On Wednesday afternoon, Mississippi County Judge John Alan Nelson’s released the following statement via Facebook regarding an apparent class action lawsuit against the county.
“Recently, Judge John Nelson received an email that contained an attachment listing interrogatories that required responses. He has been gathering information on this for the last few days and discovered a class action lawsuit has been filed against Mississippi County.
What Judge Nelson found so far is that on July 17, 2018, a federal lawsuit was filed against Mississippi County by former Sheriff’s Deputy, Brandon Bryan, on his own behalf, and on behalf of others similarly situated, alleging a violation of the Federal Fair Labor Standards Act, as well as the Arkansas Minimum Wage Act. Specifically, he alleges that, while he was employed as a Sheriff’s Deputy, he worked overtime hours, for which he was not compensated either 1.5 times his regular pay or 1.5 hours in compensatory time. He further alleges that he was routinely required to work more than 171 hours in a 28-day period.
Judge Nelson discovered that St. Francis County, Arkansas was served an almost identical suit on November 28, 2017 by Sanford Law Firm in Little Rock. Crittenden County, Arkansas was also served an equally similar suit, nearly identical, on February 22, 2018 and also by Sanford Law Firm in Little Rock. Hempstead County, Arkansas was served on August 1, 2018 also on the same premise, also by Sanford Law Firm.
Mr. Bryan is represented by the Sanford Law Firm in Little Rock. They asked that the Court order Mississippi County to provide information to allow them locate other former county employees who may make similar claims, and invite them to join in the lawsuit. The Court did so and the County provided the requested information.
The following former County employees have now joined Mr. Bryan as plaintiffs in the suit: Nathan Carter, Deshun Williams, Kaylen Jacobs, Franklin Stracener, Christopher Richardson, Michael Merritt, Michael Borden, Jeremy Tucker, Kenneth Raymond, Justin Bell and Cornelius Manning. The deadline for new plaintiffs to join expired on March 21st.
The Mississippi County Sheriff’s office denies that any county employee was improperly paid or otherwise improperly compensated and is vigorously defending the case. Trial is currently set for April 6, 2020 at the federal courthouse in Jonesboro.”