DRUG TESTS TIGHTENED ON MBTA RED LINE

Tip-Offs Alleged In Court Hearing

The MBTA quietly tightened its drug-test policy on the Red Line
shortly after a T worker testified recently that a supervisor, in
exchange for oral sex, twice tipped off a motorwoman that she was
about to be screened. William F. Devlin, a night supervisor on the
subway line, warned motorwoman Dawn MacKay, who allegedly abused
cocaine, two times between 2000 and 2003 that she had been randomly
selected for urinalysis and should call in sick if she had recently
used drugs, a Red Line inspector testified in Dorchester District
Court in May.

''Supervisor Devlin would call her and ask her if she was clean or
dirty, and she would have to do sexual favors to avoid a random," the
inspector, Kathleen A. Flynn, testified.

On both occasions, Flynn said, MacKay heeded the advice. Though he was
never asked directly whether it was true, Devlin denied the
allegation in court and said he seldom checked the list of upcoming
drug tests. After the hearing, the Red Line shortened the notice a
supervisor gets before an employee goes for a drug test, according to
T spokesman Joe Pesaturo. Pesaturo last week called it a ''pilot
program," but did not say how long it would last or why it was
implemented on only the Red Line. Under the new program, instead of
learning at the start of his or her shift about which employees are to
be tested, a Red Line supervisor now gets notification in a sealed
envelope with instructions on the outside specifying when to open it,
Pesaturo said. Once opened, the notice provides just enough time for
a supervisor to find someone to fill in for the employee, who is
expected to head to the clinic to provide a urine sample, he said. The
MBTA found no evidence to substantiate Flynn's allegation that Devlin
alerted MacKay to impending drug tests, Pesaturo said. A statistical
analysis showed the Red Line had the lowest percentage of missed
random drug tests of the authority's four subway lines since 2001, he
said. Nonetheless, ''the MBTA felt it was important to further
strengthen the integrity of the process," Pesaturo said.

Pesaturo insisted on answering questions only by e-mail. Asked if MBTA
General Manager Daniel A. Grabauskas would agree to an interview to
discuss the issue, Pesaturo wrote that the T was not going to ''lend
credibility to your nonsense by having the general manager respond to
hearsay and innuendo." Pesaturo subsequently wrote that the T would
welcome independent scrutiny of its drug testing program and released
a statement saying that the authority was limited in what it could
say because of pending litigation involving witnesses in the
Dorchester District Court hearing. The Massachusetts Bay
Transportation Authority tests employees for drugs and alcohol under
federal requirements. But the testing program, which has evolved over
the years, has sometimes stirred controversy. A 1999 Globe
investigation found that the T applied its testing policy
inconsistently, resulting in the continued employment of workers who
tested positive for alcohol or illegal substances.

Flynn made her allegations at a court hearing about an alleged assault
on MacKay by her estranged boyfriend, an MBTA motorman named Craig
Whiteman, on a train MacKay was operating in May 2003. Flynn testified
as a defense witness that the MBTA police investigation of the alleged
assault was tainted because of MacKay's relationship with Devlin.
Devlin, who Flynn said was close to an MBTA detective, suspended
Whiteman after the incident. The charges against Whiteman were
dismissed after the hearing because MBTA police failed to turn over
investigative documents.

Flynn, who described herself as a onetime close friend of MacKay's,
said she based her allegations about the tip-offs to drug tests on
conversations with MacKay. MacKay has declined repeated requests for
comment. But Paul McManus, a public defender representing Whiteman in
the assault case, recently said he spoke with MacKay after the hearing
and that she confirmed that Devlin gave her notice of impending drug
tests in exchange for sexual favors. MacKay was fired by the T last
November after she tested positive for cocaine, Flynn testified.

Devlin, a 19-year T veteran, acknowledged on the witness stand in May
that he had access to the list of Red Line employees scheduled for
drug tests but said he seldom checked it.

Devlin testified that he knew that anybody who tipped off an employee
about a drug test would ''absolutely" be fired and probably
prosecuted. Neither McManus nor Assistant Suffolk District Attorney
Carrie Russell directly asked Devlin whether Flynn's accusation was
true. Devlin said he found the accusation troubling, but put it out of
his mind because ''allegations are made all the time in my position."

Devlin, reached this week, declined to comment. He and another Red
Line manager are defendants in a pending federal lawsuit by Flynn that
alleges she was subjected to sexual harrassment and
discrimination.

In brief testimony at the May hearing, the T's director of
occupational health services, Kate LeGrow, said that about 4,900 of
the T's 6,500 employees have ''safety sensitive" jobs and are required
to undergo drug tests. When a worker's badge number is selected by
computer, LeGrow said, the superintendent of the transit line would be
notified, typically 18 to 24 hours in advance, to make sure that
someone can cover for that worker. The superintendent, in turn, would
notify the supervisor up to eight hours before the test, usually at
the start of the shift.

If an employee called in sick the day he or she was supposed to be
tested, LeGrow said, the worker would not be tested until his or her
badge number was drawn again.