WEST POINT — Five West Point city employees have filed complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging discrimination by the Board of Selectmen.
Tupelo attorney Jim Waide filed the charges on behalf of newly named interim head of the electric department Shasta Plunkett and police officers Jesse Anderson, Timothy Campbell and Jeremy Dubois and former police officer Rommelle Matthews. Waide provided The Dispatch with copies of the complaints Thursday, saying lawsuits may follow in some or all cases.
City Attorney Orlando Richmond declined to comment on the complaints.
Plunkett, Campbell and Dubois, who are all white, are claiming discrimination on the basis of race, while Anderson and Matthews, who are black, are claiming race and retaliation.
Plunkett”s complaint, filed Feb. 2, alleges Ward 5 Selectman Jasper Pittman, who is black, has at times refused to pay his electric bill, claiming privilege as a city board member and demanding similar treatment for black friends. Plunkett says he”s been forced to cut Pittman”s power several times as well as that of two more unnamed selectmen.
Furthermore, Plunkett claims Pittman has told him expressly that city board members were “entitled to special treatment … just as they also should not be arrested if they have marijuana.”
These exchanges allegedly caused great hostility between Plunkett, and Pittman and City Administrator Randy Jones was told at a Jan. 12 city board meeting to “demote (Plunkett) or they would fire (Jones).”
Jones did not return calls seeking comment Thursday night.
Pittman said he has been told of the complaints but received few details. They will be discussed further in executive session at the next board meeting, he said.
Plunkett says he was removed from his position as lead serviceman over the electric department, leaving nobody at the Water and Light Department to collect bills or pay sales tax.
Waide says Plunkett had anticipated being fired by the board before he was voted in as interim head of the electric department by a split vote Tuesday in executive session. He has not spoken to Plunkett since before Tuesday”s board meeting and says that action may prevent a lawsuit being filed on Plunkett”s behalf.
“That will put a whole new light on it,” said Waide.
In the case of the three policemen, each of whom filed their complaints Jan. 22, Waide says suits are likely.
“What”s going on with the police department and Mr. Plunkett is disgusting. The way they”re being treated is outrageous,” said Waide.
Anderson”s complaint alleges he was removed from his position as de facto head of the WPPD narcotics unit and placed on patrol duty because the city board and Assistant Chief Bobby Lane felt he was arresting too many black drug dealers.
“The majority black aldermen, without any basis in fact, assumed that because black persons were being arrested, these arrests are racist,” his complaint reads.
Anderson also claims one unnamed board member is “close friends with numerous suspects in drug cases.”
Campbell”s complaint alleges he was passed over for a promotion to assistant chief over patrol due to his race in favor of Avery Cook, a black officer.
Dubois, who is also a narcotics officer, accuses the board of attempting to “eliminate the narcotics unit or cause it to be ineffective” by removing Anderson as head of narcotics in November and replacing him with a black officer with “no experience in narcotics.”
Matthews, the former assistant chief over investigation who was brought in by ousted Chief Steve Bingham, was terminated in late December by the city board. His complaint alleges board members and Lane took sides against him because he defended Bingham, who is white, from charges of racism and accused him of racial profiling for arresting “primarily black persons.”
Matthews claims he began preparing an EEOC complaint after Bingham was fired by the board in August 2009 and Lane subsequently notified him he was being reassigned to patrol duty. He says Lane obtained a copy of his letter to the EEOC and suspended him without pay.
Matthews filed his EEOC complaint Dec. 18 while suspended and was fired by the board Dec. 28.
Jason Browne was previously a reporter for The Dispatch.
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