Thursday, April 24, 2014
City Dismissed From Police Officer’s Lawsuit
The City of Lawrenceburg has been dismissed from a lawsuit filed last year by a police officer who claimed his rights were violated when coworkers illegally installed a tracking device on his patrol car.
The suit was filed in August on behalf of officer Johnathan Blake Grooms. Defendants named in the suit included the City of Lawrenceburg, Lawrenceburg Police Department, Hughie Dean Englett, Samuel Doris McConnell, Jr., Christopher Robin Barnett, and “officers John Doe 1-9 (yet-to-be identified officers).”
The suit alleges that while Grooms was in the department parking lot a GPS device was attached to the brush guard on his patrol car by Englett and Barnett. Grooms reported that he pulled over shortly afterwards and found the device, then took it to his attorney and notified Chief Judy Moore.
Documents show that a few days later Grooms set up a video camera in the police department parking lot to observe his vehicle. The surveillance footage reportedly shows Englett searching Groom’s car in the area where he had found the GPS device.
During an administrative investigation Englett and McConnell were sanctioned for “misrepresentation during an administrative inquiry.” During appeal the decision was upheld by then-City Administrator William McClain.
When it was appealed to the Lawrenceburg Board of Mayor and Council, the suit purports that, “The sanctions were overturned…in a closed-door meeting from which the public was physically restricted at the direction of the mayor and council.”’
The lawsuit alleged that the incident was an invasion of Grooms’ privacy and that it, and other incidents, had created a hostile work environment. It also alleged that the council had violated Tennessee Open Meeting Requirements, “By holding a City of Lawrenceburg Council meeting where a quorum was required, and preventing the public from attending.”
The lawsuit sought injunctive relief against the city for violation of the Open Meeting requirements; that the decision be overturned or rendered void; compensatory damages of between $75,000 and $150,000; and punitive damages in an amount of no less than $2,100,000.
During a meeting of the Lawrenceburg Council Thursday morning City Administrator Chris Shaffer announced that the city has been dismissed from the case and no longer faces legal action.
