By Bennett Haeberle WDRB-TV Fox 41 News bhaeberle@fox41.com
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB Fox 41) -- Two fired Metro Corrections employees have sued the city claiming a mayor's spokesman "made up" statements about an internal investigation to distract the press and hurt their reputations.
The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson Circuit Court Tuesday, stems from a 2009 press conference when Metro Corrections Director Mark Bolton said he and his family had received threats and were under police protection.
Andrew Horne, the attorney for the two corrections employees, says that's not true.
Major Robert Dietz and Deputy Director Laura McKune were fired last year.
The two had sent text messages to each other saying they "hated Bolton" and called him a "bozo." Bolton says they were fired for hiding the location of another officer wanted on domestic violence charges.
In the latest suit, Horne claims says Bolton was never threatened and there was "no proof" there was ever an internal investigation with "any criminal agency".
In a video deposition, Horne questions the mayor's spokesman Chad Carlton about why the press conference was called.
"We felt that by making clear that there was an investigation here that by given notice to the media that we were not just stonewalling them, that there was an investigation going. We were limited in what we could say because of the investigation that was going on," said Chad Carlton, mayor's spokesman.
Carlton says the city can't comment on pending lawsuits. Horne says his clients were fired because they knew "embarrassing details" about Bolton's behavior, including allegations that he drove his vehicle while intoxicated.
