Former assistant police chief’s lawsuit against Greeneville dismissed

Emily Hibbitts
·1 min read

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (WJHL) — A lawsuit against the Town of Greeneville filed by a former assistant police chief was dismissed on Wednesday.

Michael Crum, a former assistant police chief at the Greeneville Police Department (GPD), filed the lawsuit after he was terminated in December 2021 following a departmental review. Crum initially sought more than $1.25 million in damages, claiming his rights had been violated by the city when he was fired.

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In April, a trial date of June 11 was set.

However, in a motion for summary judgment filed by the Town of Greeneville, judgment was granted and the case was dismissed by United States District Judge Thomas Varlan.

In the lawsuit, Crum argued that the Town’s employee handbook created contractual terms that were enforceable and breached, but the court ruled in favor of the town stating the handbook was not a contractual agreement.

Crum had also argued that his termination violated protected liberties. However, the court ruled that was not the case for a number of reasons, one of which being that his firing had not damaged his reputation significantly enough to prevent him from finding comparable employment in law enforcement.

The court also found that the Town was justified in publicly sharing the review that led to Crum’s firing, especially in light of public records requests made by numerous media outlets.

In the lawsuit, Crum also claimed he had requested but never received a “name-clearing hearing.” The Town argued that while Crum did send a Dec. 10, 2021 email to Police Chief Tim Ward with the subject line “Grievance Notification,” it did not sufficiently request a hearing.

The court agreed with the Town on that matter as well.

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