Two fired employees of the Monroe County (Tenn.) Sheriff’s Office have filed a federal lawsuit claiming they were terminated for political activity and for exposing vote-buying.
Former Detective Capt. Doug Brannon and former process server Eddie Manning filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Knoxville against current Sheriff Tommy Jones II and his chief deputy, Randy White.
The lawsuit claims both men were let go in October 2014 in retaliation for their political ties to previous sheriff Bill Bivens, as well as for their participation in an investigation into alleged vote-buying in the county by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the office of the district attorney general.
Brannon and Manning say their First and 14th Amendment rights were violated.
“The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution prohibits government officials from terminating government employees based on their political associations or based on the official’s desire to make room for his own political supporters. Similarly, both the United States Constitution and the Tennessee Public Protection Act protect individuals who participate in a government investigation from being terminated in retaliation for their participation in the investigation,” said their attorney, Scott Tift, with Barrett Johnston Martin & Garrison, of Nashville.
Jones and White said they were unaware of the lawsuit Thursday, but were adamant that the firings were justified.
“Those allegations are not true,” White said. “Their terminations were based on performance, and we have evidence to substantiate that in court.”
Jones said Brannon and Manning were fired for their own mistakes. He said Brannon failed to assign 136 cases to detectives, and after he was fired that number ballooned to more than 200. He said he received several complaints about Manning planting contraband on inmates, and that Manning was caught on tape dropping a screwdriver into an inmate’s shoe.
Both Jones and White denied any knowledge of the vote-buying issue or termination for political reasons. Jones said Bivens’ daughter is a clerk in his office and one of his best employees. He said he even kept Bivens’ chief deputy, Bryan Graves, on until Graves chose to leave the department last week.
“We’ve kept a lot of their employees,” Jones said. “It’s not like we’re just bringing our own guys in. It came down to performance with those two.”
Stephen D. Crump, district attorney general for the 10th Judicial District, said Thursday the investigation is ongoing and he was not aware of the lawsuit.
The plaintiffs are seeking to be reinstated to their former positions in the Monroe County Sheriff’s Department, as well as back pay and damages.
Contact Will Healey at whealey@timesfreepress.com, (423) 757-6731, or on Twitter at @wfhealey.