Lawson v. Shelby County Sheriff's Office

A policy argument can be made that some degree of deference should be given by a personnel board to a sheriffs decision regarding disciplinary actions against employees of the sheriffs office. Because the legislature has not seen fit to require the Shelby County Law Enforcement Personnel Board (“the LEPB”) to give deference to such decisions by the sheriff of Shelby County, but instead has given it the authority to revisit those decisions on a de novo basis, and because substantial evidence exists to support the LEPB’s decision in the case now before us, I am compelled to concur in the main…