Tennessee Supreme Court… Photo from Wikipedia
A jury found in favor of Keeling on Jan. 12, 2017 and awarded her damages in the amount of $10,000. Those damages, according to state law, were tripled to $30,000.
An order by the Circuit Court of Coffee County, filed on May 1, states that the plaintiff is entitled to back-pay damages and front-pay damages. The order also states that back- and front-pay damages should be tripled, as well.
The total amount the court ordered to be paid to Keeling by the county was about $490,000.
On Aug. 25, the court also ruled the amount the county pay her lawyer, Jerry Gonzalez would be $79,000 for attorney fees.
According to County Attorney Bob Huskey, Keeling was laid off because there was not enough work to justify keeping her position.
After the county appealed the decision, last week, an opinion issued by the Tennessee Court of Appeals affirms the judgement of the trial court in the case Melinda Keeling v. Coffee County. That means county taxpayers will have to pay more than $1 million in damages and attorney fees.
Keeling was fired from the county’s codes department on May 27, 2010. At that time, Glenn Darden was the department director and David Pennington served as a county mayor.
Darden retired in September 2015, and Pennington didn’t seek re-election after his term ended in 2014.
Keeling claims she was disciplined and ultimately fired because she brought up her concerns about Darden being unavailable to answer questions and address concerns brought by the public.
Coffee County Attorney Robert Huskey says that he will recommend the county file an application with the Tennessee Supreme Court in an effort to reverse the decision.
The county has 60 days or Nov. 17, 2018 to file application with the Tennessee Supreme Court to review the application and decide if the case will be re-evaluated by the court.
