completed my semester of radio broadcast, junked what was left of my car, rented a U-haul with my credit card and moved back to my parents home in Cocoa Beach, Florida just in time for my 48th birthday--30 years after I had left home in 1970. I had learned some expensive lessons that I will never forget: Never trust a lawyer, especially your own and never, under any circumstances, trust ANYONE who works for the government.

Driving north from Miami in anticipation of a serious-back ache I reminisced of my diving career and how I served the government, thinking it was my friend.

Barranquilla, Colombia 1993. 1,500 kilos of cocaine--the largest intransport find in the history of Colombian drug-intervention operations, some or which can be seen in this picture with me on the left.

We were salvaging a sunken vessel. The DEA said they had reason to believe contraband was on it. We pulled it out for them. Gave $70-million worth of Cartel properties to the DEA when two Colombian soldiers had already been killed guarding the salvage site at night. We just gave it to them. Because we were patriotic Americans. That could never happen now.

I went back farther to 1986 after the US bombed Lybia and terrorist reprisals were expected. I reported to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission serious vulnerabilities in Florida nuclear power facilities to underwater sabotage and proposed a security system that has since been installed.

I remember after receiving this letter sitting on the couch in my Fort Lauderdale apartment with the blue prints of the Crystal River Nuclear Plant spread across the coffee table. The agent sitting beside me said he just fined the plant $100,000 after he learned that tradesmen working in the reactor room had clipped an opening in the fence surrounding the building and had been entering and leaving through it for a week without going through security and radiation screening.

At the time I was more concerned than the agent knowing how easy it would be to refine the radium into weapons grade plutonium and build neutron or salted bombs. Now that I have experienced the hatred evoked by corrupt government officials, the possibility of American workers developing nuclear weapons concerns me.