BENTON COUNTY (KFSM) — A Benton County Sheriff’s Office employee filed a request for a grievance hearing Wednesday (May 18) claiming interim Sheriff Meyer Gilbert demoted her after replacing former Sheriff Kelley Cradduck for the remainder of 2016.
In the grievance, Tiffany DeVore writes she had been demoted from disciplinary sergeant at the jail to deputy and her pay was lowered by about $2 an hour. She states the demotion denies her further advancement opportunities and her major duties have been reassigned to others.
DeVore claims she was not given any documents or reason for the demotion, but Lt. Robin Holt and Cpt. Lynn Hahn told her the demotion was a result of restructuring in the sheriff’s office by the new administration. They also said Gilbert did not feel DeVore was right for the position of disciplinary sergeant, according to the grievance.
DeVore writes the reason she was demoted was because she was a vocal supporter of sheriff candidates Paul Pillaro and Glenn Latham, who were or are running against current Benton County Chief Deputy Shawn Holloway. Pillaro was eliminated during Republican primary elections in March, but Latham, who is running as an Independent, will be Holloway’s opponent in the general election in November. DeVore writes that Holt and Gilbert are both closely aligned with Holloway and support his candidacy for sheriff.
DeVore claims the demotion was a retaliation to her criticism of Holloway and Justice of the Peace Kevin Harrison, who also supports Holloway for sheriff.
DeVore also claims the demotion is tied to several complaints she had made against Holt that were never addressed and for being part of an investigation into a separate complaint made against Holt by another employee.
Gilbert was sworn in as sheriff on April 28. In the week following his takeover, Gilbert made the following command changes:
- Appointed former Major Shawn Holloway to chief deputy
- Promoting Jeremy Guyll to major of administration and the jail
- Adding Robert Bersi as Major of Operations (formally of Springdale Police Department)
- Reassigning R.L. Conner as Detective II in the Criminal Investigation Division
- Reassigning Lynn Hahn to captain of the jail
- Reassigning Charlie Robbins to sergeant of narcotics
- Reassigning Kenny Paul as captain of the Special Operations Division
- Reassigning Adam Howard as captain of the Criminal Investigation Division
- Reassigning Harold Gage as lieutenant over administration
The Benton County Sheriff’s Office released the following statement regarding the grievance:
“We encourage all employee’s to follow policy and procedure, this situation will be no different, Deputy DeVore is entitled to file a grievance with Benton County. The Sheriff’s Office will cooperate fully with the grievance process. We will not issue any further statement until a determination is made by the Benton County Grievance Council on whether there will be a hearing on this issue.”
