2 sue Wake sheriff, saying he retaliated after they reported friend’s anti-gay comments
Two former Wake County deputies have sued Sheriff Gerald Baker in federal court, alleging he fired them in retaliation for reporting his friend’s racist and homophobic comments.
The deputies, Steven Williamson and Alvis Speight, say they lost their jobs one month after Baker’s election in 2018 because they told supervisors about Lt. Teddy Patrick’s behavior during a training session one year earlier.
During that training, the suit said, Patrick “told the deputies present that he ‘didn’t believe in being gay,’ did not like ‘gay people,” and made statements that were derogatory toward homosexuals,” the suit said. Patrick outed one deputy at the session for being gay, adding “words to the effect of that if a man came to his home dressed as a woman, he would not permit that man to enter his home.”
Patrick, who is Black, also said, “if white people keep killing themselves, we Black people will be the majority, instead of the minority” and told deputies present he felt uncomfortable around Muslims on airplanes, according to the lawsuit.
Williamson and Speight reported Patrick to a captain and to then-Chief of Operations Richard Johnson, believing it to be unlawful and discriminatory, the suit said. Williamson also told then-Sheriff Donnie Harrison, who asked what the deputy had heard. Harrison later demoted Patrick, causing him to lose pay and supervisory authority.
The suit described Baker and Patrick as “close friends and confidants,” belonging to the same Masonic lodge and traveling together in the Dominican Republic with other deputies. Patrick would “vent” to the future sheriff, the suit said.
In 2018, Baker won the sheriff’s election over Harrison, joining Black candidates who took the office in North Carolina’s seven largest counties.
Shortly afterward, the suit said, he asked Williamson and Speight to his office and told them their services were no longer needed. They were the first and only deputies dismissed, the suit said. After the election, Patrick approached the deputy he had described as gay and said words to the effect of, “You don’t have anything to worry about, I know who was responsible,” according to the lawsuit.
Baker also declined to swear in Johnson, the former chief of operations, prompting him to file his own lawsuit in 2020. That case is still pending. The sheriff has twice promoted Patrick since taking office, the suit said.
Baker disputed the accusation in 2019 after Williamson and Speight were interviewed on television, calling reports inaccurate. “I have not retaliated against anyone,” he said at the time.
His spokesman said Wednesday the sheriff’s office has not yet seen the contents of the suit.
The deputies are seeking damages for lost pay and benefits, compensation for pain and suffering, a jury trial and whatever other relief the court sees as just.
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 1:56 PM with the headline "2 sue Wake sheriff, saying he retaliated after they reported friend’s anti-gay comments."