In this last week of the 2019, the Washington Daily News will run a recap of the Top 10 stories of the year about the ideas, issues and events that have created a lot of conversation or most affected the community.  The No. 8 top story of 2019 is a pair of lawsuits filed against the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office by former employees.

It will still be a matter of months before there is any resolution in a pair of civil lawsuits filed against the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office and its leadership by two former deputies.

Both lawsuits remain in the discovery phase in U.S. District Court, and attorneys have until June 2020 to collect documentation and depositions.

In June, former deputies Dominic Franks and Michael Roy Sheppard brought separate, but related, lawsuits against the BCSO and four of its employees — Sheriff Ernie Coleman, Chief Deputy Charlie Rose, Lt. Kelly Cox and former Sgt. William Ragland. Ragland no longer works for the BCSO.

In his suit, Franks alleges he was subject to “hostile, abusive, racist and unsafe work conditions” while employed at the BCSO from July 2015 through February 2017. He claims he was subject to racial hostility, unwarranted disciplinary actions and that Ragland pointed a gun at his head while using a racial slur.

After his termination, Franks filed a complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against the Sheriff’s Office. On reviewing the discrimination charge, the U.S. Department of Justice declined to file suit on his behalf but issued him a letter allowing him to file a civil lawsuit.

Sheppard, meanwhile, claims that he was retaliated against and wrongfully terminated for reporting those alleged incidents to supervisors. He also submitted an EEOC complaint. Once again, the DOJ declined to file suit, but he too was allowed to file a civil lawsuit.

Attorneys representing the BCSO and its leadership in turn filed responses to the suits in July, flatly denying the allegations by the former deputies. The response states that Franks was fired from the agency “unstable, aggressive and unprofessional behavior.” The defendants say this type of behavior continued even after Franks was fired from the sheriff’s office.

Tyrell Clemons, of the Greenville-based Clemons Law Firm, is representing both Franks and Sheppard in their complaints. Attorneys from the firm of Womble Bond Dickinson, of Winston-Salem, are representing the BCSO and its employees.

While the discovery process in the two suits will last until next summer, there have been a few developments. For one, the BCSO, as an agency, has been dismissed as a defendant in both cases. Rose, Cox and Ragland have likewise been dismissed as defendants in the Sheppard case.

Attorneys representing the BCSO personnel have also filed to dismiss some of the claims and defendants in the Franks case, but the court has not yet arrived at a decision on those dismissals, according to attorneys.