Woman Suing Mike Byrd for Sexual Harassment

A Jackson County Sheriff’s Department employee is suing former Sheriff, Mike Byrd, for sexual harassment. She is also suing Jackson County for failing to act.

Sergeant Kristan Seibert was a part of Byrd’s criminal indictment last year by the Jackson County District Attorney’s office, accusing Byrd of extortion, but those charges were dropped when Tony Lawrence entered into a plea agreement with Byrd. Now Seibert is stepping out to tell her side of the story.

Seibert says she was hired at the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department in November of 2008, and in 2010, Byrd started sexually harassing her. Seibert’s complaint against Byrd reads, "Commencing in September of 2010, defendant, Mike Byrd, began subjecting plaintiff to unlawful sexual harassment in the form of unwanted touch, lewd comments, and in general, rude, unwelcome, and unwanted sexual advances toward her."

Seibert says after two years, the harassment progressed from verbal to physical. Seibert’s complaint also reads, "… Mike Byrd then asked plaintiff to help him find something on his desk, and as she leaned over to look on the desk, Byrd grabbed her butt…"

According to the court filing, the touching became more sexually explicit, and Seibert, who is married, continued to decline Byrd’s advances. In this lawsuit, Seibert alleges that after she denied Byrd’s sexual advances, he demoted her to the Ocean Springs sub-station where she didn’t even have an office to work in. Scott Pietrowski, a lawyer with the Pietrowski Group, says, “When an employee is faced with a circumstance where he or she is being sexually harassed, pretty much one’s exclusive remedy in the State of Mississippi is to bring a claim under Title 7.”

While Pietrowski isn’t involved in this particular case, he is an expert in employee discrimination cases and says because Byrd was an elected government employee, different rules apply. He says these cases can be difficult to prosecute because there is often little evidence. Pietrowski also says, “These cases are historically he said-she said, because they do occur, like you said, behind closed doors.”

Seibert’s attorneys say they believe there is an overwhelming amount of evidence in this case. The trial is set for September 7th, 2015 in U.S. District Court. The county has already tried to dismiss the lawsuit, but the courts have decided Seibert does have grounds to bring the case to trial.

When it comes to Judge Keith Starrett’s courtroom, there will be a jury, and though every effort is made to select an unbiased jury, Byrd’s criminal history is well-known in the community. Byrd was released from house arrest earlier this month after serving six months for a federal felony.