Demoted Taylor County Investigative Sergeant Files Civil Suit Against the County
Tuesday, October 6th, 2020 -- 9:05 AM
(WSAW) -The demoted investigative sergeant with the Taylor County Sheriff’s Office, who shared files from cold cases with producers from an investigative television show, filed a civil suit in federal court against the county, the former sheriff, and the county’s IT director Monday.According to WSAW, Steve Bowers is suing the county, the former sheriff, Bruce Daniels, and IT director, Melissa Seavers claiming they violated his fourth amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures and his fifth amendment right to due process. Bowers is the investigative sergeant who was double demoted to deputy after giving producers from Cold Justice two cold case files he was not authorized to give in 2017. At the time, the sheriff’s office was working with the show on another cold case, the death of Eugene Monte. He was ultimately demoted to deputy in an employee disciplinary hearing and was shortly thereafter charged with misconduct in office for his actions in criminal court. Bowers sent producers some of these files through his personal Dropbox account that he pays for and that is tied to his county email address.
When he told then-sheriff Bruce Daniels, after being asked, that he did allow Cold Justice to have some case files to review for potential partnerships, he, the district attorney, and the IT director Melissa Seavers accessed Bowers' county email account, “forgot” the password to his Dropbox account so they could create a new one and access the account. They did this without a warrant, which they have said previously they had the right to do, per the employee handbook IT policy. Bowers, in his disciplinary hearing, criminal case, and now civil case has argued they did not have the authority to access the Dropbox account without a warrant, as it is not a public or county-owned digital storage facility. He also has argued that the policy violation of him not asking the sheriff first before releasing records does not rise to the level of a criminal act, simply an employee violation, and that an employee handbook does not constitute a law.
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