State investigating Bud Day

Gov. Rick Scott has appointed a special prosecutor to help investigate allegations that 86-year-old Medal of Honor recipient Bud Day was paid $84,000 a year for a job he didn’t do.

Day, a Vietnam prisoner of war and retired Air Force colonel, says the move was prompted by his political enemies and the allegations against him are an insult to the reputation he has built over more than 50 years of public service.

Day was hired by newly elected Public Defender James Owens in 2009 to supervise eight employees in the district’s office in Shalimar. But some employees there claimed the revered war hero and Republican political activist rarely came to work and didn’t do much other than drink coffee and read the newspaper when he did.

Day, a former Vietnam cellmate of U.S. Sen. John McCain, campaigned for Owens and appeared with him on billboards.

Day said Owens asked him to do take the job because he is an attorney and an experienced executive who has led both fighter squadrons and legal staffs.

“It is outrageous to say I was always drinking coffee and reading the newspaper,” Day said. “I had a supervisor’s job. I was superior to everyone in that office and I didn’t have to explain to everyone what I did. I did exactly what my boss told me to do. I was there as an executive manager.”

An executive order signed by Scott on Monday to appoint the special prosecutor states that Day and Owens are under investigation.

“I’m not concerned about the investigation. I know it will vindicate James and me,” Day said. “But this is a personal insult after some 50 years, all of which has been spent in commendable public service. I have a reputation for straightforwardness and honesty, and a lot of people will read the stories and think this is the guy who clipped the state for $84,000. It is a mean, despicable political trick.”

Owens did not return phone messages left by The Associated Press on Friday.

Mike Van Cavage, Owen’s chief assistant public defender, said he could not comment because of the ongoing investigation.

“When everybody found out Bud Day was getting ($84,000) a year and there he was literally coming in, drinking a cup of coffee and leaving every day, everybody was not happy about it, obviously,” Ann Rogers, who worked as an investigator with the Shalimar office for three months in 2009 before she was fired, told The Pensacola News Journal on Thursday. Rogers said she had been questioned by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Day, who is undergoing treatment for esophageal cancer, will turn 87 Feb. 24. He has been on unpaid administrative leave from the Public Defender’s Office since June 15, 2010.

The former Air Force pilot was shot down over North Vietnam in 1967 and captured. He later escaped but was recaptured. He was released by the North Vietnamese in 1973 after five years and seven months.

Day went on to practice law in Fort Walton Beach and is known for defending veterans.

He filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government in 1996 on behalf of military retirees who lost their military medical benefits at age 65 and had to apply for Medicare. Because of his lawsuit, Congress created TRICARE For Life, which restored military medical benefits for career military retirees over 65 and made them eligible for Medicare and TRICARE.

Day has done legal work in recent years for Iraq and Afghanistan to ensure they receive full military benefits for their war injuries.

He supported his friend McCain in his 2008 presidential campaign. He also was a leading backer in the 2004 anti-John Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth movement, which sought to undermine Kerry’s credibility as a Vietnam veteran during his failed presidential run.

Despite his age and illness, Day continues to make public appearances. He received a lengthy standing ovation from a crowd of hundreds gathered at Eglin Air Force Base last fall to celebrate the arrival of the first F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to the base.