Professional Documents
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R. LYNN MCAFEE,
Plaintiff, COMPLAINT
AND JURY DEMAND
vs.
Defendants.
Sheriff Doug Anderson (“Sheriff” or “Mr. Anderson”), and Mike Seely (“Mr.
This lawsuit arises from Lt. McAfee’s wrongful termination from Juab
County without just cause and in violation of his Constitutional property rights
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under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments, as provided under 42 U.S.C. § 1983,
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e, and the Utah
II. PARTIES
1. Lt. McAfee resides in the State of Utah, Juab County, and was a
deputy employed by Juab County at all times relevant to the allegations in this
Complaint.
Sheriff of Juab County. Sheriff Anderson is being sued in his official and
Human Resource Director of Juab County. Mr. Seely is being sued in his official
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occurred within the jurisdiction of this Court and because all Defendants live in the
State of Utah.
a Notice of Claim pursuant to the Governmental Immunity Act of Utah, Utah Code
Ann. § 63G-7-401 et. seq., alleging that he was wrongfully terminated in violation
of the Utah whistleblower act. Defendant Juab County has not responded to the
Notice of Claim.
October 29, 2015, by Sheriff Anderson to work as the Jail Commander with the
rank of Lieutenant.
2. The County’s job posting for Jail Commander did not indicate that the
position was anything other than a merit service position, as is common with most
3. When Lt. McAfee accepted employment with the County, the County
again did not inform him that his position was anything other than a merit service
position.
4. The County did require that Lt. McAfee sign a document stating that
new employees were on probation for one year and could be terminated at-will
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5. Additionally, the letter stated that “[a] copy of the Juab County
Human Resource Policies and Procedures [would] be made available for [Lt.
McAfee] to review.
6. Unfortunately, the County did not provide the policy manual until
7. The letter also hinted that after successfully completing probation, and
“if eligible, [Lt. McAfee] may become a merit employee as described in Juab
highly competent Jail Commander for the next two years, demonstrating that he
was a dependable employee who was willing to work irregular, on-call, and long
employee, not as an at will employee, consistent with other County lieutenants and
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10. Shortly after Lt. McAfee became Jail Commander in 2015, the jail
(“UDC”) Inmate Placement Program (“IPP”). The evaluation determined that the
jail failed to meet minimum standards. For example, while reviewing jail closed
circuit video the auditors observed a jailer who slept during his shift and failed to
11. Lt. McAfee took immediate steps to correct the deficiencies in the
audit and received feedback from UDC administrators and the Independent Jail
implemented difficult and often conflicting orders from Sheriff Anderson given the
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schedule to staff a supervisor at the jail with coverage sixteen hours a day, from
would leave the jail short-staffed during transports of prisoners to court. Lt.
McAfee informed the Sheriff that staffing would not allow such a schedule to
which Sheriff Anderson said, “Well, the road is just going to have to step up!”
Anderson denied any knowledge of requiring the road deputies to perform court
transports.
16. The Sheriff’s actions caused delay and confusion regarding prisoner
transports, seriously affected the morale of both the corrections and road deputies,
pitted each against the other, and wasted public funds and staffing.
17. Sheriff Anderson made other dishonest and disruptive decisions and
statements through Lt. McAfee’s employment at Juab County. In fact, the Sheriff’s
conflicting decisions and denial of those decisions was well known through the
18. In June 2017, Sheriff Anderson announced he would send all eleven
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Officers Standards and Training (“POST”). Lt. McAfee was concerned about the
financial burden this would place on the County, as it would potentially cost
for transportation to the training for all eleven officers. Additionally, the County
would incur additional staffing costs to cover the shifts of these officers.
Due to other agencies’ hiring difficulties, there exists a strong statewide hiring
demand for officers that are already certified as LEOs, prompting better incentives
20. The newly trained corrections officers could immediately seek jobs at
other law enforcement agencies within the state. Lt. McAfee was concerned that
sending all the corrections officers through POST at once would increase the
Taylor (“Chief Taylor”) approached Lt. McAfee and asked him what he thought
22. When Lt. McAfee explained his concerns to Chief Taylor, Chief
Taylor got very defensive and responded saying, “You cannot hold people’s
careers back because they might leave.” Lt. McAfee agreed with that statement,
but rebutted Chief Taylor’s view, explaining it was not in the County’s best
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interest to send corrections officers to unnecessary training that would prompt the
officers to leave because the County would lose valuable employees in whom it
23. During the next Command Staff meeting, Sheriff Anderson asked
everyone their opinions on sending all corrections officers through POST. Lt.
McAfee was the first to speak, and when he began to express his concerns, Sherriff
Anderson quickly interrupted him saying, “When, I give a directive, why do you
24. Lt. McAfee responded, “In all fairness, you did not present this as a
directive, you asked what we thought about it. This implied that you wanted our
input.” Then, Chief Taylor came to Sherriff Anderson’s defense and angrily
exclaimed that Lt. McAfee was out of line and that he should not disrespect the
Sheriff.
25. During this exchange, the majority of supervisors present voiced their
opinions in agreement with Lt. McAfee, who then said, “Doug, this meeting is
when we should be able to express our thoughts and views and have a discussion.
When we go out that door and your decision has been made, then we need to
26. Lt. McAfee then added that if the County was a business, it would
never spend money and do something that may cause it to lose its employees, or it
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would go out of business. Ultimately, despite requesting feedback from the staff,
Sherriff Anderson and Chief Taylor refused to listen to the Command Staff’s
“bitch” and stated that he was “sick and tired of Claudia’s attitude.” Lt. McAfee
was uncomfortable with this gender harassment of Sgt. Newell and defended her.
Likely sensing Lt. McAfee’s discomfort, Sheriff Anderson said, “You can’t tell her
29. Lt. McAfee also communicated his concerns about Sheriff Anderson’s
30. Following the Sheriff’s example, other officers openly and freely
made various negative and discriminatory comments about female employees. For
example, male officers complained to the Sheriff that neither Sgt. Newell nor Sgt.
Jacobsen should do inmate transfers together because they are both female.
31. Officers also stated that the female sergeants should not be able to
work or even go to lunch together because of their gender, stating they needed to
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work at different times and shifts, yet all other male supervisors routinely went to
lunch together.
32. Many officers also made negative comments towards Sgt. Newell for
having taken FMLA leave and towards Sgt. Jacobsen for scheduling FMLA leave
in the future.
33. As the ranking supervisor at the jail, Lt. McAfee took measures to
correct officers’ discriminatory comments, but his efforts were negated by Sheriff
Anderson’s conduct.
occasions about the Sheriff’s conflicting orders and resulting chaos, the
attributable to the Sheriff. Initially, Sheriff Anderson seemed to agree with Lt.
McAfee on the problems he reported and even committed to correcting the issues,
36. On August 3, 2017, Lt. McAfee, Sgt. Newell, and Sgt. Jacobsen met
with Mike Seely, the Juab County Human Resource Director, and described the
problems detailed above and Lt. McAfee’s efforts to resolve the problems.
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37. The following day, Lt. McAfee sent a follow-up letter and
documentation describing his good faith belief that Sheriff Anderson was wasting
or misusing public funds, and potentially violating the law. Lt. McAfee also
described his repeated attempts to resolve his concerns with Sheriff Anderson.
38. Initially, the County and Sheriff Anderson appeared to take Lt.
McAfee’s concerns seriously and reported that it would start an investigation into
39. During the next several weeks, Sheriff Anderson and Lt. McAfee only
communicated when absolutely necessary. On August 29, 2017, Lt. McAfee was in
the Sheriff’s Office parking lot discussing a personnel issue with another
Lieutenant. Sheriff Anderson motioned Lt. McAfee over to his vehicle, engaged in
small talk and asked Lt. McAfee what he was discussing with the lieutenant. Lt.
McAfee explained the personnel issue and then asked Sheriff Anderson if the
conflict between them could be resolved. Sheriff Anderson replied, “I either have
40. Lt. McAfee told Sheriff Anderson that there were other options to
resolve the situation besides clearing his name or resigning and said that he just
wanted to do his job without the past conflicts and being threatened.
41. Sheriff Anderson seemed to relax at this point and his tone of voice
softened. He seemed relieved that Lt. McAfee was willing to make compromises
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and resolve the conflict between them. Sheriff Anderson then admitted that he
“took a look at [himself] in the mirror to see who [he] really is” and that he was
42. The conversation ended on a positive note and Lt. McAfee believed
there was a possibility that the issues he reported would be resolved amicably.
13, 2017, Mr. Seely wrote a response to Lt. McAfee’s complaints against Sheriff
Anderson. In the letter, the County denied any remedy to Lt. McAfee because he
did not have standing to file a grievance and threatened his employment by
“counseling [Lt. McAfee] to carefully re-evaluate [his] loyalty to the Sheriff, Chief
44. Incredibly, Mr. Seely “[found] that failure to provide due process is
45. The County then told Lt. McAfee, for the first time, that his position
was a career service position and that “Only ‘career service’ employees are
afforded the right to submit a grievance per Juab County Human Resource Policy.”
current Juab County corrections officer. The investigator questioned Lt. McAfee
and other jail supervisors about the corrections officer. A short time later, a second
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investigator from Millard County requested follow-up interviews with Lt. McAfee
twice and questioned him about whether Lt. McAfee had been truthful in the first
interview.
Anderson against Lt. McAfee for alleged untruthful statements he made to the
48. Ultimately, the background check revealed that the corrections officer
had failed to list a theft conviction on his POST application when he was hired by
the County but did disclose the theft when he applied to Sanpete County. POST
opened an investigation into the officer’s applications and ordered that his peace
officer certification be suspended for three years. Despite this ruling, Sheriff
Anderson allowed the officer to continue working at the jail during his POST
appeals.
49. Having created what it felt was sufficient “cause” to terminate Lt.
McAfee.
50. The Sheriff told Lt. McAfee that he “had a lot of evidence to back up
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explained to Lt. McAfee that he was being terminated without cause because he
51. Lt. McAfee appealed his termination to Mr. Seely and received a
response dated January 16, 2018, stating again, that his position was at-will and
termination by sending a written request to both the County Commission and the
of wages and the value of lost benefits. His career, reputation, and specific job
prospects have suffered from the disparaging comments and actions of County
officials.
54. In addition, Lt. McAfee has suffered emotional distress and continues
to suffer ongoing mental and physical effects of this situation which has affected
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reasonable expectation that his employment would continue absent just cause.
rights to due process of law under the United States Constitution, by firing him and
by denying him adequate pre and post-termination process, which includes notice,
58. Despite the County’s refusal to provide him due process, Lt. McAfee
59. At all times relevant hereto, Defendants acted under color of law
known.
62. As a result of Defendants’ conduct, Lt. McAfee has been injured, has
suffered, and will continue to suffer losses. Pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983 et seq.,
back pay, reinstatement and/or front pay, and actual and compensatory damages, as
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64. The Utah Whistleblower Act, Utah Code Ann. § 65-21-1 et seq.,
federal law, rule, or regulation. Specifically, Utah Code Ann. § 67-21-3(1)(a) states
that “[a]n employer may not take adverse action against an employee because the
regulation adopted under the law of this state, a political subdivision of this state,
65. As more specifically set forth above, Lt. McAfee communicated his
concerns of the waste of government funds and staffing to Sheriff Anderson, Chief
66. In addition, Lt. McAfee also communicated his concerns about gender
67. Defendant Juab County took adverse action against Lt. McAfee
because of his reports. For example, as more fully set forth above, after Lt.
McAfee reported Sheriff Anderson’s misconduct and his waste of public funds and
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staffing Sheriff Anderson and Chief Taylor criticized Lt. McAfee for not simply
following along and threatened Lt. McAfee to not oppose the Sheriff. Mr. Seely
glossing over the Sheriff’s behavior and accused Lt. McAfee of misconduct and
him. Ultimately, the County via Sheriff Anderson, terminated Lt. McAfee claiming
Whistleblower Act and Lt. McAfee has been injured as a result of the County’s
actions.
69. Lt. McAfee is entitled to: back pay and benefits, reinstatement (or
front pay and benefits in lieu of reinstatement), and interest (both pre and post-
judgment).
70. As a further result of the County’s actions, Lt. McAfee is also entitled
to general damages due to his emotional distress and damage to his reputation, and
71. Lt. McAfee is also entitled to recover his attorney’ fees and costs
73. The County may not retaliate against an employee who has either
opposed any practice made unlawful under Title VII or has made a charge or
74. Lt. McAfee opposed Sheriff Anderson’s treatment of the female jail
County employees and, in addition, reported his good faith belief of discrimination
to Mr. Seely.
75. The County took adverse action against Lt. McAfee when it pressured
him to go along with policies and actions he opposed, targeted him with an
76. A causal connection exists between the adverse actions and Lt.
McAfee’s report of discrimination because the adverse actions were taken shortly
77. Lt. McAfee has been injured as a result of the County’s actions.
78. Lt. McAfee is entitled to: back pay and benefits, reinstatement (or
front pay and benefits in lieu of reinstatement), and interest (both pre and post-
judgment).
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79. As a further result of the County’s actions, Lt. McAfee is also entitled
to general damages due to his emotional distress and damage to his reputation, and
80. Lt. McAfee is also entitled to recover his attorney’ fees and costs
judgment in his favor and against Defendants, and award the following relief:
g. Attorneys’ fees and costs of this action, including expert witness fees,
as appropriate; and
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