A former Lowndes County Juvenile Detention corrections officer has filed a lawsuit against the county, claiming she was fired after a fight with a white officer because she is Black.

In a federal complaint filed Jan. 16 in the U.S. District Court of Northern Mississippi in Aberdeen, Wonda Johnson claims the county wrongfully fired her due to racial discrimination. She worked about 18 years at the Juvenile Detention Center.

A civil complaint represents only one side of a legal argument.

The complaint alleges that on July 26, 2023, a white corrections officer, Rachel Pounders, started an altercation with Johnson.

The complaint claims Pounders was hired at the center despite a questionable criminal record due to her being related to Richard Brantley, the Juvenile Detention Center’s white director. Pounders was then promoted to become a supervisor within six months of working at the center, equal to Johnson’s rank, while Black corrections officers with more experience were passed over for the position.

Leading up to the incident, the complaint alleges, Pounders was placed under investigation after defying a direct order from her supervisors, which resulted in a physical altercation between two juveniles at the facility. Pounders, frustrated by the situation, allegedly took her feelings out on Johnson, including by sending an “aggressive and inappropriate text message.”

Johnson, who was off duty and at the facility for another reason, approached Pounders at the center to talk with her, according to the complaint. As she approached, Pounders allegedly called Johnson a “bitch, black bitch!” When the two got close to each other, Pounders allegedly pushed Johnson and a fight ensued that both employees participated in.

“Both employees ended up on the ground throwing punches,” according to a report from the Administrative Law Judge for the Mississippi Department of Employment Security quoted in the claim.

After the fight, Johnson was placed on administrative leave. She was then called into a meeting with Brantley, along with center administrator Jason Collins and senior supervisor Ken Williams.

During that meeting, the complaint alleges, Johnson was told she was the aggressor in the fight and that she would be terminated. She was then pressured to sign a statement of fact, and she was “met with hostility when she refused to sign it,” the complaint reads. When Johnson asked for an opportunity to resign, Brantley allegedly did not allow it.

“Unlike (Johnson), Rachel Pounders was not terminated or, upon information and belief, subject to any form of discipline whatsoever,” the complaint reads.

Johnson then appealed the termination, bringing it before County Administrator Jay Fisher and the Lowndes County Board of Supervisors. The complaint claims Fisher, a white man, upheld Johnson’s termination.

Supervisors then “voted along racial lines” to uphold the termination, the complaint alleges, as the two Black supervisors on the board voted to reinstate Johnson, while the three white supervisors voted to uphold her termination.

The complaint alleges Johnson was wrongfully terminated, which cost her the job she was educated and trained to do along with her ability to obtain her full PERS retirement, and she was treated “less favorably” than Pounders due to her race.

The complaint requests relief in the form of past and future lost income, past and future lost benefits, general damages for emotional distress, punitive damages and reinstatement, among other restitution.

Board Attorney Tim Hudson said the lawsuit does not have any merit, and race was not a factor in supervisors upholding the termination. Instead, he said, supervisors reviewed security footage of the incident in question, and they determined Johnson waited in the parking lot for Pounders to arrive and then approached her “in an extremely aggressive manner,” essentially initiating the fight.

“You’ve got an issue of a … hostile work environment, and the board felt … they could not condone an assault,” Hudson said.

Records from the Lowndes County Justice Court show Johnson was charged with simple assault, a misdemeanor. Records also show the criminal charge was transferred to another court after a disposition in October.