A former 14th judicial circuit prosecutor declares herself a whistleblower after resigning from her position in Jackson County.
All of this following the uncovered information of former deputy Zach Wester, allegedly planting evidence during traffic stops.
Pumphrey is filing a lawsuit against the state attorneys office.
“I never in my life thought I’d file a lawsuit against anybody, but I’m at that point,” said Christina Pumphrey, former 14th circuit prosecutor.
After realizing she was prosecuting cases that may have been tainted by Jackson County Sheriff’s deputy, Zach Wester, Christina Pumphrey resigned from her position as prosecutor.
Pumphrey said she felt the higher ups were trying to conceal the information.
“It really got to the feeling where, I’m not making people happy by doing this,” said Pumphrey. “I’m drawing attention to maybe things that people didn’t want drawn attention to.”
State attorney, Glenn Hess, disagreed with that assessment saying it was the public defenders office who made prosecutors aware of the problem and that his office along with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement immediately began an investigation.
“Any suggestion that we attempted to conceal this situation is a lie,” Hess wrote in a statement to news 13. “From the very beginning, our goal was to see that the right thing was done.”
The state attorney’s office also released a memo from Pumphrey’s supervisor detailing her actions shortly before her resignation.
Pumphrey admitted to not following direct orders she had been given from her supervisor.
“I had been told don’t dismiss them, and I dismissed them anyway because to me an ethical and moral obligation is more weighty and binding than a supervisors direction,” said Pumphrey.
Pumphrey also said she felt if she didn’t dismiss the cases, she’d be violating others civil rights.
“It got to the point where my thought process was, if I leave these cases open, if I don’t dismiss these cases, if I keep my mouth shut, I’m as bad as he is,” Pumphrey said.
