The Montgomery County Sheriff's Office has been served with a lawsuit that claims among other things, that high ranking officers may have altered evidence, and given thousands of taxpayer dollars to confidential informants to buy what investigators thought were real drugs, but turned out to be Tylenol.
For nearly 15 years, Brad Roop served in the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office. Rising to the rank of Captain of Criminal Investigations, until August 28th of this year.
In a lawsuit filed last week, Roop states he was fired for conducting an unauthorized internal affairs investigation of the Montgomery County Sheriff's Street Crimes Unit or SCU. Click here to read a copy of the lawsuit.
Roops lawyer, Randy Eades, says this lawsuit is unique, because Roop kept identical copies of the entire investigation, and who signed off on what. "In this case there is extensive documentation in regards to the facts that we have alleged that lead to the circumstances which the sheriff now finds himself in."
Montgomery County Sheriff Tommy Whitt said on Tuesday, the lawsuit was a personnel matter, and there would be no other comment.
The lawsuit states that in May of this year, Roop told Sheriff Whitt, that state lab results concerning so-called "confiscated drug buys', actually turned out in some cases, to be simple Tylenol.
"At some point' said Eades, 'between the time the confidential informant took the drugs they received from the drug dealer, back to the Sheriff's Department, who was conducting the undercover investigation, either those drugs were switched by the confidential informant, or the known drug dealer was handing out an imitation substance."
Captain Brad St. Claire oversees the Street Crimes Unit, responsible for undercover drug buys. The lawsuit alleges St. Claire lied about taking measures to correct the problem.
Attorney Eades added, "The problem is the Sheriff shot the messenger. He didn't go to root of the problem to determine what went wrong and where.
Roop is seeking $10 million dollars in damages, and a written apology from Sheriff Whitt.
