A Carroll County Sheriff’s deputy has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Sheriff Tobias Leazenby and the sheriff’s office claiming that he was the victim of political retaliation for his unsuccessful attempt to campaign in next month’s general election.
In the lawsuit, Deputy Michael Thomas cites his involvement in the early days of the
Delphi murders investigation as the beginning of the end of his relationship with his boss.
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“Upon Thomas’s information and belief, Leazenby and others in the CCSO did not approve of Thomas running for office, in part because Thomas had made suggestions and offered assistance in the investigation of a high-profile child homicide investigation, which was overruled and which Leazenby and others in the CSCO feared would become publicized as a result of the campaign and/or Thomas’s potential election.”
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“I do recall discussing with Chief Deputy Mike Thomas the possibility of seeking additional experts in the Delphi case,” Ives wrote. “I thought there were aspects of the investigation that needed experts, that the team had not sought.”
Thomas said his assignment by the prosecutor to seek outside experts was not well received by the leadership of the investigation.
”I feel that since that moment that I had a disagreement with the sheriff about this investigation that it’s went downhill ever since,” he said. ”I just felt like there were certain individuals within the command structure that didn’t want to go in that direction.”
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”Three days after the election, I was demoted back down to the road,” said Thomas. ”I was pulled into the sheriff’s office and he spoke to me about it and handed me a letter about it and basically said, ‘Due to recent events, I’m taking you back down to patrol level.’”
Thomas said Leazenby replaced him as Chief Deputy with Detective Tony Liggett, his choice to become the next sheriff, who was the CCSO lead investigator on the Delphi case.
”I feel like it was due to my debates that we’ve had and being outspoken about transparency in the department and so forth,” said Thomas, analyzing why he thinks he ended up on the sheriff’s wrong side. “In those actions, I believe he didn’t like what I had to say.