Dallas County Sheriff's Office deputies say the county didn't pay them for hours worked over several years.
A federal lawsuit filed Oct. 3 alleges they were also not compensated with time off — a violation of fair labor laws.
Vacation requests were also denied, according to the lawsuit, which lists more than a dozen other sheriff's employees, including detectives.
Tina Allman is owed $20,000, according to the lawsuit.
Her husband James was killed in a car crash while on duty in August 1995.
County officials, including County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins and District Attorney John Creuzot, do not comment on pending cases.
Sheriff's Association president Senior Sergeant Christopher Dyer says commissioners should be accountable for paying what is owed.
"They hold a very very strong hand over county government so they are absolutely the number one responsible party in this because they are they're the ones that control the money," he said. "They're the ones that create these positions. They're the ones that have oversight over everything. They're responsible."
Plaintiffs' attorney George Hyde says law enforcement who earn it, should receive their pay.
"I'm a retired police officer myself," he said. "I spent 23 and a half years in law enforcement. And I'll tell you what, I think that people that put on the badge and go out there and do their job and they do it respectfully and they did it properly — to be rewarded by the employer by being told that they can't receive the compensation they actually, in many cases, sweated for — that it's just a kind of a sad day in respecting government."
Hyde said the county is crucially involved in the organization of government.
"And it's just ironic that that the county is the one that is actually violating significantly and persistently federal law with regards to how they treat the county employees in when it comes to pay," he said.
Dyer said Sheriff Marian Brown, who leads the department, is not at fault for compensation problems.
That lies with county-wide payroll and its treasurer.
“I don't put any blame on the sheriff or the sheriff’s administration at all,” Dyer said. “Because all of this problem makes it much more difficult for the sheriff to maintain staffing because these types of problems create vacancies. this is this is what makes people not want to work at the sheriff’s department and that makes everything that she does much more difficult. she loses her trained staff, she has to have more people out there recruiting to hire people and then we have to have more people there for training the new people, so this makes everything that she does much more difficult.”
Commissioners approved the hiring of a chief financial officer Dana Foster-Allen this year to correct payroll issues.
New payroll software has caused compensation problems since 2023.
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