By John Howell
Former Sheriff Otis Griffin this week denied statements by Panola County Board of Supervisors President Kelly Morris that he removed a computer hard drive from the sheriff’s office in 2012 at the end of his term of office.

Griffin presented a computer-generated inventory of personal property that was owned by the Panola County Sheriff’s Department at the end of his term in 2011. The Asset Listing by Department contained hundreds of numbered items, including vehicles, firearms, button cameras and computers. The list was generated for use by Griffin and incoming Sheriff Dennis Darby to account for each inventory item at the change of administration, Griffin said. Each department’s inventory was signed by both Darby and Griffin and dated.

“I would love for the public to take a look at what he signed and what I signed,” the former sheriff continued. The only item listed as missing was one walkie-talkie, he continued.
“They were ready to lock me up if anything was missing; if it had a working number on it, they found it,” Griffin said. “My computer was going to be the first one they went to.”

In remarks at a meeting of the Batesville Exchange Club April 29, Morris said that Griffin took a hard drive and the missing information weakened the county’s ability to defend itself against lawsuits brought in U. S. District Court by a former deputy sheriff who alleged wrongful termination and wage and hour violations.

Former Deputy Earl Burdette initially sought $1.2 million in damages. Last month, Panola County supervisors in a 3-2 vote agreed to settle the lawsuit for $440,000, with $250,000 paid from county funds and $190,000 from the county’s insurance carrier. Morris broke a 2-2 tie to agree to the settlement, citing a higher cost to the county if the lawsuit had gone to trial.
However the hard drive was only briefly mentioned in a order that U. S. Magistrate Judge S. Allan Alexander issued March 31, warning defendants, Panola County and the Panola County Sheriff’s Department,  and their counsel, the Cleveland law firm of Griffith and Carr, “ … that if the supplemental responses compelled below are not thorough and forthcoming, both the parties (defendants) and their counsel will be subject to severe sanctions. The judge’s order then directs defendants to produce deputy schedules, log books for all shifts and note pads used to record deputies’ times before the information was transferred to the log books, motor vehicle case books, juvenile case books and other records that had been previously subpoenaed by the plaintiff’s attorneys. The order cited incomplete responses to the subpoenas.

During the 27-month history of the lawsuit, Burdette’s attorneys, the Morgan and Morgan law firm of Jackson, had subpoenaed voluminous time and payroll records. Judge Alexander’s March 31 order makes it apparent that he agreed that the county failed to adequately respond:
“This obstreperous behavior has required countless hours of both plaintiff’s counsel and the court to push through the fog defendants have created to determine what documents actually exist or ever existed, in what form they exist[ed], and where they may be located,” the order states. “The court will not tolerate such behavior.”

The strongly-worded order came two weeks before both sides finally agreed to the settlement.
At the April 29 Exchange Club meeting, Morris also said that the county would seek recovery from Griffin’s bond to recoup some of the money paid out in the settlement. Such an attempt would apparently rely on the  affidavit of former jail inmate and county employee, Gary Hester, who stated that in the spring of 2012 he went to Griffin’s home to work on a computer and found that the device’s hard drive was registered to the sheriff’s department.

Hester had been in the Panola County Jail in 2009 as a state inmate serving time for DUI — third offense when he was utilized for repairing the county’s computers. Following the death of Sheriff Hugh W. “Shot” Bright, he was hired as a part-time employee and continued to work on computers during the Griffin administration that followed.

Attempts to locate the Hester affidavit in the Earl Burdette vs. Panola County and the Panola County Sheriff’s Department  case file have been thus far unsuccessful. However, his name appears in the Declaration of Rosa Wilson, filed with the court in March on behalf of plaintiff Burdette. Wilson, whose declaration stated that she worked for the sheriff’s department from 1999 to 2014 stated that she “previously complained of Panola County granting Gary Hester, an inmate, access to the Panola County’s E-911 Information Center, the National Crime Information Center, and all other computer systems in the jail and the dispatch center.”

Wilson cited Hester’s access to extensive banks of sensitive information as the basis of her concern.

“I think the settlement was in the best interests of the county,” Panola County Board of Supervisors Attorney Bill McKenzie said.

Both Griffin and Morris are engaged in heated political contests. Griffin is seeking regain the sheriff’s office now held by Darby, who is seeking re-election. Mark Whitten and Roger Vanlandingham are also seeking the post. Morris is seeking re-election as District Four Supervisor against seven challengers.