EL PASO COUNTY — In the eyes of Keith Duda, a former El Paso County Sheriff's Deputy, "You break the law, you break the law, I don't care if it was my own mother I would arrest her."
Duda will be getting $188,500 in settlement money from El Paso County, after a lawsuit he and his daughter filed against the El Paso County Sheriff's Office in 2018.
The Board of Commissioners voted on July 12 four to one in agreement with the settlement. Commissioner Longinos Gonzales, Jr. voted against the settlement, telling News 5 "I understood the rationale of the settlement. However, as a fiscal conservative, I believed we had a strong case worth defending."
The lawsuit filed nearly four years ago alleges that the Sheriff, Bill Elder, used "unlawful retaliation" against Duda after he and his daughter, who worked at the El Paso County Jail, filed a formal sexual harassment complaint on behalf of another woman who worked at the jail.
Duda claims in the months following the complaint he was passed up for a promotion and his daughter faced dramatic punishments at the jail. Duda says he was fired after publicly supporting the candidate running against Elder for Sheriff in 2018.
In the settlement, the Sheriff's office says they ""expressly deny any legal liability and wrongdoing."
"Ask yourself this, does anybody give up almost $200,000 dollars if they don't think they did something wrong," said Duda.
The Sheriff's Office said they are deferring all comments to the county attorneys.
The spokesperson for the county attorney and the commissioners said they are deferring all comments the the Sheriff's Office.
"Nobody wants to take the accountability of it, and that's the big thing for me is the accountability of doing something wrong. Just step up," said Duda.
Duda says he considers the settlement a win, but he says the lawsuit was never about money.
"You can't violate your employees civil rights, no matter who you are. You have to stand up for people that can't stand up for themselves, we gotta be held at a higher standard."
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