Pubdate: Thu, 04 Oct 2001
Source: Commercial Appeal (TN)
Copyright: 2001 The Commercial Appeal
Contact:  http://www.gomemphis.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/95
Author: Bartholomew Sullivan

TUNICA NARCOTICS OFFICER SUES OVER FIRING

TUNICA, Miss. - A former narcotics officer in the Tunica County 
Sheriff's Department says Sheriff Jerry Ellington warned employees 
they'd be fired if they met with the FBI or Mississippi Bureau of 
Narcotics last year. In a federal lawsuit filed in Oxford this week, 
former Lt. Jerome Hudson alleges he was wrongly terminated in 
February for being a "whistle-blower'' in a joint state and federal 
probe that brought down the previous sheriff.

Hudson says he was fired on the pretext that he had falsified records 
to keep a federal witness in custody.

While he worked at the sheriff's department, he says he cooperated in 
a federal Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, Bureau of Narcotics 
and Mississippi Highway Patrol investigation of internal corruption 
that led to the guilty pleas of former sheriff John J. Pickett III 
and chief deputy Willie Starks, in 1999.

Hudson alleges that on May 18, 2000, Ellington told him and other 
staff not to meet with the FBI or the narcotics bureau "as they were 
trying to put him (Ellington) out of office.''

As a narcotics officer, Hudson told Ellington he had to meet with 
those agencies to meet his job obligations.

More than nine months later, at the conclusion of a criminal trial at 
which the alleged false documents about the detained witness became 
an issue, Ellington fired Hudson.

One of the defendants in that drug case had alleged misconduct on the 
part of federal prosecutors and had proved, in a previous trial, that 
an FBI agent had falsified a document. The FBI agent was charged and 
later pleaded guilty to the charge.

In an interview in his office Wednesday, Ellington said he probably 
did warn employees not to talk with authorities from other agencies.

"May 18, 2000? I don't know. I might have. If I did, it was not in a 
derogatory way.''

He said he may have told them not to talk to "the FBI or CIA or 
anybody else'' because he wanted official inquiries to come through 
him.

He said his policy was: "If you want to talk to (my employees), I 
have no problem with that. My stuff is right out here on top of the 
table.''

As for the wrongful termination, Ellington said there was no pretext. 
Hudson had had a female witness in the same drug case held in jail, 
telling jailers she was in the witness protection program. Ellington 
later learned that wasn't true, he said.

"He falsified information about some witness protection program; 
that's what he put in her folder,'' he said.

It raised issues of legal liability and the inmate's civil rights, he said.

"If that has been going on previously, how many others has it 
happened to?'' he asked. "How can I reinstate you? If you can justify 
it, I'll maybe give you some consideration. .|.|. He violated 
policies. It ain't my fault.''

Hudson's version, as stated in the lawsuit, is that "it was 
well-known by all involved,'' including the FBI and U.S. Attorney's 
Office, that the woman was not a formal participant in the federal 
witness protection program but merely a federal witness. The lawsuit 
says Hudson was praised for his service to the FBI.

Hudson says Ellington's statements damaged his reputation and 
affected his ability to get a job in law enforcement.

Hudson's is one of more than a dozen civil lawsuits filed this year 
against the sheriff's department, which has instituted extensive 
employee retraining conducted by a Texas consulting firm.

Ellington said the barrage of lawsuits may spur more litigation by 
people with no legitimate claims.

"Who wouldn't jump on the bandwagon now?'' he asked
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MAP posted-by: Josh