LEXINGTON, Ky. — A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by a Franklin County sheriff’s deputy who claimed that the county’s public defenders defamed him and violated his First Amendment rights when they criticized him for attending a Trump rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021.
Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeff Farmer filed a suit claiming all five public defenders in Franklin County violated his First Amendment rights and defamed him when they penned a letter calling him out for his attendance at the rally and his police record.
In the letter, the public defenders asked Franklin County Sheriff Chris Quire to “re-evaluate the role and placement that Deputy Farmer has in the sheriff’s department.”
