A former Greenwood police officer has filed suit against the city, saying his support of his sister-in-law, former Mayor Sheriel Perkins, led to unfair treatment at the department.
In the lawsuit, former police Sgt. S.C. Perkins Jr., the brother of Rep. Willie Perkins Sr., D-Greenwood, claims Mayor Carolyn McAdams used her political influence to have him transferred from his position as litter control officer to patrolman status, which prompted his resignation.
The suit was filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Greenville and was first reported by John Pittman Hey of the Taxpayers Channel.
McAdams, who defeated Sheriel Perkins in the 2013 mayoral election, said this morning that the allegations in the lawsuit were untrue and that his relation to her political opponent played no role in any personnel decisions within the police department.
“His rank did not change; his rate of pay did not change; he was just given new duties in the department,” McAdams said. “Him being Willie Perkins’ brother had no impact on the decision to reassign his duties whatsoever.”
In the lawsuit, filed on behalf of S.C. Perkins by his brother, the former policeman claims that his support of his sister-in-law and his relation to Willie Perkins caused McAdams to single him out for unfair treatment.
“McAdams disliked (S.C. Perkins) because of his brother whom she despised and hated,” Perkins wrote in the suit.
The suit alleges that McAdams pressured then-Interim Police Chief Johnny Langdon Sr. in late 2013 to reassign Perkins from his litter control duties — a position he’d held since 1995 — and place the sergeant back on patrol duty, a transfer that the suit alleges was a demotion.
S.C. Perkins, now 67 years old, claims in the suit that he was too old to work as a patrolman and that the rotating shift schedule for patrol officers conflicted with his weekend work as an ordained minister at two area churches.
McAdams said the decision to replace Perkins as litter control officer and assign him to new duties came because of issues with Perkins not carrying out needed duties in support of the city’s code enforcement division.
The suit alleges that Perkins’ transfer was based on racial and gender discrimination in part because he was replaced in the litter control position by William Blake, a younger, white officer, and because only Perkins — and no non-black or female sergeants with the department — was transferred during his period of employment.
McAdams said that Perkins had never addressed any concerns about his reassignment to her and that she was unaware of any issues with his duties until a complaint was first filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in June 2014, after Perkins’ resignation from the department.
According to McAdams, the EEOC had “passed” on Perkins’ first complaint. A motion to reconsider and an amended EEOC charge were filed with the commission in September, but Perkins decided to file suit in federal court before the commission issued a determination on the amended complaint.
In the lawsuit, Perkins is asking for actual and punitive damages, including lost pay, of $2 million from the city in addition to court costs. A judge has not yet been assigned to the case.
• Contact Bryn Stole at 581-7235 or bstole@gwcommonwealth.com.
S.C. Perkins lawsuitS.C. Perkins EEOC complaint
