A whistleblower lawsuit filed against St. Tammany Parish Sheriff Randy Smith by his former chief deputy was dismissed Tuesday by a judge who said the plaintiff failed to show that Smith had broken the law when he decided to fire but not arrest a deputy accused of breaking the law.
Fred Oswald, who was fired in 2017, filed suit in 2018 claiming that Smith terminated him in retaliation for Oswald's efforts to give information to District Attorney Warren Montgomery's office about Kenneth Szalajeski, a sheriff's deputy who was accused of stealing drugs during traffic stops and giving them to his addicted girlfriend and using Sheriff's Office resources to get dirt on men he thought she was seeing.
The suit, filed in 22nd Judicial District Court in Covington, was heard by ad hoc Judge Michael Kirby nearly a year ago. During testimony, Oswald and Smith gave starkly different accounts of Oswald's termination.
Smith testified that he kept Oswald on as chief deputy through the transition period after Smith defeated incumbent Sheriff Jack Strain, but never planned to retain Oswald long-term and had made that clear to Oswald, who would get to stay until he reached 30 years so he would get full pension benefits.
Oswald testified that Smith never told him that. He says that Smith called him in the day that Jeff Boehm, who is now Smith's chief deputy, eavesdropped on Oswald's conversation about turning records over to the DA about Szalajeski.
Oswald also testified that he had told Smith...
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