The Jefferson County Personnel Board has recommended overturning the firing of a veteran sheriff’s office sergeant who is the husband of Bessemer Cutoff District Attorney Lynneice Washington.
Sheriff Mark Pettway in January terminated Sgt. Judge Washington, who long served on a federal drug task force before being moved from that position.
Washington was fired amid alleged violations of department rules and regulations, including conduct unbecoming a classified employee and violation of any rule or regulation of the appointing authority, and failure to comply with instructions made and given by a superior officer or supervisor.
Washington claimed the firing stemmed from a misconception that he was trying to help launch a federal investigation into Pettway. He appealed the firing, and hearings were held in June.
The hearing officer on Friday issued his report and recommendation that Washington’s termination be overturned “even while determining the charges were substantiated and that JCSO met its burden of proof with respect to evidence presented and witness testimonies supporting the policy and procedure violations charged.”
“The (hearing officer) also found that Washington admitted his guilt after a series of less than truthful interviews and a failed polygraph test,’’ the report said.
“However, the (hearing officer) found that termination exceeded what was merited from the charged offenses given the totality of his public service employment and his lack of prior disciplinary violations.”
As a result, the hearing officer recommended overturning Washington’s termination and reinstated the original suspension that was never served and modified the suspension to 45 days without pay.
He noted that back pay, minus the 45-day suspension – should be given to Washington.
Additionally, the hearing officer recommended that Washington “be required to satisfactorily complete an ethics review course or the like.”
“If complainant is unwilling or unable to comply, he should be given the opportunity to tender his resignation,” the report states.
While Washington sought reinstatement to his Vice/Narcotics/FBI liaison roles, the hearing officer recognized that job assignments are the decisions of the sheriff’s office.
The sheriff’s office has objected to the recommendation from the hearing officer.
Spokesman Henry Irby said Monday they do not comment on personnel matters. Washington’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment.
The matter will appear on the agenda for the monthly meeting of the three-member board on Tuesday July 23.
The initial department charges against Washington came after he and other investigators went to Atlanta to interview a federal inmate as part of a drug investigation.
That inmate, records show, brought up the subject of bingo, which has long been the subject of controversy in Jefferson County.
The sheriff’s brother, Bruce Pettway, sued Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall in 2019, claiming Marshall’s office illegally seized $240,000 from a BBVA Bank account belonging to Bruce Pettway’s brokerage and consulting firm “ostensibly because of a $15,500 deposit into the account from bingo operations in Jefferson County.”
Marshall later agreed to release all but $15,500 of the funds following a ruling from Chief United States District Judge Karon Bowdre in response to the attorney general’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit. In that ruling, Bowdre wrote that the forfeiture of the $240,000 “strikes the court as facially suspect.”
Washington was accused of later failing part of a polygraph when he was asked if the sheriff was discussed in the Atlanta interview and he answered, “no.”
A second disciplinary charge was lodged against him when sheriff’s officials alleged that on Oct. 6, 2023, Washington sent a message through Facebook to Varrie Johnson Kindall that he wanted to meet with her.
In an unrelated case, Kindall – a longtime assistant to former Alabama Rep. John Rogers – pleaded guilty in February to charges associated with a federal kickback scheme involving her boss and another lawmaker.
The complaint against Washington said he met Kindall and talked about helping her with her then-ongoing federal case. He also talked about a 1966 Ford Mustang that Sheriff Mark Pettway had purchased with county funds, and that he would help her find it.
A confidential source texted Washington the picture of the car and the bill of sale. Washing texted the information to Kindall and told her that he would inform the FBI that she helped him get the information, the complaint states.
Washington, according to the complaint, called the FBI and told them about the 1966 Ford Mustang that Sheriff Pettway had purchased with county funds, and they told Washington they already had that information.
The car’s purchase was used to promote Domestic Violence Awareness.
A private conversation between Washington and Kindall was recorded, and Kindall was not aware of it nor gave Washington permission to record her, the complaint states.
Washington said he did not remember the conversation on the recording, but Kindall stated it was about Sheriff Pettway and the 1966 Mustang.
Sheriff’s officials claimed the recording was given to the FBI without Kindall’s permission and was part of an attempt to help the FBI launch an investigation of Pettway, which Washington has maintained was not true.
Washington’s January response to the complaint said he had been subjected to harassment and retaliation by the department.
“I broke no rules. I did not violate any policies,’’ Washington said.
“Other than an allegation that I failed a single portion of an inadmissible polygraph examination, there is no indication that I have been dishonest or failed to cooperate in the extensive investigation against me.”
Washington said the incident that sparked the investigation was a jailhouse interview he conducted in the course of his duties assisting the FBI.
“During the course of that interview, the subject spontaneously and without prompting offered information that was not relevant to my investigation,’’ Washington wrote. “I did not seek out that information, I was not interested in that information, and I did not follow up on that information, which involved a relative of the sheriff but had no bearing on the investigation I was completing.”
“I reported this information as a matter of course but let me emphasize that I did not do so in a manner that would have prompted myself or others to conduct an inquiry into the sheriff or his relatives,’’ Washington wrote. “I had no reason to give credence to those allegations, and I had no interest in investigating those allegations as they did not concern my duty detail.”
“However, the mere fact that the subject of my jailhouse interview made unsolicited comments to me about the sheriff and his family sparked an internal affairs investigation into my performance as an officer that included multiple interviews, a polygraph, the removal of me from my long-time duty detail, and the proposed punishment that we are here on today,’’ he wrote.
“The magnitude of the retaliation against me for having heard those unsolicited allegations is both enormous and entirely improper,” Washington wrote. “I broke no rules, I violated no policies, yet my 18-year career lies in ruins, subjected to unjust retaliation and harassment through no fault of my own.”
“I am factually and legally innocent of the charges that form the basis of this discipline,’’ Washington wrote, “and look forward to proving that innocence.”
Washington argued that the charges were inappropriately applied to him. He also named multiple sheriff’s office employees who he said received less severe discipline for similar charges.