AKRON, Ohio – Dr. Drew Engles, president of the board of trustees at the Akron Museum of Art, told cleveland.com this week that a board-commissioned investigation of then-museum director Mark Masuoka found “no one” who alleged Masuoka had used racist “coded language” at a 2019 meeting.
But former museum employee Jessica Fijalkovich provided cleveland.com with an audio recording in which Fijalkovich can be heard discussing the allegation in a 100-minute interview in July, 2019 with a lawyer for Kastner Westman and Wilkins, the firm that trustees hired to conduct the investigation.
“Mark, the director, said, that’s quoted here, ‘I mean how many people in Akron actually have access to a cell phone, and if they do, it’s probably a gangster throwaway phone,’ ” the lawyer said, quoting from an unspecified account of the meeting with Masuoka. “You witnessed that?’’
“Yes,” Fijalkovich replies.
She later adds, “I do remember that being said, vividly.”
When the lawyer, whom Fijalkovich identified as Tom Green, asks how Fijalkovich interpreted Masuoka’s language, she says: “I certainly think it implied something about race, and also the way that he talks about the population of Akron in general, and black people. That’s just how I felt about it.”
In the recording, the lawyer says to Fijalkovich that he is not making a recording. He asks her if she is making a recording. She did not reply audibly.
In an email Friday, Fijalkovich said: “I made a recording out of self-defense because I knew the law firm was working for management.’
On Tuesday, Masuoka, the museum’s director since 2013, resigned amid unresolved tensions over allegations of racism, sexism and bullying of employees by managers that reportedly occurred on his watch, including the gangster cell phone comment.
Also on Tuesday, Masuoka denied in a statement provided by his lawyer that he used offensive language as alleged during a 2019 meeting.
Engles did not immediately respond Friday to questions about the recording and his earlier assertion in a letter to cleveland.com that no one had disclosed the allegation about coded language to investigators.
Lawyers at KWW also did not respond immediately to two phone calls Friday seeking comment.
On Friday, the museum responded with a statement:
“The Akron Art Museum stands by Dr. Engles’ statement and its actions following scores of hours of attributed and anonymous interviews conducted during the 2019 investigation. The investigation’s findings were based on the totality of evidence and not solely on individual statements. All evidence was considered, evaluated and then findings were made as to whether each allegation was substantiated, unsubstantiated or disproven as part of the investigation. Accordingly, the statement Ms. Fijalkovich surreptitiously recorded during the interview and supplied to you was not substantiated. Regarding Ms. Crowe’s comments, KWW’s file from her interview does not contain notes or screen shots as described in the Plain Dealer article. Upon learning of their apparent existence last week, KWW requested those documents from her counsel who was present at the interview. We have yet to receive them.”
Amanda Crowe, a former museum employee, said Friday that her lawyer has been in touch with KWW on the matter.
In his letter issued to cleveland.com, Engles questioned the veracity of a May 15 story that quoted both Fijalkovich and Crowe as saying they had attended the 2019 meeting with Masuoka and had reported to KWW that Masuoka had used language they considered to be offensive.
The board president stated that he had no “firsthand knowledge” of the language used by Masuoka. “I do know that no one came forth at the time of the investigation to substantiate such a claim,” he added.
Crowe, the museum’s former associate educator, and Fijalkovich, the former library and archives manager, were laid off from the museum March 30.
Both said they felt they were laid off in retaliation for having contributed to an anonymous letter of complaint provided by 27 current and former employees to museum trustees in June, 2019.
The museum has denied that any employees were laid off in retaliation. It said it had to impose pay cuts and furloughs in response to budget shortfalls related to closing the museum, in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Recording backs former Akron Art Museum employee’s claim she reported allegation about museum in 2019 - cleveland.com
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