Lawsuit Update!! Commissioners Pay off One Lawsuit, And Two Lawsuits take its Place!!! Corruption keeps on increasing as taxpayers have to pay the lawyer bills and the payoffs!! Report, update, arguendo and gossip by Robert A. Williams

Folks, if you are mad because your taxes are going up, YOU ain’t seen nothing yet.

The Willis v. Cleveland County Commissioners, County Manager Brian Epley, County Health Department Dorothea Wyant and Sam Lockridge lawsuit has been dismissed by “Stipulation.” That is Code for the County paid off the Willis’s bigtime. Even more so the Willis’ won’t tell that the County had to pay off. Ms. Willis had tape recordings of the long-term sexual harassment and the threats to fire her and her husband if she told about the harassment to begin with.

This lawsuit ended up removing two high-level Health Department officials, including the Director, threw the Health Department into such turmoil that the COVID data was so mishandled that ALL our kids are still NOT back in School full time. All because a Health Department Employee, a big buddy of a Commissioner, had known “zipper problems” with various female coworkers that the Commissioners covered up for 25 years.

The “Dismissed by Stipulation” means that neither a Judge nor a jury made a ruling in the case. An out of court settlement was made that paid the Plaintiff’s plenty enough so they took the money and the extra money to keep quite about the whole thing. And, why not? Most folks in their situation find themselves ostracized by their co-workers, who are afraid of retaliation themselves, while the trial preliminaries are going on such that the Plaintiffs feel that to bring the case to a trial will also benefit all the other coworkers that were “shunning” them through it all. It’s like when I get mine, the rest of you “sheep” are on your own. The commissions like it that way too. Because they can claim “confidentiality” and not do anything to change the “System.” And the next time a lawsuit crops up, they get their lawyers do it all over again.

Now, there are two more cases (that I know of) against the Commissioners and the Department of Social Services and a slew of DSS Employees, including the Director, for all sorts of wrongdoing. Including job discrimination based on race.

One of these cases is Kline v. Cleveland County Commissioners, DSS Director Katie Swanson, Former DSS Directors Karen Prichard and Jane Shooter, DSS Supervisors Pam Bright and Tamara Hardin and DSS caseworkers Nichole Allen, Debi Reece and Christopher Lee as well as Johnny Anderson White. The start of this case is when DSS refused to do a fair and impartial investigation and then refused to allow Court Ordered Visitation. I have heard this kind of stuff out of DSS so much it seems like in the millions.

What I find very interesting is that the DSS Supervisors are claiming that they only had a “Supervisory role” and were not liable for the Unconstitutional Acts of their subordinates. Kind of like the Nuremburg War Crimes Trial of the Nazis after World War II, but in reverse. The Nazis claimed they were only following orders from Hitler when they did what they did. The DSS Supervisors are saying their subordinates actually did the unconstitutional acts so they, the supervisors, should NOT be prosecuted. Justice in this DSS case, in my opinion, would be “hang them all.” The Kline’s say both the supervisors and their subordinates were all involved with the scheming and planning to do the unconstitutional acts. I say the blame starts at the top and works all the way up through to the bottom of an organization, And the proof starts at the bottom and works its way through the DSS Director to the County Manager and finally to the Commissioners.

Presently the Federal Court Judge is in the process of separating the Federal Civil Rights violations from the violations of North Carolina State law on the part of the DSS. My prediction is that this case will be split into two parts. One for Fe4deral Court and One for State Court. So, the Commissioners may end up having to pay off twice. Using taxpayer dollars of course. Which I say is good. If the Commissioners and County Manager were acting like they had any sense, they would make sure that all county agencies were doing their jobs properly. And if the Commissioners and the County Manager are doing bad acts, it is because the taxpayers and voters are NOT paying attention. Just like the taxpayers were NOT paying attention when this major tax increase was brewing. I was telling everybody, but nobody paid attention. So, suck it up you “Buttercup” taxpayers. Democracy only works when people pay attention to what their elected leaders are doing. Don’t pay attention and this is what you get. No “boo-hooing” to me is allowed.

All this leads to the Second Federal lawsuit; Murphy v. Cleveland County and the DSS. For retaliation and race discrimination. And this case has its basis in a previous Federal Lawsuit against the Commissioners, Murphy v. The Commissioners and DSS, where the Commissioners paid off to keep the scandal quiet and those that testified under oath that they committed unconstitutional acts because their Supervisors told them to do it. The Commissioners paid it off, but nobody was disciplined because of their unlawful acts.

So, what does DSS and the Commissioners do? They commit more unconstitutional acts and get themselves sued a second time.

But, hey! The Commissioners will have plenty of money when their big new tax increases show up in our tax bills and we have to pay or the Commissioners will foreclose on our property for the tax bill. And then turn around and sell the property cheap to some of their buddies.

And blame ME for telling YOU that the Commissioners, the DSS, the Schools and CCC are wasting YOUR’s and my tax dollars. And lying about it.

PS: Updates on the Lawsuits against the schools, CCC and the City of Shelby will be out soon.