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Article published Oct 5, 2007 Personnel files shed light on resignations of officers
By Mark Boxley of The Daily Times Staff
Personnel files obtained by The Daily Times Thursday from the Blount County Sheriff’s Office have thrown some light on the resignations of two former corrections officers accused in a civil lawsuit of braking an inmate’s arm in 2006. James Latham and Gary Sparks are at the center of a lawsuit filed by Jamey Southerland, 34, Morristown, that is seeking $1.5 million from unnamed jailers and supervisors, Blount County, the Blount County Sheriff’s Office and Sheriff James Berrong. On Wednesday, Southerland’s attorneys filed a motion asking that an amended complaint naming Latham and Sparks as defendants be accepted by the judge in U.S. District Court in Knoxville. The amended complaint also names Blount County Capt. Dan Neubert and Sgt. Keith Gregory as defendants and would increase the amount of damages sought to $2 million. The amended complaint has not been accepted by the court, and until it is accepted Latham and Sparks are not specifically named as defendants in the suit — though they appear in Blount County Sheriff’s Office incident reports and a use of force report filed after Oct. 7, 2006, when Southerland alleges he was attacked. Southerland has accused Latham and Sparks of an unprovoked assault in the Blount County Jail pat-down room on that day that left his arm broken so severely that it required a full-arm cast and a plate and seven screws. Southerland had been arrested on a charge of DUI by a Maryville Police officer, who took him to the jail where the attack is alleged to have occurred. After the alleged attack, Southerland also accuses the defendants of ignoring his injuries and denying him medical attention. According to a previous interview with Southerland, when he was released from the jail, he immediately crossed the street and sought treatment from the Blount Memorial Hospital emergency room. The pat-down room does not have a camera, but the Maryville officer who arrested Southerland parked his cruiser in such a way that the in-car video camera was able to record the entire incident. The officer also had his microphone on, so much of the audio in the room was also recorded. Personnel files obtained Thursday, indicate Sparks and Latham both resigned from the Sheriff’s Office. According to information in his file, Latham was discharged from the office in November of 2006 for sleeping on the job. According to a document from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development included in Latham’s file, rather than being terminated he was later allowed to resign. A phone listing for Latham could not be located and he could not be reached for comment. Sparks, on the other hand, continued to work for the county until May of 2007. According to an interoffice memorandum, Sparks was suspended with pay on May 18, 2007 because of Southerland’s accusations. Southerland initially sued the county in February of 2007, and it appears that Sparks’ suspension came after Southerland and his attorneys located the Maryville officer’s in-car video and submitted it in the case in mid-May. According to the memorandum sent by Neubert, the suspension was not an accusation of guilt. “As a result of new evidence brought forward in the matter of the complaint by Jamey Southerland, regarding the events you were involved in on the morning of 10-7-2006, I have been directed to suspend you from duty, with pay, until further notice,” Neubert wrote to Sparks. “This is not suggesting or implying that you are guilty of any wrongdoing in this matter.” According to information in Sparks’ personnel file, he resigned seven days later for “family health issues.” Sparks’ file also contains a commendation from Neubert from a 2003 incident when he was involved in assisting an inmate who was suffering from a heart condition. When contacted Thursday by The Daily Times, Sparks declined to comment on the case or any of the allegations against him. The case is scheduled to go to trial on May 6, 2008. There are also several motions pending in the case on both sides. Responses to motions from the plaintiffs and defendants have not been filed and dates have not been set for the judge to rule on them.