An officer with the Franklin Police Department is filing a civil action against Chief of Police Bill Harrell and the Town of Franklin.
In a complaint filed with the Macon County Clerk of Court’s office Jan. 18, Officer Randy Dula alleges he has been passed over for several promotions within the department in violation of the Town of Franklin Personnel Policy. The filing states that for much of the past five years, Dula has been one of FPD’s most “productive” officers, accounting for 30 percent of the department’s total combined workload of incident reports, warnings citations, arrests and crash reports.
Around early March 2020, Dula, an Afghanistan combat veteran with extensive drug-related experience in other departments around North Carolina, claims he gave a presentation to several FPD and town officials advocating for town funds to be made available for a full-time narcotics detective. According to the complaint, Dula said then-Chief of Police David Adams was receptive to the idea, and that then-Town Manager Summer Woodard informed him she had set aside funds in the town budget for the position and asked him to prepare a secondary presentation for town officials. After Chief Harrell was sworn in on June 1 of that year, Harrell informed staff he had awarded the new position to Sgt. Matthew Pellicer.
Dula claims the narcotics detective position was not posted or otherwise advertised to FPD personnel beforehand, and that he was not given an opportunity to formally apply, in violation of town policy. The policy states “when vacancies occur, the Human Resources Officer shall publicize these opportunities for employment, including applicable salary information and employment qualifications … In addition, notice of vacancies shall be posted at designated conspicuous sites within departments.
Dula’s attorneys, Jeffrey Warren and Michelle Liguori of the Raleigh-based practice Ellis & Winters LLP, argue that had Dula been given fair consideration for the position, he would have been hired, citing his advantage in drug-related experience over Pellicer. At the time of his promotion, Warren and Liguori claim Sgt. Pellicer had introduced just 10 drug-related charges for the department over the previous three years, compared to more than 400 introduced by Dula. They claim Dula had also far outpaced Pellicer in several other measures of drug enforcement, including amount of methamphetamine seized, amount of heroin and cocaine seized and the amount of marijuana seized. Furthermore, they argue Dula should have been prioritized for the position due to town rules requiring special consideration be given to military veterans in hiring.
On June 26, 2020, Warren and Liguori claim Dula met with the town’s human resources officer Travis Tallent to file a grievance regarding Pellicer’s promotion, but Tallent told him that when he had expressed concerns to his own superiors about Dula being passed over, he was told to “Leave it alone and stay out of it.”
After Pellicer was awarded the narcotics detective position in June 2020, Dula’s attorneys allege that he was unfairly passed over for several more promotions within the department, often without proper notice of the opening being given, including a lieutenant position in the same month, a sergeant position in July 2020, a K-9 officer position in September 2020, a captain position in April 2021, a first sergeant position in April 2021 and another sergeant position in June 2021. Dula’s attorneys claim he was more than qualified for each of these roles, citing the large proportion of the department’s citations and seizures made by their client during his employment.
In his first 49 months with the department from Aug. 1, 2017, to Oct. 11, 2021, the attorney claim Dula was responsible for:
42% of the department’s total citations
27% of the department’s total arrests
65% of all drug charges brought by the department
95% of all drugs seized by the department
Dula also carries more than 40 different law enforcement certifications in various specialties and has never been subject to disciplinary action from the department. The firm is seeking compensation for damages to their client as a result of the alleged unfair hiring practices, including back pay, punitive damages, attorney’s fees. They claim the damages have amounted to more than $25,000.
Representatives from the Town of Franklin, including the town manager, police chief and town attorney, did not respond to a request for comment prior to press time on Tuesday.