Bullitt County to pay $150K to settle lawsuit against Jailer Paul Watkins

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Bullitt County has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit against county Jailer Paul Watkins, according to an attorney for the plaintiff.

Sherrie Thompson, a former employee of the Bullitt County Detention Center, filed the lawsuit in 2019. After serving 17 years at the jail, she said she was fired by Watkins in his first year of office.

In her lawsuit, Thompson painted a picture of a jail culture that was chauvinistic, hostile and unprofessional. Several people spoke with WDRB to back up her claims.

"He's had a lot of women that he's yelled and cussed at," Thompson said shortly after the lawsuit was filed.

Garry Adams, an attorney who represents Thompson, said it is Watkins who bears the blame for Thompson's firing, not Thompson.

"Being a woman in a male dominated workforce is hard enough when your supervisors are not acting directly against you," he said. "Sherrie Thompson was an excellent employee and rose through the ranks during her 17 year employment with the Bullitt County Jail. That all changed when Paul Watkins took over in January 2019 and terminated her employment by August of his first year."

He went on to paint his client as a champion of the rights of women in the workforce.

"Sherrie was terminated either because she was a strong woman in a leadership position, or because she was protecting the Constitutional Rights of the inmates that she swore to protect," he said. "Sherrie filed this lawsuit to stand up for herself and all of the other women of the Bullitt County Jail. Ultimately, the parties decided to resolve their differences and the case was settled to the mutual satisfaction of the all parties involved."

WDRB has repeatedly tried to contact Watkins to get his side of this story. To date, he has refused to comment on the lawsuit or the comments he made.

This week, WDRB published a recording that was secretly made of Watkins using racial slurs while on the job.

In response to the release of that recording, Watkins' attorney, Carol Petitt, issued a statement saying in part that, "Jailer Paul Watkins was enduring a period of significant personal stress" when he was secretly recorded.