A federal judge has ordered initial disclosures due by the end of the month in a lawsuit alleging workplace corruption at St. Clair County’s Sheriff’s Office.
Judge Nancy G. Edmunds, of the Eastern District of Michigan, has also ordered witness lists due on December 20, and for discovery to be completed by mid-February 2025. The case’s schedule was confirmed last Monday, September 30. Former St. Clair County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Scott Jones filed the suit July 30, with the county and sheriff responding to the complaint on Thursday, August 22. The suit is against Sheriff Mat King, specifically, and the county.
According to Jones’ complaint, the suit stems from the November 2022 OWI arrest of Marcus King, a St. Clair County Sheriff’s deputy and the brother of 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. Part of that pressure was a supposed investigation into a social media leak about the incident, with Jones accused, despite his denials, and eventually told that he would be fired if he did not retire. Jones 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.
While Sheriff King and the county initially asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed “with prejudice,” they are now saying, via discovery scheduling documents, that Jones was going to be disciplined after “compelling evidence” was found allegedly connecting the former lieutenant to the social media leak, but he was allowed to resign instead. (This statement begins on page 7 of the first document below.)
While the trial is tentatively planned for next July, with the final pretrial conference on July 1, 2025, dispositive motions can be filed until April 28, 2025, which would seek to have some or all of the lawsuit dismissed on various claims.
