AKRON — Summit County Sheriff Kandy Fatheree is facing a second federal lawsuit alleging she retaliated against employees who supported her political rival in the November election.
Gregory Taylor, a retired veteran sheriff’s deputy, filed suit Monday in federal court in Cleveland. The lawsuit comes months after former special deputy Stacy Clark filed similar allegations against Fatheree.
Both former deputies claim Fatheree violated their First Amendment rights by terminating them for supporting Republican challenger Shane Barker in the November election. Fatheree defeated Barker with 139,785 votes, or 55% of the vote, while Barker received 115,322 votes or about 45%.
Clark, who worked for the sheriff’s office for 27 years and served 14 years in the Air Force, was terminated in November after attending Barker’s election night event. Clark said she “went to Shane Barker’s party, hopefully to celebrate his win, and I was fired for that”.
In a recorded phone conversation with recently-retired Chief Scott Cottle, Clark captured what she alleges was confirmation of the political motivation behind her firing. According to excerpts Clark provided, Cottle told her: “It’s all about loyalty. But you and others supported the other side. When you did that, that’s what it comes down to”.
Clark had been hired back as a special deputy in 2021 to work primarily as a school resource officer in Twinsburg after retiring from the detective bureau. She received the department’s “Top Cop” award in September 2021, just two months before her retirement.
The Summit County Prosecutor’s Office has filed an answer on Fatheree’s behalf, denying Clark’s allegations and claiming there were “legitimate, non-discriminatory reasons” for the termination.
Fatheree was elected in 2020 as the first woman to serve as Summit County Sheriff and is serving her second term. She oversees more than 500 deputies, special deputies, and civilian staff in Ohio’s fourth largest county.
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