The Latest: Gay SC police chief calls firing retaliation

COLUMBIA, S.C. – The Latest on the firing of an openly gay police chief in South Carolina (all times local):

4:25 p.m.

The lawyer for an openly gay South Carolina police chief says officials in her small town fired her in retaliation for getting an outside agency to investigate a sexual harassment complaint.

Attorney Malissa Burnette said in an email Friday that Latta officials retaliated against Crystal Moore with several reprimands after she refused to sign a statement saying the male town employee meant no harm against the woman making the accusations.

Burnette says Latta then fired Moore on Thursday, a day after the lawyer told town leaders that Moore’s actions were justified and she was considering a lawsuit.

Town Administrator Jarrett Taylor says he fired Moore because she struggled with administrative tasks and the morale of the police department was low.

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11:05 a.m.

The man who helped save the job of the openly gay police chief in a small South Carolina town now says he had to fire her because she wasn’t doing her job right.

Latta Town Administrator Jarrett Taylor said Friday he had worked with Chief Crystal Moore seven months to improve morale and have administrative tasks done properly.

Moore and her lawyer didn’t immediately return messages. Moore wrote on her Facebook page she was shocked and angered, especially because she was recently diagnosed with a cancerous tumour on her thumb.

Latta’s mayor had fired Moore in 2014. But Taylor released his recording of the mayor saying he would rather have a drunk watch his grandchildren than a gay person. The mayor was stripped of his power, and Moore was rehired.