HUNTINGTON —Several defendants in a lawsuit alleging an employee was wrongfully accused of obstructing an investigation are asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed.
The Wayne County Commission, Wayne County Sheriff Richard Thompson and Deputy Harry Sowards filed a motion to dismiss the case in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia at Huntington.
The defendants argue that there are no First Amendment violations that occurred and that the plaintiff did not actually allege any policy or custom of the commission in connection with his First, Fourth or 14th Amendment rights.
"Here, the Complaint is completely devoid of any factual allegation that the Wayne County Commission had a written policy, ordinance, regulation, or formally adopted decision regarding any alleged deprivation or act complained of regarding its officers," the motion states.
They argue that the plaintiff failed to state a claim.
"As Plaintiff has failed to plausibly enumerate the existence of an unconstitutional policy or custom resulting in his alleged constitutional deprivations, and the Wayne County Commission cannot be held vicariously liable for the acts of its employees or elected officials, Plaintiff has failed to state a claim against it pursuant to 42 U.S.C. §1983," the complaint states.
They contend that the evidence demonstrates that the only thing that occurred was a lawful investigation of a crime that was conducted.
"The mere fact that a magistrate did not move forward with the charges following the preliminary hearing is not evidence that probable cause was lacking or that there was any wrongful conduct, let alone intentional misconduct designed to distress Plaintiff," the complaint states. "Not surprisingly, that is not even alleged. These are privileged law enforcement acts and not conduct that is outrageous and atrocious as to exceed the bounds of decency."
David Eugene Sammons is a retired employee of the Wayne County Board of Education. He claimed he was wrongfully accused of obstructing an investigation into and taking part in a criminal conspiracy regarding the theft of board property. He filed the complaint on Feb. 1 against the Wayne County Board of Education, Superintendent Todd Alexander, the Wayne County Commission, Thompson, Sowards and Howard Meddings.
Sammons was transportation director for the school board, and he had more than 40 years of service. Sammons retired in September 2019. The theft of property from the county school bus garage took place after Sammons retired. He says he had multiple work issues with Meddings, who was the parts supervisor for the transportation department and reported directly to Sammons. In 2018, Sammons gave Meddings a poor work evaluation.
“Following the poor review, defendant Alexander requested to meet with plaintiff asking him why he gave Mr. Meddings a poor review,” the complaint states. “Immediately following this meeting, defendant Alexander placed plaintiff on a Performance Improvement Plan.
“Defendant Meddings would often break work rules and, as his direct supervisor, plaintiff would report the misconduct to defendant Alexander. Defendant Alexander never took disciplinary action against defendant Meddings.”
Sammons says Alexander and the board regularly ignored legitimate complaints about Meddings. He also says Meddings once became so irate at work that he tried to start a fight with Sammons.
“At a grievance concerning this incident, defendant Meddings grabbed his crotch, mocked plaintiff and informed plaintiff that there was nothing that plaintiff could do to him,” the complaint states, adding that Meddings continued “using his position as supervisor, the grievance process and school resources to abuse his power and threaten any employee that stood in the way of his ambitions.”
In February 2020, Sammons was charged related to the thefts of bus turbos. After reviewing the case, Wayne County’s prosecuting attorney moved to dismiss the charges against Sammons. The magistrate approved the dismissal.
Sammons accuses the defendants of violating his First, Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment rights and of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He also says Sowards, Thompson and Wayne County are guilty of abuse of process and malicious prosecution because the charges were dropped against him. He accuses the board, Alexander, the commission and Thompson of negligent hiring, supervision and retention of employees.
Sammons is being represented by Hoyt Glazer and Abe Saad of Glazer Saad Anderson in Huntington.
The commission, Thompson and Sowards are represented by Wendy E. Greve and Seth F. Huy of Pullin Fowler Flanagan Brown & Poe in Charleston.
U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia case number 3:21-cv-00081