A cop who says she was fired from her job for ‘being gay’ has spoken out for the first time about how she won her old boss’ job at an election. Charmaine McGuffey, 63, has been elected as the head of police at Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office, in Ohio, three-and-a-half years after being told her ‘career was over’.
Her victory means she has become not only the highest-ranking LGBT person in the force’s history, Charmaine is also the first woman to hold the role as sheriff in Hamilton County. The landmark moment comes after the former sheriff, Jim Neil, fired Charmaine in May 2017, putting an end to her 33-year career as a cop.
Neil insisted he fired Charmaine for creating a ‘hostile working environment’, Charmaine said, but in a lawsuit she has filed against the police department she claims one of the reasons she was sacked was because she is ‘openly gay’.
In her first interview Charmaine, who is happily married to Christine Sandusky, 52, told Metro.co.uk: ‘I witnessed excessive force being used by some officers and I raised that with internal affairs, but I was told to be quiet and stand down.
‘I refused to do that, I some some prisoners get seriously injured and I complained heavily. Internal affairs just seemed to sweep my complaints under the carpet and they never held people to account.
‘But it got turned round and they used it against me. Internal affairs told the sheriff I was a hostile person, they wrote a report on me and he fired me on the spot.
‘I faced a lot of discrimination, too. I was downgraded by men in the force who treated me differently, and I was accused of being pro-lesbian, whatever that is.
‘I was also accused of favoring women over men and there were no other women to be on my side, it was an awful time for me, I was devastated when I lost my job and felt very hurt.
‘The environment became hostile towards me and I do think it’s because I am openly gay.’
Born and raised in Hamilton County, near Cincinnati, Ohio, Charmaine said she knew she wanted to be a police officer from the age of 14. She went to the University of Cincinnati to study criminal justice and after graduation Charmaine joined the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office in 1983.
After starting out as a corrections officer working in the jail Charmaine was promoted through the ranks to reach the role of major, in 2013, and at the time had become the highest-ranking woman in the force’s history.
‘I was well aware that I was setting an example for other women and other gay women’, said Charmaine.
‘I felt like it was very important that I prove myself and I worked hard to be twice as good as any man. It meant so much to me to be in the position I found myself in.
‘I helped many women join the force and I worked with recruitment. I loved my job and I was good at it, I received over 100 commendations.
‘So when I lost my job I was so upset, it took me at least a year to recover from it and heal.’
A year after being fired Charmaine filed a discrimination lawsuit against Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. She is claiming three counts of wrongdoing; that she was fired for being a woman, fired for being gay and fired for being a whistle blower.
The case, which is now at the trial stage, will be heard on January 14 and Charmaine said she is confident on winning on all three counts.
Around the same time as Charmaine lodged the lawsuits some of her friends and former colleagues suggested she run for sheriff against her former boss in the 2020 local police election. Charmaine said she liked the idea and she launched her campaign in May 2019.
Her first challenge was to put an end to Jim Neil’s eight year reign as Hamilton County sheriff in the primary elections, held in April this year. Charmaine recorded a landslide victory by gaining 70% of the overall vote, ousting Neil from his position.
Democrat Charmaine’s next and final hurdle was to see off her Republican rival Bruce Hoffbauer, a man with a 34 year career as Hamilton County deputy who was publicly endorsed by Jim Neil.
But after a fiercely contested election that ran alongside the US presidential race, Charmaine scraped a 52% win and was named as Hamilton County’s new sheriff on November 3.
A delighted Charmaine, said: ‘I burst into tears when I won. We were victorious and it made me so happy.
‘It was a moment of huge relief in a way. My wife and I worked tirelessly on the campaign.
‘I feel passionately about this police force and Hamilton County and I have a big plan on how to make things better. My policies are police reform and citizen involvement; I want our police force to be transparent.’
Charmaine went on to explain how she plans to tackle police reform within the department she now has rule over. Having allegedly witnessed the ‘heavy handed’ handling of inmates and ‘excessive force’ by officers, Charmaine has pledged to ‘weed out the bad apples’.
She said she wants to repair the ‘public distrust’ in police and also do more to share the good work that many officers in Hamilton County and across the US carry out.
Charmaine said: ‘My overall goal is to make my department a model for how to run a sheriff’s office in Ohio but to do that I need to bring about significant reform. There’s is public distrust in the police and we need to work hard to build a bridge of trust between officers and the community.
‘I want my police force to be transparent so that people understand why we do some of the things we have to do on duty.
‘I want to make sure the public trust us and I also want to help our officers make the best decisions they can possibly make.
‘One of my main aims is to empower officers to speak up about any wrongdoing by colleagues.
‘There are some excellent officers in my sheriff’s department but we need to weed out the bad apples.’