Settlement talks fail in Alamance County sheriff discrimination lawsuit

Settlement talks have failed in the federal discrimination case against the Alamance County sheriff’s office and Sheriff Terry Johnson, pushing a lawsuit over hiring, promotions and workplace treatment closer to trial.

The case was brought by Earl Alston, an investigator who has worked for the sheriff’s office since March 2015 and still works there. In his complaint in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of North Carolina in Greensboro, Alston says he was discriminated against because he is Black. He alleges he was passed over for promotions, treated differently than white coworkers and placed in unsafe working conditions.

Alston’s complaint also uses office-wide numbers to support his claims. It says that as of April 2023 the sheriff’s office had 152 sworn deputies, including nine who were Black, and 93 detention officers at the Alamance County jail, including 29 who were Black. The defendants deny key allegations tied to Latasha Mebane and Jaleesa Alston, saying they were unaware those people were being named in the case and disputing the claims to the extent they conflict with the public record.

The failed settlement conference means the dispute could now move toward the kind of public trial that would force testimony about how jobs are assigned, who gets promoted and how complaints are handled inside one of Alamance County’s most visible agencies. Johnson has served as sheriff since 2002, and the office says it serves more than 170,000 residents across 435 square miles. If damaging testimony becomes public, the fallout would not stop at the courthouse in Greensboro. It could shape how county residents judge the agency’s leadership, its internal culture and the fairness of decisions made inside the sheriff’s office and the Alamance County jail.

The lawsuit lands against a long and contentious backdrop. In 2012, the U.S. Department of Justice alleged that Johnson’s office had engaged in a pattern or practice of discriminatory law-enforcement activities directed against Latino residents in Alamance County. That case ended in a 2016 settlement agreement that required the sheriff’s office to adopt a Bias-Free Initiative and a bias-free policing policy after the district court’s judgment favored Johnson.

The current employment case also follows earlier protest-related litigation over the October 2020 demonstrations in downtown Graham. That federal lawsuit, filed in November 2020, named Johnson, the City of Graham, police Chief Kristi Cole, 15 police officers and 15 deputies. The dispute was settled in June 2022 for $336,900, adding another chapter to the county’s repeated legal fights over policing, race and public accountability.