Wake Sheriff Gerald Baker faces 4 lawsuits from 5 employees. A 6th has a complaint too.
As Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker campaigns to keep his seat during the 2022 election, he will also be fighting four federal lawsuits from five employees accusing the first-term sheriff of discrimination and retaliation.
A sixth former employee and now sheriff candidate is also raising concerns about how the sheriff has treated employees.
The accusations come as the filing period for candidates closed Friday, with seven Democrats and three Republicans, including former four-term Republican Sheriff Donnie Harrison, seeking the sheriff’s post.
Baker says his critics have their own agendas: Some have their own campaigns for sheriff. Others oppose reforms he says he implemented to end longstanding problematic practices in the Sheriff’s Office.
The latest concerns, first reported by WRAL, come from former employee Cedric Herring, who says he told Baker he was running for sheriff on Feb. 8. Baker responded by cutting short Herring’s final days of work, firing his son two days later and then his future daughter-in-law, Herring said.
In general, North Carolina sheriffs have broad discretion in firing deputies, including for disloyalty and political affiliation.
Herring understands Baker’s action against him but says the sheriff’s treatment of his son, a deputy, and son’s fiancée, a civilian employee, was inappropriate.
Baker said he fired Herring’s son because it was apparent he was going to support his father’s agenda.
“It is not about his job performance or anything else,” Baker said. “That is his father. He is going to support his father. He was doing that the moment after his father had resigned.”
Baker said he fired the son’s fiancée after an investigation found she wasn’t following policies. Herring said Baker unjustly accused her of improper use of a county computer and held her responsible for common practices used the office.
The sheriff’s actions help explain Baker’s legal and staffing challenges, Herring said. “That is why he is dealing with other civil suits,” he said.
Not true, Baker said. The lawsuits are from people who would not accept the new leadership and weren’t used to being held accountable, he said.
“We are dealing with a lot of people who are used to getting their way,” the sheriff said. “They want to work the hours they want to work, and all sorts of things that were not inline with the leadership and direction of this administration.”
Sheriff’s Office staffing shortages
Law enforcement agencies across the nation face staffing challenges, but Herring said Baker is responsible for Wake County’s shortages.
Herring, who has 29 years of experience, started working for Baker in 2019 as a background investigator and recruiter after retiring from the State Highway Patrol.
Herring increased academies and recruits, but staffing still fell as more people left amid concerns about inconsistent discipline, job security and a lack of formal process to advance in the department, he said.
In addition, he said Baker has been hesitant to hire retired and other experienced officers. Herring said Baker was frustrated when he was a deputy and Harrison would bring in troopers who advanced faster than other deputies.
Baker denies that.
“Again, this was Mr. Herring pushing his own agenda trying to get people that he wanted hired, friends of his, that I chose not to offer employment,” Baker said.
Baker’s response
Herring doesn’t know what he is talking about in terms of why people are leaving, Baker said.
Several people left or were fired, Baker said, because of disciplinary actions, violations of policy and other issues that have been going on for years.
The sheriff says he has brought new organization, transparency and accountability to the office.
The office has also worked with schools to find alternatives to charging kids with crimes in the juvenile system. He has, changed the chase policy and reduced accidents, as well as updated the K-9 policy, he said.
“We have not had one dog bite since we took office,” Baker said. In the months before his election, the Sheriff’s Office faced criticism after a deputy released a K-9 on Kyron Hinton and faced an assault charge.
Five employees, four lawsuits
Five other former employees have filed four federal lawsuits accusing the sheriff of violating their rights.
The lawsuits include:
▪ In January 2022, former detention officer Latreka Jones contends she was fired in retaliation for her taking family medical leave to care for her disabled son and mother, along with staying home most of January 2021 after one son then another tested positive for COVID-19.
While nurses were telling her to quarantine until Jan. 26, 2021, the sheriff terminated her Jan. 14, the lawsuit states.
Baker hasn’t filed any responding documents in that case yet.
▪ Vicki Britt, a former master deputy sheriff who is white, accuses Baker, who is Black, in a 2021 lawsuit of discrimination for excluding her from the customary retiree honors and shifts in her last week of work.
On Nov. 25, 2020, five days from her Dec. 1 retirement, Britt sent a farewell email to all employees that included comments about the “ongoing plight of law enforcement officers” in the wake of George Floyd and the COVID-19 impact on the department, the lawsuit states.
Baker became “highly upset” and canceled her remaining standard shifts and pulled her from overtime and off-duty assignments in her last week at work, the lawsuit states. The sheriff also asked her to put all her equipment in her car, so other deputies could pick it up from her home. Britt refused, the lawsuit states, because she was expecting to work her overtime shifts.
In court documents, Baker’s attorney argues the sheriff had legitimate reasons, disloyalty and political affiliation, for the events and that Britt failed to show how she was treated differently from others who weren’t white and the related significant detrimental effects required by federal court precedent.
Lawsuits from 3 former deputies
▪ Two other lawsuits, one filed in 2020 and another in 2021, involve three deputies who contend they were fired for reporting homophobic comments that resulted in the demotion of one of Baker’s friends more than a year before Baker was elected.
Steven Williamson and Alvis G. Speight reported the statements to then Sheriff Harrison after Teddy Patrick identified one of the deputies as gay, said he didn’t like gay people and didn’t believe in being gay during a May 2017 training session, according to the court documents.
After an internal investigation, Richard Johnson, then chief of operations, and Harrison demoted Patrick from lieutenant to senior investigator, the lawsuits state. Johnson told Patrick about the demotion in August 2017.
Baker and Patrick were close friends, according to the lawsuits, taking trips together in which they discussed Baker running for sheriff and Patrick’s demotion.
After Baker was elected in November 2018, he appointed Patrick to his transition team and promoted him to captain and then major, making him second in command. Baker declined to swear in Johnson, essentially terminating him, the lawsuit states.
Four days before Christmas 2018, Baker fired Speight and Williamson, the lawsuit states.
Baker terminated them in retaliation for their reporting Patrick’s homophobic and racially discriminatory comments during the May 2017 training session, the lawsuit states.
In court documents, Baker argues that the lawsuit is political.
“This lawsuit is a thinly veiled politically motivated effort to cast a negative light upon current Wake County Sheriff Gerald Baker,” Baker’s attorney stated in an unsuccessful argument to have Johnson’s lawsuit dismissed.
Johnson had been brought out of retirement to serve in Harrison’s administration., and Baker didn’t believe he would be aligned with his vision, court documents states.
Baker’s rationale for not re-swearing Johnson was simple, Baker’s attorney’s wrote: Harrison didn’t care for Baker, and Baker didn’t care for Harrison.
“Baker observed that Plaintiff failed to consistently utilize his power and authority to engage equitably, honestly, or fairly in many cases,” Baker’s attorneys wrote in court documents “Baker further observed that Plaintiff was not ethical or honest in all of his dealings with coworkers and subordinates, including Baker.”
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 9:49 AM.
