CEIDC’s Gentry to File Million Dollar Lawsuit Against City of Crockett
By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
CROCKETT – The Messenger received notice late Thursday, Aug. 10 of plans by Crockett Economic and Industrial Development Corporation’s (CEIDC) suspended Executive Director James Gentry to file a more-than $1 million dollar lawsuit against the City of Crockett. The suit, obtained in full by The Messenger, is set to be filed early next week in Houston County.
Contacted by The Messenger, City of Crockett Administrator John Angerstein said, “This is news to us and the first we’ve heard of it.”
City of Crockett Attorney William Pemberton was unavailable as of press time to provide other comments.
The suit makes several allegations, all of which stem from the argument the city council had no right to suspend Gentry from CEIDC. The suit specifically names as defendants City of Crockett Mayor Dr. Ianthia Fisher, Mayor ProTem Mike Marsh, Council members Marquita Beasley and Gene Caldwell, as well as the city of Crockett itself.
Carroll G. Robinson (Gentry’s attorney for the lawsuit) spoke with The Messenger to clarify the allegations put forward in the suit. Robinson confirmed the city has the right to make changes to the CEIDC board of directors members and structure, but alleges Gentry is not an employee of the city, but an employee of CEIDC and his negotiations are only with that particular board.
The suit states Gentry was illegally harmed when the city suspended the board, since he was negotiating a five-year renewal of his employment contract and cannot continue that since the board’s activities were suspended. Gentry is suing for the potential value of that five-year extension which was not able to be concluded.
The suit also calls for at least $1 million in damages from those negotiations, along with, “the libel, slander and defamation inflicted on his personal and personal reputations by the unlawful actions of the Defendants; and the emotional distress and mental anguish he has suffered.”
The suit also claims Gentry is entitled to any and all attorney’s fees and court costs as per the terms of his employment agreement. The suit mentions the council meeting in early January when CEIDC operations were suspended, citing this and wide media coverage of the event as intended to harm Mr. Gentry’s reputation.
“Since January 9, 2023, Defendants have implied and insinuated through their conduct and actions that Plaintiff (Gentry) has engaged in some type of illegal conduct without offering or producing any specific evidence or detailed substantive allegation of such conduct and to this day has not provided Plaintiff (Gentry) with any hearing or opportunity to defend himself and his personal and professional reputation.”
One section of the lawsuit is titled simply, “Race is a Factor.” The section notes that when in 2018 when Gentry was awarded a five-year contract, a lawsuit was filed to eliminate CEIDC altogether.
“Since 2018, a culture of opposition to Plaintiff (Gentry) serving as the Executive Director of the CEIDC has grown up in the Crockett, Houston County community which has influenced the actions of the Defendants. The Defendants’ action of de-facto terminating the Plaintiff’s (Gentry) employment after requesting a police investigation of a confidential forensic audit of the CEIDC, covering years the Plaintiff (Gentry) was not an employee, without any substantive explanation of why the Plaintiff (Gentry) was being “suspended” and without giving Plaintiff (Gentry) an opportunity to address the audit report unfairly and illegally implied that Plaintiff (Gentry) had engaged in some improper or illegal conduct thus injuring his personal and professional reputation and causing him to suffer public derision as well as emotional distress and mental anguish that manifested themselves in the form of high blood pressure, physical stress and other such symptoms.”
Robinson (Gentry’s attorney) told The Messenger the city did not have a legal right to allow members of the city government to sign checks on behalf of CEIDC without written authorization from the CEIDC board to do so.
The city will most likely not be able to respond in an official manner until the suit is actually filed and even then, may chose to not comment on pending litigation. This suit is dropping amidst an ongoing state of Texas investigation into potential wrongdoing from the results of the forensic audit and from other city- and state-level investigations, the results of which are still pending with no word on when they might conclude and what – if any – charges or recommendations might stem from them.
This is a breaking story and The Messenger will update our online social media pages with any further developments.
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
