A Limestone County investigator has filed a federal discrimination claim against the Limestone County Sheriff’s Office, alleging she was sexually assaulted by a senior officer and that her complaint was never investigated by Sheriff Mike Blakely or the Limestone County Commission.
Instead, Leslie Ramsey says she was routinely reprimanded for fabricated reasons, passed over promotions and ultimately demoted to third shift when she refused to quit.
Ramsey’s lawsuit, which also names Blakely, the county commission and senior deputy Fred Sloss, details a number of embarrassing mishaps committed by other Limestone County deputies and investigators — men who were either promoted before her or never reprimanded as she was.
On Monday, Blakely posted on his Facebook page a defense of his chief deputy Fred Sloss, who Ramsey accuses of sexually assaulting her.
“I want everyone to know that I’m proud to have Fred Sloss as my chief deputy,” Blakely wrote in a lengthy post that included recapping Sloss’s background in the military. “Fred comes from a wonderful family. And like his family he has an outstanding reputation. Fred’s honesty, integrity and character is second to none. As we go through life there will be bumps in the road but God is good and he is the judge that counts.”
At a weekly press briefing on Wednesday, a sheriff’s department spokesman declined to answer any questions about the lawsuit.
In this particular case, a federal judge will be most important. And Ramsey’s complaint will be particularly troubling, considering her background as an investigator, her documentation of events and the fact that there is a witness with direct knowledge of both the alleged assault and Blakely’s knowledge of it.
In her complaint, Ramsey says she and her former boyfriend, Bobby Joe Ruf, attended a small gathering at Sloss’s home. At some point, Ramsey went outside alone to smoke a cigarette, and Sloss followed her outside.
While outside, the complaint states, Sloss repeatedly ran his hand over and between her legs, over her breasts and on her crotch. Ramsey said she attempted to push Sloss off of her, but he shoved her against a car and said he would make her a captain if she accepted his sexual advances.
Again, she says in the complaint, that she pushed Sloss off of her. At that point, she said Sloss asked her to “show me your tits.”
Ramsey said she told Ruf about the encounter when they left Sloss’s home that night.
Following the alleged assault, Ramsey said Sloss began treating her differently, including having her followed. A few days later, she said she was called into Blakely’s office with Sloss, and the sheriff told her she was “a bad apple” and threatened to demote her.
At that point, Ramsey said, she had not filed a complaint against Sloss. It was eventually reported to Blakely by Ramsey’s father several days later. And a few days after that, the complaint states, Blakely called Ruf into the sheriff’s office for a lengthy meeting about the alleged assault.
Ramsey eventually filed an official grievance over the alleged assault and over Blakely demoting her. An internal review found Blakely was within his rights.
Following that review, Ramsey was demoted from investigator to third-shift patrol.
She subsequently filed a complaint with the Limestone County Commission in June 2017 asking that she be reinstated as an investigator. A few weeks later, she was placed on leave, which turned into unpaid leave.
The Commission ultimately conducted a review of her grievance but never submitted an official finding. However, shortly after the review, Ramsey said she was awarded backpay and placed back on paid leave, where she remained until she filed an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint in Nov. 2017. Following that complaint, she was reinstated as an investigator in Feb. 2018.
In the meantime, Ramsey said she was passed over for promotion by male officers who committed a number of embarrassing mistakes, most of which went without reprimand. Those mistakes include losing a pistol that was used in a suicide, losing the cell phone of a murder victim, leaving the keys in a Special Response van that was then stolen and driven to another state, firing at the back of a fleeing suspect and having an investigator be reported for being drunk on the job.
