St. Clair County and its sheriff are denying allegations of nepotism, corruption and more made in a federal lawsuit filed earlier this summer.
Former St. Clair County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Scott Jones filed the suit July 30, and is seeking over $75,000 in damages and court costs, as well as a judgment declaring his First Amendment rights were violated by the sheriff and county. The county and sheriff responded to the complaint on Thursday, August 22.
According to Jones’ complaint, the suit stems from an incident almost two years ago– the November 2022 OWI arrest of Marcus King, a St. Clair County Sheriff’s deputy and brother to Sheriff Mat King. The former officer says he was pressured into retirement by his superiors, including Sheriff King, a little over a month after the 2022 arrest, after bringing his concerns about the sheriff’s actions to the county’s Human Resources Department.
The actions of concern included Sheriff King allegedly calling Jones about two hours after the 2:00 a.m. arrest and angrily telling him “You need to unf— this” situation and retrieve the sheriff’s brother from the Lapeer County Jail, despite the jail staff putting a pick-up hold on Marcus King due to his high BAC level of 0.18.
Though Jones did not obey the demand, Marcus King was released from jail only three hours after his initial arrest. In their response, the county frames it as “ a Sheriff Deputy exercis[ing] lawful authority over a detainee who was transported to the wrong jail and arrang[ing] for the return of said Deputy to the St. Clair County Sheriff’s office.”
Jones, who began at the sheriff’s office as a part-time officer in 1993 and became a lieutenant in 2021, claims in his lawsuit that his decision to hold Marcus King at the Lapeer County Jail after his arrest was made to avoid a conflict of interest by the sheriff, and that he had been unable to reach his superiors when he attempted to inform them.
In their answer to the complaint, the county and sheriff admits that Jones had called at least two superiors– Undersheriff James Spadafore and Captain Matthew Pohl– and that his voicemails to them went unanswered. They also admit that the sheriff did indeed vulgarly tell Jones to fix the situation, as well as admitting that Lapeer County Jail did have a hold on Marcus that would have prevented him being released before he sobered up, with the hold meant to last until 1:00 p.m. on November 6.
Still, Lt. Jones reported that he was not punished or reprimanded for his actions the night of the arrest, which the county and sheriff echoed this in their response, noting that aside from a verbal reprimand in July 2022, Jones had not received any type of disciplinary charges against him during his time at the office. However, they do deny his claim that it wasn’t until after he met with a county HR representative on November 14, 2022, that an alleged effort to oust Jones began.
Within a week of the meeting, Jones was allegedly accused of leaking details of the arrest on social media, of being insubordinate and lying, and told that the county could not investigate his concerns, and could only address issues of employee treatment/contract disputes. Both parties admit that a supplemental report was added to the arrest report 17 days after the arrest occurred, the same morning that Jones was informed he was under investigation for the alleged leak.
Following another meeting, wherein his superior read him his Garrity Rights (which dictates that if a person is compelled to give a statement for a work investigation, that statement cannot be used in criminal prosecution) despite his insistence of innocence, Jones began the retirement process on December 9, 2022. An hour after he began the process, he was allegedly informed that he had until the following Monday (December 12) to either retire, or face getting fired at a meeting the following Wednesday. He resigned December 14, 2022, and was placed on paid administrative leave until his official retirement date of January 21, 2023.
Jones claims that not only did the county and sheriff violate his First Amendment right to free speech by retaliating against him and his HR complaint, but they denied him his due process in their investigation into the leak, thus violating the 14th Amendment as well.
While Jones is seeking monetary damages, the county and sheriff’s office are asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed “with prejudice and [for the Court] to enter a judgment of no cause of action”, so Jones would be unable to pursue further action against them on the matter. They are also asking for costs and attorney fees.
It is unclear when a decision might be reached, with no hearings scheduled.
Read the lawsuit here:
And the response here:
