Trawick Redding Jr. has filed a federal lawsuit against Dale County. The Lawsuit names Sheriff Wally Olson, Zeneth Glenn and Ryan Mittlebach as well as other jail staff. In the lawsuit, Trawick says corrections officers Glenn and Mittlebach brought a 6 to 7 foot Yellow Burmese Python into Dave County Jail and into his cell where they used it to torture and intimidated him.
While these snakes are not venomous, there have been several cases of these types of snakes eating and strangling human beings. At the time of the incident, Trawick was serving time in Dale County, for burglary and drug possession. I asked his attorney Martin Weinberg what Trawick had done to make the corrections officers come into his cell. According to him, Trawick had been a model inmate and had even been given the honor of a jail trustee. When Sheriff Olson found out about the snake, he fired Zeneth Glenn and Ryan Mittlebach as well as any other personnel that knew about the snake. According to several reports, the county has confirmed these terminations.
Activist Kenny Glasgow (Rev. Al Sharpton’s brother) told me that he had never heard of law enforcement using such heinous and egregious methods of intimidation before now. He went on to say,”It is good to know that Sheriff Wally Olson did his job by firing both correctional officers as well as any other staff that those that were aware of the snake and did not act immediately. We want to encourage other law enforcement agencies to take note on how to treat current and former inmates in these types of situations.”
Here is a copy of the lawsuit that has been filed. I will most definitely be watching this one see how it ends.
After being fired from the county, Zeneth Glenn was hired by the city of Ozark. My sources tell me he is now a police officer. I spoke to a lawyer who works exclusively with employment legalities. She explained that although the situation is less than ideal, it is perfectly legal to be fired by one agency and hired by another.
A portion of the community has started a petition because they don’t want to be policed by Zeneth Glenn. How can the citizens of Ozark, Alabama expect Zeneth Glenn to serve and protect the citizens when he broke the rules as a corrections officer and used a snake to intimidate and torture Trawick? We can’t say he allegedly used the snake because he was already fired for his actions. Now they have given him a gun, badge, and car… Concerned citizens don’t feel he can be trusted. Here is the petition; please sign and pass this on. They are writing to the mayor, city council, and the chief.
The city and the county obviously aren’t on the same accord. The people of Ozark deserve police officers who act will act with integrity. Too many times when incidents happen, we find officers have a bad reputation or numerous complaints. Many times officers can be fired or have an astounding number complaints in one jurisdiction, but get hired and given the same or more power in another jurisdiction. It is up to us to say we don’t agree with this policy. Will you stand with the people of Ozark by signing this petition?
In Ozark, the unemployment rate is 6.90%. This figure is above the national average. Surely, there are people who are qualified with good work histories that qualify for Zeneth’s current position.
