Lesbian deputy who was fired wins sheriff’s election

rising through the ranks for 33 years, winning awards and becoming the first female major in the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in

Ohio, Charmaine McGuffey was ousted in 2017, she said.

She said she was fired for being a lesbian and for calling attention to the use of excessive force against inmates. Her boss at the time, Sheriff Jim Neil, said she refused to accept a demotion after an internal affairs investigation concluded that she had created a hostile work environment, according to court records.

Now, McGuffey, 63, is poised to return to the office, this time as the elected sheriff after defeating Neil in a Democratic primary in April and a Republican challenger in the general election Tuesday.

McGuffey said she was not motivated by a desire for revenge against the sheriff.

“I decided that I can do a better job than him and I need to be back in that office so that I can finish the job I started, which is to bring true criminaljustice reform to the system,” she said. “No person who knows what it’s like to go through the ordeal, the odyssey that I’ve been through, would ever just do this for revenge.”

McGuffey will assume control of an 800person staff that oversees an average of 1,500 inmates in Hamilton County, which includes CincinAfter nati. During her campaign, she described herself as a progressive who would focus on “rehabilitative, rather than punitive strategies” to reduce recidivism.

Neil declined to comment through a spokesperson.

After he lost in the primary, he endorsed the Republican challenger, Bruce Hoffbauer, a former Hamilton County deputy sheriff and Cincinnati police relief commander. Neil called McGuffey a political activist who would turn the city and county into another Chicago, Portland, Ore., or Seattle.

On Tuesday, McGuffey won 52% of the nearly 405,000 votes cast in the sheriff’s race in Hamilton, a Democraticleaning county where Joe Biden won 57% of the vote, unofficial results show.