Federal lawsuit details Bald Head Island issues

BALD HEAD ISLAND, NC (WWAY) — A federal lawsuit filed by one of five Bald Head Island Public Safety Department employees fired in August details alleged issues within the village and department.

An attorney for Herbert Bryant filed the suit this week in US District Court in Wilmington against the Village of Bald Head Island and Village Manager Calvin Peck.

Bryant and the others were fired after supervisors got hold of private text messages the employees sent on personal phones.

In the suit Bryant, who started working for the village in March 2009, says he was never reprimanded or disciplined in any way until his dismissal. He accuses Peck’s tenure as Village Manager as being “littered with criticism from residents… about his management style and his propensity for firing valued employees.” He claims neither the village nor Peck afforded Bryant rights under the law or the village’s personnel policy.

The lawsuit also says the village’s plan to cross-train members of the Public Safety Department to provide emergency medical, police, fire and water rescue services have been unsuccessful, which puts the public at risk. It accuses Public Safety Director Caroline Mitchell of giving a newspaper in August incorrect information about what certifications most members of the department hold.

Bryant also says Mitchell’s credentials were also overstated when she was hired in 2013, and that she has failed to earn her Basic Law Enforcement Training certificate. A spokeswoman for the NC Department of Justice has not yet returned our request for information regarding Mitchell’s credentials. The village’s attorney Norwood Blanchard says Mitchell is a sworn and certified law enforcement officer in North Carolina.

As for the text messages that led to the firings, Bryant argues they began with him texting colleagues about the newspaper story and their responses. Other messages among what the lawsuit refers to as Bryant’s “friends” with off-color jokes, some about homosexuality. Nearly three weeks later, Bryant says, he was called in to see Peck and Mitchell and handed a termination letter that accused him of violating village policies for harassment and sexual harassment, discourteous treatment of other employees and inappropriate electronic communication through “communications you took part in… from July 25… to August 15.”

Bryant says he asked to see a copy of the communications, but was denied his request until he received a copy days later when Peck denied his request for an appeal. His lawsuit goes on to cite several sections of the village’s personnel policy he says were not followed leading up to his dismissal.

Bryant accuses the village and Peck defamation, violations of his rights and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He is suing to get his job back and his record cleared.

A spokeswoman for Bald Head Island was not available today.

Blanchard says all of Bryant’s claims are meritless. Blanchard says public employees in North Carolina don’t have due process rights, because they are at will employees, but even if Bryant did, Blanchard says those right were honored by the process used to terminate Bryant. He says the village plans to ask for the lawsuit to be dismissed, but he says it could be months before there’s any resolution in the case.

The village has also not fulfilled a request WWAY made earlier this week for a list of all current Public Safety Department workers.