Federal jury awards former Tupelo officer damages

ABERDEEN, Miss. (WCBI) – A federal jury is giving a former Tupelo police officer $20,000 after agreeing he was demoted and disciplined for complaining about mold in a building.

Former detective Brandon Garrett sent a letter to the city administration in 2015 asking that the detective squad be moved to a new building because of mold in their Front Street offices.

Garrett’s attorney Jim Waide says instead Garrett was written up less than a week later for an incident which took place months earlier. Other detectives were removed from the building shortly after Garrett’s letter.

Following that he was moved from detectives to patrol but the jury found that the department was justified in that decision.

Garrett resigned from in 2017 after he was threatened with another write-up.  He currently works for the New Albany Police department.