WTNH News Channel 8 / News / 1999

	Deputy sheriff sues supervisors HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ A New London County special deputy sheriff is suing his supervisors, claiming they conspired with a statewide sheriffs advisory board to cheat him and his colleagues out of civil action service fees. Special Deputy Sheriff Waldren Phillips brought the action Friday in U.S. District Court in Hartford against Sheriff Gerard Egan, Chief Deputy Sheriff Thomas Connors, Sheriff's Capt. Daniel Tamborra, the Statewide High Sheriffs Advisory Board, the Connecticut State Sheriffs Association and the state. Connors declined to comment to The Hartford Courant and did not immediately return a telephone call to The Associated Press on Sunday. Egan, who has an unpublished telephone number, could not be reached Sunday by the AP. Connors and Egan are the two officials directly responsible for supervision of the civil action service fees in New London County. In the lawsuit, Phillips said he and other deputy sheriffs in all the state's eight counties were assigned three years ago to serve debt collection papers in the so-called Deadbeat Dad Program, which targets parents delinquent in child support payments. Phillips was supposed to be accompanied by a deputy sheriff when he served those papers, he said. They were supposed to split a fee of $240 paid by the state for their work, he said. Phillips said in the lawsuit that the operation was not run as planned because he often served legal papers alone, and even when he didn't, neither he nor his partner received their full fees. Those fees, paid by check from the state, were all routed to the New London County Sheriffs' Office, Phillips said. After the checks were received, Phillips claimed, his supervisors required him to endorse them. The supervisors kept the money at the office or remitted only part of it back to him and the other deputy sheriffs, Phillips said. On at least 17 occasions, Phillips said, he served court papers with the assistance of a deputy sheriff and was not paid a fee. Phillips charged that his superiors threatened to have him arrested and taken off legal-paper service duties if he insisted on demanding his service fees. When he asked Connors and another superior for a document verifying that he did not receive the total sum for the service fee checks, Phillips said, he was told: "Too bad! Pay the taxes on the full amount." In 1997, Phillips claimed, one unidentified deputy sheriff refused to split a service fee with his superiors in the office and was then terminated from the Deadbeat Dad squad and threatened with an arrest for larceny. Today's News Page. WTNH Home Page. ©1999 WTNH/WTNH-DT A LIN station.

Deputy sheriff sues supervisors
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) _ A New London County special deputy sheriff is suing his supervisors, claiming they conspired with a statewide sheriffs advisory board to cheat him and his colleagues out of civil action service fees.

Special Deputy Sheriff Waldren Phillips brought the action Friday in U.S. District Court in Hartford against Sheriff Gerard Egan, Chief Deputy Sheriff Thomas Connors, Sheriff's Capt. Daniel Tamborra, the Statewide High Sheriffs Advisory Board, the Connecticut State Sheriffs Association and the state.

Connors declined to comment to The Hartford Courant and did not immediately return a telephone call to The Associated Press on Sunday.

Egan, who has an unpublished telephone number, could not be reached Sunday by the AP.

Connors and Egan are the two officials directly responsible for supervision of the civil action service fees in New London County.

In the lawsuit, Phillips said he and other deputy sheriffs in all the state's eight counties were assigned three years ago to serve debt collection papers in the so-called Deadbeat Dad Program, which targets parents delinquent in child support payments.

Phillips was supposed to be accompanied by a deputy sheriff when he served those papers, he said. They were supposed to split a fee of $240 paid by the state for their work, he said.

Phillips said in the lawsuit that the operation was not run as planned because he often served legal papers alone, and even when he didn't, neither he nor his partner received their full fees. Those fees, paid by check from the state, were all routed to the New London County Sheriffs' Office, Phillips said.

After the checks were received, Phillips claimed, his supervisors required him to endorse them. The supervisors kept the money at the office or remitted only part of it back to him and the other deputy sheriffs, Phillips said.

On at least 17 occasions, Phillips said, he served court papers with the assistance of a deputy sheriff and was not paid a fee.

Phillips charged that his superiors threatened to have him arrested and taken off legal-paper service duties if he insisted on demanding his service fees. When he asked Connors and another superior for a document verifying that he did not receive the total sum for the service fee checks, Phillips said, he was told: "Too bad! Pay the taxes on the full amount."

In 1997, Phillips claimed, one unidentified deputy sheriff refused to split a service fee with his superiors in the office and was then terminated from the Deadbeat Dad squad and threatened with an arrest for larceny.

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