Sheriff Loses Center After Complaints

Harrison County (Ind.) commissioners have stripped sheriff Mike Deatrick’s authority of the public safety comm center after two dispatchers filed complalints that Deatrick had sexually harassed them by making remarks and inappropriately touching them. Supervisor Deana Decker and dispatcher Melissa Graham said they complained to supervisors, but they took no action. At a meeting, the commissioners put the comm center under the authority of the county’s emergency management director. The two dispatchers filed their complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, but continue to work at the center at the sheriff’s department. Commissioner Terry Miller told a reporter that the dispatchers had reported retaliation against them after filing the complaint. The county settled four lawsuits involving the sheriff last year, and county commissioners have called for Deatrick to step down during the investigation into the latest claims, but he’s declined. Read more here.