Ben Jenkins, the sheriff's deputy that a Kannapolis woman is suing for sexual harassment, is still employed today as a patrol deputy with the Iredell County Sheriff's Office.
But Capt. Harold Miller, who has been with the sheriff's office since 1994, retired unexpectedly this week, according to Capt. Marty Byers, personnel director for the sheriff's office. The timing of Miller's retirement does not appear to be related to the lawsuit filed this week by Suzanne Wick against Jenkins and Sheriff Phil Redmond.
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| Sheriff's Deputy Ben Jenkins |
Wick says that Jenkins – a detective at the time with the ICSO's Domestic Violence Unit - sexually harassed and stalked her in early 2009 while she was working through the sheriff's office to charge her then-husband with domestic abuse.
Wick's ex-husband pleaded guilty in January to domestic-violence charges.
Byers said today the sheriff's office still employs Jenkins as a patrol deputy.
Jenkins, 45, who began working for the sheriff's office in August 2002, was demoted from his position as detective in 2009 after Wick apparently complained of his sexual advances, which she says began in February or March of that year – just about a month after she first approached the sheriff's office for help in filing charges against her abusive husband.
Public information in Jenkins' personnel file seems to corroborate the timeline of events in Wick's lawsuit:
According to the suit, on or about April 19, 2009 – just two days before Iredell County's personnel file shows Jenkins was suspended and three days before he was placed on administrative leave – two men, presumably from the sheriff's office, interviewed Wick about Jenkins' conduct in her case.
“A few days later,” the suit reads, “the two individuals reported back that they corroborated misconduct by Jenkins.” It says the two men asked Wick what she wanted them to do, and “she said that Jenkins should lose his job because she feared that Jenkins would do this to another woman.
“Shockingly,” the suit reads, “the Sheriff's Office refused to terminate Jenkins. Shortly after that, the two men reported back that Jenkins was demoted to jailor.”
The county's personnel information seems to corroborate that. It states that on May 4, 2009 Jenkins' position was reclassified from detective to jailer.
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| Sheriff Phil Redmond |
Last year, the suit states, it was discovered that the sheriff's office attempted to restore Jenkins to a detective position but that “the Gaston County Domestic Violence Protective Council and/or elements within the District Attorney's Office may have opposed the move and Sheriff Redmond subsequently moved Jenkins to a patrol position.”
Jenkins' public personnel information shows that he was, in fact, promoted back to detective on Nov. 7, 2011 (after he had moved from jailer to deputy sheriff in November 2010). But just two weeks after he was promoted, on Nov. 23, 2011, he was demoted back to deputy sheriff.
He is currently a road patrolman, making $38,972.04 a year.
Redmond is named in the suit for neglecting to act on information about Jenkins' misconduct.
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As for Harold Miller's retirement: Human Resources Director Sandra Gregory said this afternoon that her department has not yet received paperwork verifying Miller's retirement. But ICSO Capt. Marty Byers, in an e-mail to the Report this afternoon, confirmed that Miller is, in fact, “a retired employee from the Sheriff's Office.”
Miller, 63, started working for the sheriff's office in December 1994. His salary, according to information on file with the county, was $62,025.19.
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