Fired employee suing juvenile detention center
Report of sexual misconduct led to retaliation, he alleges
A long-time Pulaski County Juvenile Detention Center supervisor who said he was fired last year after reporting a superior for sexual misconduct is suing Pulaski County and two of his former superiors at the detention center for $500,000 and demanding that Pulaski County give him back his job.
Bryan Aldridge, who worked at the Pulaski County Juvenile Detention Center from June 2004 until he was terminated last February, alleged in a complaint filed last week in federal court in Little Rock he was fired from his position as a supervisor in the juvenile lockup in retaliation for Aldridge’s allegation in 2022 that the former director of the facility — Ronald Lee Routh — had sexually assaulted a male inmate. In the complaint, filed last Tuesday by his attorney, Mike Laux of the Laux Law Group in Little Rock, Aldridge said he told the Pulaski County sheriff’s office in May of 2022 of a video he had viewed during an informal meeting in Routh’s office a day or two earlier depicting Routh touching a juvenile inmate between his legs.
Within a day or two of seeing the video, the complaint said, Aldridge, “still shaken by what he saw,” reported Routh’s conduct to the supervisory staff at the facility. But, according to the complaint, despite their being aware of the nature of the allegations against Routh, those allegations were not investigated until the Arkansas State Police Crimes Against Children Division began looking into the matter in late June 2023 after one or more juvenile inmates accused Routh of engaging in sexual misconduct the prior week.
On July 21, 2022, the complaint said, the allegations against Routh were referred back to the Pulaski County
sheriff’s office for investigation, Routh was placed on administrative leave and Assistant Director Rodney Shepherd was put in charge as acting director. The complaint said the sheriff’s office assigned Sgt. Terrance Mems to conduct the investigation and that Mems concluded in a probable cause affidavit filed Jan. 26, 2023, that sufficient evidence existed to charge Routh with sexual assault and harassment. Routh resigned shortly after learning of the charges and surrendered on Jan. 30. The following day he pleaded innocent of the charges in Pulaski County District Court and posted $150,000 bond.
Routh is scheduled to go to trial May 27 in Pulaski County Circuit Court before Circuit Judge Leon Johnson.
The affidavit said several current and former officers were interviewed during the investigation into the allegations against Routh, as were several current and former juvenile inmates, several of whom provided statements claiming that Routh had made inappropriate comments of a sexual nature.
One of the juveniles interviewed, the affidavit said, accused Routh of touching him inappropriately during a pat-down after the youth was caught viewing pornography on a school computer. The affidavit said the youth told investigators that Routh was checking to see if the youth had had an “organism,” and that he “described the touch as uncomfortable and a touch he did not want to happen.”
The complaint said that Aldridge was identified in the affidavit as having provided “incriminating statements about the video depicting [Routh]’s sexual assault.”
On Feb. 9, the complaint said, eight days after Routh was charged with second-degree sexual assault and harassment, Aldridge received a three-sentence letter telling him he was fired but gave no reason.
“At this time, it has been determined that you are no longer a go (sic) fit for the Pulaski County Detention Facility,” the termination letter read. “Therefor (sic) have elected to cease your employment with the Pulaski County Detention Center effective immediately. I wish you luck in all your future endeavors.”
Three days earlier, the complaint said, Aldridge and two other officers had, “an interaction with a violent type of individual,” which required the juvenile to be restrained and placed into isolation. The complaint said Aldridge and the other two officers, “engaged in the same conduct while interacting with the juvenile.”
The complaint said an investigation into allegations against the three officers following the incident was launched the next day but that Aldridge was terminated before the investigation was completed and the other two officers, who were not identified in the complaint, remained on the job. The complaint said, “Upon information and belief,” that any allegations that Aldridge had violated department policy, “were not sustained,” but that Aldridge remained terminated from his position.
A newspaper account of the incident dated Feb. 10, 2023, quoted a spokesperson for Pulaski County as saying the fired officer, “threatened harm towards the resident,” after an internal investigation was said to have determined that one of the officers used, “violent and unacceptable language.” None of the officers involved were identified in the news story.
The complaint accuses Pulaski County, Routh and Shepherd of violating Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 — that prohibits employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin, and it prohibits retaliation against an employee for making a complaint about discrimination, filing a charge of discrimination with an agency such as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or participating as a witness in a discrimination investigation or lawsuit.
Protected activities under Title VII, the complaint said, include giving statements to police in the investigation of a felony and reporting sexual misconduct in the workplace.
Aldridge first filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which, after an investigation, made no determination on the merits of Aldridge’s claim but on Oct. 11, 2022, provided him with a notice of his right to sue the county within 90 days of the issuance of the notice. On Jan. 9, 90 days to the day of the issuance of the notice, Aldridge filed a civil complaint in federal court in Little Rock.
The complaint accuses Pulaski County government of retaliating against Aldridge for reporting Routh by fabricating a claim against him and terminating him, and it accuses Routh and Shepherd of conspiring to get Aldridge fired after Aldridge’s role in the investigation was made public with the filing of the affidavit.
Reached by phone Sunday, Laux said that Aldridge was fired for doing exactly what he was supposed to do but that the county retaliated against him when the matter went public.
“Mr. Aldridge should be commended and celebrated for doing the right thing — the only thing — reporting the sexual abuse of minors,” Laux said. “Mr. Aldridge had a duty, not only as a supervisor in the facility but as a moral human being, he met that duty head on, and he was fired because of it.”
Laux said although it was known that Aldridge and other employees had talked to Mems, no one knew what had been said in those interviews until the affidavit was made public in January 2023, nine months after Aldridge first reported the incident and six months after Arkansas State Police referred the matter back to the Pulaski County sheriff’s office.
“He’s the only one who actually puts words in Routh’s mouth commenting on the video,” Laux said. “As soon as it was made public, he got canned right away.”