I-TEAM: Discrimination lawsuits filed against Richmond County Sheriff’s Office
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - As election day inches closer, the I-TEAM has learned of a second lawsuit alleging racial discrimination in the workplace against Sheriff Richard Roundtree.
Voters now have less than a month to decide between the long-time incumbent and Democratic challengers Eugene “Gino” Brantley and Bo Johnson in the May primary. Richard Dixon is running as an Independent and will face the winner of the May primary in the November election.
Could this new lawsuit – and the other— speak to morale inside the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office?
Perhaps not on their own.
However, when you combine it with what we’ve uncovered in the last few months, it certainly raises a lot of questions about what is going on there.
The numbers aren’t encouraging.
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- Augusta DA responds to Richmond County jail incident emails
- Video sheds light on jail incident that spurred arrests of multiple law enforcement officers
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For months now, our I-TEAM has been compiling personnel data, and we found Sheriff Richard Roundtree is losing more deputies than he’s hiring.
In 2023 alone, he fired 36 people, 105 resigned, and 11 retired.
Add in resignations from the 2 years before that, and that number jumps up to 336. 336 people quit their jobs at the Sheriff’s Office from 2021 to 2023.
Numbers only tell part of the story, though.
A new lawsuit could shed even more light.
A former deputy of the year is alleging racial discrimination when he was fired from the sheriff’s office in 2022 after he was arrested with two other deputies. A suspect accused of shooting another deputy in the face then accused all three of assaulting him in an elevator at the sheriff’s office.
Quincy Cannon first broke his silence last summer when a grand jury decided not to indict any of the deputies, clearing them of all charges.
In his new lawsuit filed this month in U.S. District Court, Cannon names specific incidents where other deputies did not lose their jobs.
READ CANNON’S LAWSUIT:
According to the lawsuit, “the white sheriff deputy employees were treated better than [Cannon], a Black [man], when it came to such things as requests for GBI investigations, initiation of internal investigations, suspensions, and negative reports to the Georgia Peace Officer Standards & Training Council.”
Cannon’s lawsuit names Deputy Brandon Keathley, who is still on administrative leave with pay after his 2020 arrest, as an example. A grand jury indicted Keathley on felony charges after he hit a fellow deputy in the head with a flashlight as he was working to perform CPR on a teenager who had been shot.
The I-TEAM has since been able to show video of that night.
Keathley still hasn’t been to trial.
He also still hasn’t been to work, and he’s still collecting a paycheck three years after his arrest.
The lawsuit also discusses Ty Dailey, a deputy who punched an arrestee in the face several times and did not report it. It only came to light when our I-TEAM exposed it. He’s not off the job, but he’s under investigation again - this time for a deadly accident in his patrol car.
Johnny Atkinson is also one of the deputies of Cannon’s lawsuit names. Atkinson was arrested and fired two months ago for an incident at the Charles Webster Jail in 2022. Documents show Cannon tried to expose that incident last summer, but the sheriff’s office only investigated it this year when someone filed a civil rights complaint with the FBI.
“I’m trying to figure out the difference between the two,” said Cannon. “You got Stack A over here involving a Hispanic deputy, a Black MP and a white deputy. You got Stack B over here involving two Caucasian deputies. ‘Let’s burn them. Let’s give them a second chance.’”
Meanwhile, another discrimination lawsuit filed in 2022 is making its way through the courts. Former deputy Ahmed Ismael is Muslim and was born in Iraq. According to his lawsuit also filed in U.S. District Court, he’s a veteran of the Iraqi Army who served alongside American troops.
READ ISMAEL’S LAWSUIT:
He alleges he was the victim of harassment for months.
His lawsuit claims he was called a “terrorist” or had to endure “crude” comments about sand, bombs or not being able to speak English.
He was fired after filing a complaint against his captain for racial intimidation, according to the lawsuit.
Just last month, both sides met for mediation. Court documents show they could not reach an agreement after six hours and 45 minutes.
As for the new lawsuit, the I-TEAM reached out to Quincy Cannon, and he declined to comment.
We also requested an interview with Sheriff Roundtree, but he said: “The Richmond County Sheriff’s Office does not comment on pending litigation.”
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