Louisiana Voice

The sheriff of Rapides Parish has settled a federal discrimination lawsuit brought by deputy sheriff Jerry McKinney, Sr., against the department and former Sheriff William Earl Hilton for $187,500.

Unfortunately, McKinney died while his case was ongoing. But, say New Orleans attorneys William Most and Kerry Murphy, who represented McKinney, his case was so strong that in the few days leading up to the trial date, the sheriff’s office agreed to settle with his widow.

McKinney, a former Army officer and a 20-year veteran of the Rapides Parish Sheriff’s Office, suffered a stroke in late 2017.

Following his stroke, he was able to return to work but did not pass his firearm recertification. The RPSO moved him to a 12-hour shift at the jail that did not require firearm certification. But the 12-hour shifts caused health problems, the lawsuit said.

McKinney’s physician recommended that his schedule be modified to eight-hour shifts and he was moved to an eight-hour job in the kitchen.

But when RPSO administrators (Sheriff Hilton) found out, McKinney was ordered back to a 12-hour position and told that if he could not work that shift, he “should retire.” When McKinney refused to retire and asked to be put in any eight-hour position anywhere in the sheriff’s office, he was fired – five days before Christmas.

McKinney filed suit, claiming that his termination was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

In the course of the lawsuit, attorney Most said, it was discovered that the sheriff’s office was “dramatically out of compliance” with the ADA. The office had no ADA coordinator, did not conduct any ADA training and described employees requesting accommodations as “complainers.”

Hilton even testified in deposition that in his 24 years as sheriff, his office had never provided an accommodation to an employee with a disability.

As of last April, the RPSO still had not addressed its ADA problems. When a public records request was made for the current ADA grievance procedures or any documents reflecting the designation of an ADA coordinator, the sheriff’s office was unable to produce any such documentation, Most said.

David Lanser of Most & Associates said, “Under Sheriff Hilton, RPSO showed a shocking disregard of its obligations under federal law. Hopefully, this settlement is a wake-up all that things need to be changed.”

Lanser may be hoping for too much. Sheriffs enjoy a unique position in society in that they answer to no one but the voters. Neither Legislators, governors, even congress, or the president have any authority over the autonomy of sheriffs.

In my book Louisiana’s Rogue Sheriffs: A Culture of Corruption, I point out that the office of sheriff is older than the office of the president. Indeed, it pre-dates the republic itself by more than a century, older even than the Magna Carta, signed in 1215.

The office of sheriff originated in England and dates back more than a thousand years. In this country, the first sheriff took office in Delaware in 1669 – a full 107 years before the Declaration of Independence. Other than the occasional small-town police chief, the sheriff is the only elected law enforcement official in America.

Three states – Alaska, Hawaii and Connecticut – have no sheriffs. Other than those three states, the sheriff is the single most powerful person in a given county – or parish. And therein lies the problem. That much power concentrated in the hands of a single individual, who often possesses no concept of basic human rights, is a recipe for abuse and greed.

To illustrate that point, Hilton testified in his deposition that the granting of McKinney’s request for a “reasonable accommodation” would have “disrupted the operation of the department, and he would have created a situation where other employees probably would have felt like Jerry was getting special treatment, and you know, they just – they don’t like that, and they wouldn’t have treated him like any other employee. Everybody has to be treated the same and so, that’s how it is.”

His questioner in that deposition responded, “Regardless of whether they’re fully able[d] or disabled, everyone has to be treated the same?”

“Yes.”

“Okay. So, you’re not going to make special accommodations for – for someone with a disability? You want everyone to be treated the same?”

“Yes.”

The lawsuit pointed out that the RPSO accommodated the request for eight-hour shifts for an employee with “family issues,” but fired an employee who requested eight-hour shifts because of a disability.

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