Graham County Sheriff Jerry Crisp
Robbinsville – Graham County Sheriff Jerry Crisp has dropped his lawsuit against the county and its commissioners for back retirement payments, but an affidavit filed by the county’s finance officer contends that Crisp was never eligible for the benefits in the first place.
County Finance Officer Becky Garland submitted an exhaustively researched affidavit in which she makes the case for the county.
The affidavit was filed in response to a lawsuit Crisp filed in 2018 that he dropped in July because retirement documents for a county employee in a situation similar to his would be unverifiable because that employee died in 2016 and could not be called to testify if lawyers for the county contested the documents, Crisp said.
Crisp retained the option to re-file the case if new evidence becomes available.
Crisp alleged that Graham County has a ministerial duty to provide retirement to its employees under the LGERS (Local Government Employee Retirement System) program. He sought $209,000 in back retirement benefits.
The voluntary dismissal without prejudice was filed July 8 and ends – for now at least – Crisp’s claim for relief against the county and every member of the Graham County Board of Commissioners. The voluntary dismissal was filed by Crisp’s Murphy-based lawyer, Zeyland McKinney Jr.
“Without prejudice” means that Crisp can rekindle the lawsuit in the future, such as in the event he finds more evidence to support his case.
However, in her research to determine the county’s statutory requirements to participate in the retirement program, Garland found reasons why Crisp was not entitled to the back retirement.
Garland argued that while the county may provide back retirement to Crisp and others in a similar situation, under the law, it doesn’t have to.
But more to the point, she said that when the county joined the state retirement program back in 2000, the state required the names of eligible county employees at that time and Crisp wasn’t a county employee at that time.
Crisp doesn’t dispute either of these points. What he argues is that another county employee had a situation similar to his who was allowed to enroll in the program and the county paid the costs.
That was Mitch Colvard, who was employed as an emergency medical technician by Graham County. Colvard died 2016.
Crisp said that he and other sheriff’s office employees asked to join the retirement plan when it was offered to them in 1991. Of those who applied, three successfully enrolled before the county decided to opt out of the program. Crisp’s paperwork was not among them.
Crisp also contends that by state policy, if the county buys back retirement benefits for one employee, it must do so for all, otherwise it would be discriminatory.
Crisp lost his re-election bid in a runoff for the Republican nomination for Graham County Sheriff. He remains in office until December, when the winner of the November general election between Republican Russell Moody and unaffiliated candidate Brad Hoxit takes office.