Concerning my earlier posts about Howard, perhaps this is what happened. Considering what he talked about in the talk and the obvious concern it was causing him, and even the fact that he would talk about the situation in a talk at a CA, maybe he had been falsely accused and on the way to being DF'd. I'm sure as a DO he would have been given plenty of leeway in the matter. Maybe he was even DF'd, but was able to prove his innocense before it was announced.
That would explain the descrepancies in the dates were are seeing here .