JUDGE DISMISSES SUIT BY FORMER EMPLOYEE AGAINST SHERIFF’S OFFICE

PHELPS WAS FIRED FOR TELLING A SUBORDINATE TO ACT LIKE A NEO - NAZI WHILE DEALING WITH A BLACK SUSPECT

mandy@keysweekly.com

Afederal judge on March 31 ruled in favor of Monroe County Sheriff Rick Ramsay and his office by dismissing a lawsuit filed by a former high-ranking officer who claimed she was fired because of her sexual orientation.

Former sheriff’s captain Penny Phelps sued the sheriff, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office and several MCSO employees after she was fired in 2019 for “using her authority as a high-ranking officer to direct a subordinate to act like a white supremacist and harass a suspect whom she knew was African-American to such a degree that he would file a citizen’s complaint,” states Judge Jose Martinez’s March 31 ruling granting summary judgment in favor of Ramsay, the sheriff’s office and all other defendants in the lawsuit filed by Phelps.

The case stems from a November 2017 stabbing on Stock Island that became known locally as the “tree house murder.” A woman who lived on Stock Island was attacked by two men who slashed her throat, although she survived. A third man who rushed up the steps to help the victim was stabbed to death, and the attackers fled.

During the investigation, in trying to confirm the prime suspect’s identity, then-Capt. Phelps, who was in charge of the sheriff’s office Major Crimes Division, directed a subordinate officer “to act like a neo-Nazi, white supremacist and harass a known African-American suspect in connection with a high-profile murder investigation,” Martinez writes in his ruling.

Phelps’ direction to the officer was recorded.