New Lawsuits Accuse TCSO Of Wrongful Termination

Two more lawsuits have been filed against the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office. They accuse the sheriff's office of wrongful termination.

The attorney who filed them believes high-ranking officials at the sheriff's office have been discriminating against employees who file workers' compensation claims and firing them when they return to work.

Regina Striplin was working at the Tulsa County Jail, booking inmates, until she got hurt on the job, submitted a worker's compensation claim and was fired.

"The timeline was just too perfect. And they have a history of that anyway," she said.

Striplin said when she returned to work, after having surgery last year, she got called into Internal Affairs where high-ranking officials told her they found a warrant for her arrest in Wagoner County from the 90s, but she said Wagoner County told her there was no warrant.

At that time, she'd worked for the sheriff's office for nearly three years.

Striplin said, "I've been home for a year now. I've tried to get work at other counties but I've basically been blacklisted."

Attorney Dan Smolen filed Striplin's wrongful termination case, as well as three others just like it.

"They're terminating really good deputies and really good detention officers who have had really long standings at the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office," he said.

Another lawsuit alleges a former detention officer of nearly a decade was fired after filing a workers' compensation claim.

There’s also a letter to another deputy, also fired after another workers' compensation claim.

Former Tulsa County Sheriff Stanley Glanz signed the letter, which states, "I asked for you to personally come to my office. However, you refused. Although you recently had surgery at the county's expense, I was still waiting to make any accommodations."

Smolen said, "It appears to be kind of a systematic pattern and practice of terminating employees that file workers' compensation claims in lieu of using their own health insurance to pay for their injuries on the job."

Smolen has represented shooting victim Eric Harris's family since former reserve deputy Bob Bates shot and killed him in April.

Special Coverage: TCSO Reserve Deputy Shooting Controversy

He said it is less challenging to file lawsuits against the sheriff's office now that so many allegations of wrongdoing have been made public by the media and the grand jury investigation.

We reached out to the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office for comment but were told the sheriff’s office does not comment on pending litigation.