Former police employee’s arrest linked to civil suit

The recent arrest of a Dothan Police Department records employee on charges that she illegally checked for criminal records for several people has links to four people involved in a pending lawsuit filed by the employee’s husband.

Sherri Lynn Carroll, 34, of Slocomb, was arrested on Feb. 20, as part of a 22-count indictment returned by a Houston County grand jury. According to the indictment, she is charged with improperly using the police department’s records system to look for criminal records for seven people. She is charged with misusing confidential law enforcement information, which includes 11 felony crimes. She was released from the Houston County Jail after posting a $5,000 bond.

After her arrest, Carroll was fired, according to police Chief John Powell.
She was charged with six counts, including three felonies, for improperly looking up Laura Johnston Clark’s name to determine if she had a criminal record, according to information in the indictment.

In March 2005, Sherri Carroll’s husband, David Carroll, filed a lawsuit against LJC Defense Contracting, and its president, Laura Johnston Clark. Clark confirmed the lawsuit was still pending as of Tuesday. Clark said she also knows three other people named in the indictment against Carroll. Carroll was also charged with four counts, including two felonies, of accessing the criminal record for Colbert Clark, Laura’s husband.

The indictment also charged Carroll with a total of four counts, including two felonies, of improperly searching for evidence of criminal records for two men who have worked for LJC, including Gene Oden and Gerald Gene Morris. Clark called all four people listed in the indictment, including herself, as “key witnesses” in the lawsuit.
Clark said her husband does not work for LJC, but Oden formerly served as a project manager and Morris currently works for the company.

“I had no knowledge that she was doing this until I was contacted by the investigator,” Clark said.
She declined to comment further about Carroll’s arrest because of the pending lawsuit.

Clark’s attorney, Joe Espy, could not be reached for comment.

The indictment also charges Carroll with improperly looking for evidence of criminal records for three other people, including a total of eight counts for searches on Christina Jo Lloyd, Tracy Nichole Munson, and Stephen Lynn Munson. It’s unclear why Carroll may have sought the criminal records for those three people.

The 11 felony counts involve obtaining or seeking to obtain criminal records through the Law Enforcement Tactical System (LETS) under false pretenses, according to the indictment. If convicted she faces up to five years in prison, and a fine between $5,000 and $10,000 for each count. She was also charged with 11 misdemeanor counts.
Investigators with the state Attorney General’s Office and the Alabama Criminal Justice Information Center worked on the case.

A May 19 trial date for Carroll has been set. She has retained Billy Joe Sheffield II and Valerie Judah to represent her. Sheffield was out of town and Judah declined to comment about the case until he returned.

Carroll, who worked as a police dispatcher before working in the records office, has appealed her termination. A hearing will be held in front of the Dothan Personnel Board next week.