HAZARD, Ky. (LEX 18) — The former deputy chief of the Hazard Police Department has filed a federal lawsuit against the police chief, Darren Williams, after she says she was retaliated against for reporting an alleged use of force by the chief.
The incident involving the alleged use of force happened on March 30, 2024.
Jessica Cornett, who was the deputy chief of the Hazard Police Department at the time, filed a memorandum to city manager Tony Eversole, according to the lawsuit. Cornett said that she filed the memorandum because she feared that the use of force was not being investigated and was going to be concealed by the chief and other officers in the department.
“To my knowledge there was a road rage incident and the victim called Chief Williams directly,” Cornett wrote in the memorandum. “Chief Williams responded to the house of the alleged perpetrator. Sometime while on scene Chief Williams choked [the alleged perpetrator] and then had officers arrest him.”
Cornett wrote that the incident was not investigated by the police department, and was being relayed to the city manager because he was the “immediate supervisor” of the police chief.
Two days after Cornett filed the memorandum, she was demoted from deputy chief to captain, according to the lawsuit. The same day, she was served with a disciplinary form that cited “insubordination, failure to follow orders, cursing and abusing subordinates.”
A few days after the demotion, Cornett filed a complaint against the city and chief in Perry County Circuit Court. The following day, Williams “pinned a copy of the complaint to a wall in the headquarters of HPD,” according to the lawsuit.
A few days after that, Williams sent an officer to confiscate Cornett’s patrol vehicle from her driveway, the lawsuit alleges. The next month, he moved her from a day shift to a night shift, according to the complaint.
“Williams knew that Cornett had an infant son at home, and that she could not work night shift,” the lawsuit states.
The lawsuit alleges that over the next three months, Williams issued six reprimands against Cornett that were “completely baseless” and did not inform Cornett of those reprimands.
Cornett did not learn about the reprimands until after she was fired in August, according to the lawsuit.
According to the lawsuit, Cornett also found that a cut-out paragraph had been pinned to her complaint on the wall at headquarters that read: “It is always good to support your leader. If you undermine a leader, it not only hurts them, it also hurts the morale of the troops as well as you as a subordinate leader. You are setting an example; if the example you set is one of disrespect up the chain of command, you can expect much the same from the people you are leading.”
The lawsuit is asking for damages, and for the restoration of Cornett’s rank as deputy chief of the Hazard Police Department and all of her seniority rights.
City manager Tony Eversole said he was unaware of the federal lawsuit and was unable to comment on the pending litigation.
LEX 18 also reached out to the Hazard Police Department for comment from Williams but did not hear back by deadline.
Cornett now works for the Perry County Sheriff’s Office.
