- Rich Marquez - Top LANL Management Official Abruptly Resigns
Today the following MEMO from LANL's Director Charlie McMillan was sent out:
Subject: Departure of Executive Director
Rich Marquez, Executive Director, has informed me of his intention to leave Los Alamos National Laboratory. Effective immediately, I have asked Craig Leasure, Principal Associate Director for Operations and Business, to serve as interim Executive Director in addition to his current PADOPS responsibilities. The duties of the Executive Director will also be distributed among members of my office and the Laboratory’s executive leadership team.
We knew through the grapevine that he was escorted off of LANL property by Security late afternoon on Tuesday. Mr Marquez was quite a character at LANL for years and was the Directors right hand man. Who knows why he was abruptly let go but perhaps his much rumored "Bill Cosby" type behavior caught up with him or something even more unethical. The announcement was not the usual lauding and heaps of praise of a high up manager upon leaving LANL. The true reasons may never be revealed. If I was upper management I would be pleased that he is gone. In the trenches he had a real soiled reputation. So, he gets to leave with his millions and more than likely unpunished, other than losing his high paid job. -
February 11, 2016 at 3:20 PM
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COMMENTS:
Rich Marquez, man that guy was a walking lawsuit, nobody liked him. Glad he is gone but I cannot imagine that LANS suddenly got a conscious and did the right thing it must of been something so bad that they had no choice. Well it least it is some good news.
Comments
And there is more!
I don't know what Marquez was trying to do with his email if not to scare people. There are people who misuse their computers, but LANL rarely does anything to them. It would jam up the already jammed up Staff Relations beyond hope. Of course one could say Staff Relations is beyond hope for lots of other reasons as well. And, Lord knows, Rich Marquez is the last person in the world who should be pointing fingers. The skeletons in his closet -- and office, would fill the Physics Auditorium.
Marquez then proceeded to stare at Rep. Debbie Rodella's chest (D-Rio Arriba) contemplatively as he further reflected upon all the goodness that UC has brought to Los Alamos.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 8/25/2005 06:53:00 AM
Note to clueless... LANL commenter "adminperf" is the same person who wrote the article. I have to wonder what she means by "the more relaxed form". Seeing as she met with Rich Marquez to write the article, the mind goes wild with the possibilities!
Oh, and don't forget.. keep wearing those shoes that GRIP!
11/4/09, 9:48 PM
Hey, isn't this is former DOE-guy Marquez? A female employee's worst nightmare, but at the Lab he's Mikey's right hand. Birds of a feather, as they say. What a wonderful place this is.
4/27/07, 3:17 PM
I vote for Marquez...visiting the "Posse Shacks" in Georgetown.
4/27/07, 7:20 PM
How dare you malign Mr. Marquez. He negotiated a no-tell exit from DOE when he voluntarily resigned. There is no record of his sexual harrassment of the female employees. If you don't believe me, ask him!
4/27/07, 8:47 PM
Marquez is certainly a great one to lecture anyone on proscribed extracurricular activities in the workplace.
It's not like Marquez has made some inappropriate actions on work time (spelled **harrassment**) during his illustrious career.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 6/01/2005 12:21:00 PM
Guess Rich "I like women" Marquez can leer at women since it doesn't involve misuse of government property.
I once overheard him say that he likens himself to Charlie's Angels, although he calls it "Rich's Angels."
As a Hispanic woman, I find him a disgrace to the Hispanic culture and the reason there is racism.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 6/01/2005 12:36:00 PM
http://lanl-the-rest-of-the-story.blogspot.com/2009/10/sexual-harassment-cliffs-notes.html
Hi Pinky,
This email was making the rounds Friday. My guess is that Rich Marquez asked for this cheat sheet to be developed for his own use.
-Anonymous
Richard Marquez is king of the sexual harassers. And kings, as we know, follow no rules.
10/15/09, 9:07 AM
Never even crossed my mind to use my cell phone to photograph the secretary's butt as she bends over to pick up a staple. Imagine what Sir Marquez has stored on his cell.
10/15/09, 9:16 AM
Richard Marquez gets an extra special 90 minute video to watch for his sexual harassment training. It goes by the name of "Debbie Does Dallas".
10/26/09, 8:59 PM
February 11, 2016 at 5:58 PM
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In New York city
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There'll be swingin', swayin' and records playin'
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Oh, it doesn't matter what you wear
Just as long as you are there
So come on, every guy grab a girl
Everywhere, around the world
There'll be dancin'
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This is an invitation across the nation
A chance for folks to meet
There'll be laughin', singin' and music swingin'
Dancin' in the street
Philadelphia P.A.
Baltimore and D.C. now
Can't forget the motor city
February 11, 2016 at 7:34 PM
Marquez long predates Charlie. He was also John Browne's gofur, and was (somehow) kept on for Nanos (not surprising) and Kuckuk (very surprising). And then Anastasio and Mcmillan. He left a trail of abused women and fired underlings who dared to question his behavior. One can only hope that the characterization of his departure indicates a pending indictment for sexual harassment; maybe he finally picked on the wrong woman.
http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/executive-director-at-lanl-abruptly-resigns/article_52d9e1e7-6225-5847-86e2-b5c0a531c8c4.html
From The Santa Fe article, hol* *t this sounds crazy.
"Last August Marquez was charged with four offenses in a domestic violence incident involving his girlfriend. The charges included battery against a household member, false imprisonment, interference with communication and larceny under $500. Marquez denied the charges and they were dismissed a few weeks later when the woman told prosecutors she did not want to pursue the case."
The girlfriend told police Marquez had been monitoring her cellphone and refused to leave her home when asked. She also said Marquez physically prevented her from leaving and “tackled” her to take her car keys away from her. When she attempted to call the police, he took her phone. He then blocked her driveway with his truck. The girlfriend asked her neighbor to call the police.
Marquez denied the woman’s account of the exchange at the time, and the woman told the police she did not want to file a report “because her boyfriend was ‘well connected’ and she did not want to get him into trouble.”
The girlfriend also showed police an email she said Marquez had written and sent from her computer saying she intended to “destroy his career.”
Both Montano and Walp said Thursday that should an investigation be reopened, Marquez would be “at the top of [the] list” for questioning.
“Mr. Marquez knows where all the bodies are buried,” Walp said.
Maybe Walp has point about this guy? We have real winners at LANL.
Beth Sellers now Rich Marquez, seems like there is be some real ethical lapses at the
highest level of the lab management. Why to go LANS! The thing that gets me is
that Marquez was already a known piece of work when they hired him and we had 15 years of this flipping psychopath, what the bloody hell is wrong with LANL? Maybe we really should just close it down and start again somewhere else. This place is just unbelievable.
Carolyn is known for having the Zerkle circle, a group of employees who are in her inner circle, kind of a like a high school girl clique where Carolyn is the head cheerleader I guess. There is reportedly a unique email distribution for these individuals with a LANL.gov address.
Her Zerkle circle is comprised of many underqualified employees. One of them is Albert Jiron, a former school teacher who during his career at LANL, including chief of staff to Richard Marquez, has been recycled through a multitude of "acting" leadership roles. He once managed procurement during the time of the procurement fraud waste and abuse. He is now an acting division leader paid a high salary exceeding $200K and for which his own management team and technical staff openly asks that he (Albert) remain in his office making coffee since that is the limit of his skill set.
It is time for DOE to investigate the salaries of individuals such as Albert Jiron who are only placeholders for different management positions in the Laboratory and whose sole purpose is to earn a high salary to perform zero contract work for DOE except to make coffee. Only at LANL is this an openly acceptable business practice to place selected individuals as placeholders in highly paid positions and then be reimbursed by DOE for that practice just because they are part of the Zerkle circle.
How is this not fraud waste and abuse for Carolyn Zerkle to select Albert Jiron to "manage" a technical division and program at LANL, knowing he does not possess the acumen nor is qualified to be paid hundreds of thousands of DOE funds. How prevalent is this practice?
How many in the Zerkle circle are as similarly underqualfied and are underperforming jobs and DOE is not aware it is reimbursing the Lab under the contract?
Perhaps it is time for DOE to terminate the contract now. The money being wasted is significant and the wasteful business practices are way over the top. I hope that DOE is able to recoup this money when it closes out the contract. It would be worth the money expended by DOE to perform a post award audit of LANL to send the message that contractors of DOE cannot rip it off. DOE will certainly get its money back.
I agree. 2017 is too far away to allow the contract to continue. Stop it now....
Charlie's top two hand picked leaders are now both gone in public disgrace. He's the one that brought Sellers to LANL just to work for him, and he sheltered both Sellers and Marquez for years. His poor judgement is on display for all to see, and yet he gets to keep on running a nuclear weapons lab even after such clear ethical failures.
Perhaps someone from the PRESS?
February 11, 2016 at 11:15 PM
Considering just how inbred the LANL culture has become, you are probably correct.
From LANL's website:
Received his bachelor’s degree in political science from Colorado State University and a juris doctorate from the University of New Mexico School of Law.
Not tough schools to get into. Only in government could this pedigree earn probably >$300k. LLNL has had it's share of highly paid, mediocre folks.
'In the trenches he had a real soiled reputation.'
Yes, he did some hard work with stiff resistance, but always got what he was after in the end.
Rich and his former wife were involved in a domestic dispute similar to that of him and his new girlfriend. Google Bonnie Marquez in the new mexico court website and you will find her mugshot. According to the court documents, Bonnie Marquez was arrested for domestic violence against Rich. According to the site, she weighs a little over 100 pounds and Rich looks like he carries twice that weight. I was always skeptical that his wife supposedly beat up Rich and it was likely the other way around but this was spun to protect his security clearance and his job.
Yes, he probably is laughing all the way to the bank but it is dirty money. So what if he did good deeds in New Mexico. At the same time, he posed a risk to our national security with his issues of domestic violence and he could have been compromised at any time.
I'm sure that now that LANS has lost the contract we will see more senior managers and other highly paid individuals who will suddenly discover they have a family and want to spend more time with them.
Could not help but notice that LAB established a provision this week, allowing for monetary awards to be given to employees for ethical behavior. LIke giving your kids candy not to lie, cheat and steal, I guess.
February 12, 2016 at 8:37 AM
From what I heard, it was a whole lot more than Charlie's eye that went wandering.
When sexual harassment is recognized as a criminal offense and not boys being boys, your daughters, granddaughters and other relatives (in some instances males are sexually harassed) then everyone will be unable to work in a safe environment. At the Lab, abusers are just moved around to other organizations to torment a new group of women.
Sexual harassment activity needs to be removed from employee relations to the auspices of security. That will stop moving the harassers around and will hold even senior managers accountable. Individuals might actually fear losing their clearance and will behave at work.
Someone with a 20+ record of sexual harassment should not be in a position of trust and should be unable to hold a national position of trust i.e., a security clearance.
I will assume that you are genuine and that was your experience however you are the only one I know who has such an opinion of Marquez. Every other opinion of him I know of has been extremely negative. That is a lot of people over a long period of time. If you still work at the lab than just ask anyone who has worked with or interacted with him about their opinion I think you will get the picture in short order. What still shocks me is that they hired this guy and allowed to be around for 15 years knowing full well that he was a huge liability and that it was just a matter of time before something bad was going to happen.
I knew several women who worked for Marquez during and after the sexual harassment cases became known, or at least rumored. They stuck up for him and declared him a great boss and a perfect gentleman. Then one of them fund out the truth, in a very personal way. It was sad to see her unable to get any help from Employee Relations, Ombuds, or HR in general. The scales were rigged in advance.
Rich Marquez - The Most Uninteresting Man in the World.
One jerk and hatchet man (Marquez) leaves, occupied by another jerk and hatchet man (Leasure). Good job McMillan, good job!
From the Albuquerque Journal:
"The charges against then LANL executive director Richard Marquez were filed in August after an incident where he and his girlfriend were reported to have argued and struggled over car keys and a cellphone – the woman said she’d been “tackled” and they wrestled as she was trying to leave her house after he refused to go, but she wasn’t injured. The case was dismissed after the woman decided to not prosecute. The reporting officer found the woman “to be credible and truthful,” and wrote that it “seems highly unlikely that she would write an e-mail to Marquez saying she was going to destroy his career when she had up to that point refused to even identify him to police.”
February 13, 2016 at 6:52 AM
Leasure is not really a jerk, he is an unqualified, clumsy, corrupt, and stupid. His main attribution is that he is a true yes man, so he will use the hatchet when told to do so. Sometimes you have no choice but to use a hatchet and someone has to do it, the problem comes in when the hatchet man is corrupt and the cuts reflect that. If it is done in a fair and consistent way you will still have some complaints but they way Marquez and Leasure do things it just creates utter distrust and contempt to for the system. After all of the beatings, scandals, and contract change maybe corrupt people are the only ones that can survive in the upper management. A variant of a Hunter Thompson quote comes to mind.
LANL is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side.
"Marquez was charged Aug. 25 with four counts, including battery of a household member and false imprisonment. The charges were dismissed in September"
and this is the reason he left the Lab... or was asked to leave..., then why on heaven's earth did it take until FEBRUARY 2016 for him to leave/be dismissed?
Could there be more to this?
Did he "forget" to report the charges to DoE [as required for his clearance] when this occurred, and were only now discovered?
Or could it be related to, and/or in addition to [Albuquerque Journal article]
"Montaño and two former lab investigators recently asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office to reopen the fraud case, saying evidence has emerged that may show the fraud went higher into the LANL hierarchy" ?
Hmm.
"Montaño and two former lab investigators recently asked the U.S. Attorney’s Office to reopen the fraud case, saying evidence has emerged that may show the fraud went higher into the LANL hierarchy" ?"
I think this scenario is unlikely, considering the time frame and the fact that no formal investigation has been reopened. I would guess something else was the cause.
You do have to report if you are charged with a crime so if he did not do this and they found out only now that could cause trouble, even if the charges where dismissed. It is odd that the the newspapers suddenly had all this information now, did they just find out about it, or did they know about this in 2015. In other words where they working on this story a few weeks ago and that found out about at the same time? If this is the reason that Richard was terminated, than he is really stupid, all he would have had to do was report it and maybe he would have been put on leave and once the charges where dismissed than that would be that and would still be working. It could have been a bit unconformable but if he really believed he was innocent it would have sorted itself out.
The other possibility is that August incidence was indeed correctly reported and played no part into why he left last week and there is some other reason.
Is there such a committee and was an ethics compliance requirement put in place after Beth Sellers' did not disclose that her husband had a cushy contract at LANL?
I wonder what we are getting now?
I wonder what we are getting now?
February 13, 2016 at 4:16 PM
So there will be some kind of new mandatory training involving firearms, edible underwear and blow?
Is there such a committee and was an ethics compliance requirement put in place after Beth Sellers' did not disclose that her husband had a cushy contract at LANL?
February 13, 2016 at 11:04 AM
Some folks just don't get it.
Yes, LANL has an ethics investigation and enforcement office - and it reported to Rich Marquez. It is hard to beat such an in-bred organization as LANL.
Oh my God, can this place get any crazier?
February 13, 2016 at 7:47 PM
You have obviously not been around LANL very long. This has been going on since way before Hecker and even before Bradbury. The number of incidents whose details were buried by upper management go way back to before the end of WWII. In those days, winning the war was paramount, but the ethic persisted, and even with seemingly benevolent leadership, the coverups were rampant. It is not a contradiction to say that LANL won WWII and helped to win the Cold War, but throughout, was plagued by scandals which either did, or did not, depending on the degree of classified information involved, see the light of day. There is nothing new under the sun, and all large organizations have essentially the same record over decades.
You may have a point, but it seems that since the contract change they do not even try to hide the corruption, in fact it is like the flaunt it to show just how powerful or above the law they are. There are a number of managers who talk about the lab in almost postmodern terms in that there is no right or wrong, good or bad, there are only winners and losers as defined by salary. Perhaps they are just getting way too flagrant and it is catching up. If they clean out the management and their cronies after the contract change it would be a good step forward but over the long term you may be right that this is just the way it is.
Beth Sellers and Rich Marquez are a fair representation of who's been running the lab over the last decade. The only thing that distinguishes Beth and Rich two from their peers is that these two got caught.
I reported him to his immediate supervisor, then up to the chain to you guessed it - Rich Marquez.
The Lab treats the victims as a pariah and the victim is forever called a troublemaker.
The Lab's (Rich Marquez's) solution was to move me away from the harasser to another tech site far away from the harasser. The group leader went on to harass more women but it was oh well wink wink.
I am retired but to this day, it makes me sick to my stomach even after therapy. Once I retired, I have never returned to the Lab for any type of event and I threw away my various service awards. There is nothing in my home related to the Lab. I am glad that my retirement does not reference LANL.
Rich's behavior and his protection of the abusers of the Lab, will never be forgotten by victims such as myself.
And yet in another blog the Lab took credit for a scientific accomplishment that it apparently did not;
And yet the Lab's containers are a ticking time bomb at WIPP, after it used organic litty litter because someone had a typo;
And yet a worker sustained severe burns after an electrical "mishap"
And yet Beth Sellers tried to circumvent rules by not reporting her husband's lucrative contract;
You doth protest too much. It is all bs and an increasing pool of people know it
As if Rich was really separated by such a chinese wall - good in concept but never in reality
February 18, 2016 at 7:43 PM"
I know cats land on their feet when they fall, I did not know this was also true if they are thrown. I feel bad for your pets.
February 18, 2016 at 8:02 PM
These are also the traits that that they look for in future lab managers.
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