Lawsuit filed after Hanceville police dispatcher’s overdose death claims chain of evidence was destroyed
The Hanceville Police Department’s former evidence custodian claimed in a lawsuit filed in August 2024, less than a week after a city dispatcher was found dead in his office, that he was effectively fired “for no valid legal reason” and the chain of custody for department evidence was broken.
Lowell Adam Hadder’s lawsuit, filed Aug. 29, 2024 in Cullman County Circuit Court, claimed the chain of evidence was destroyed because Mayor Jimmy Sawyer made him leave his job in April 2024 without taking inventory and handing it over to the new custodian.
The lawsuit was filed six days after Hanceville dispatcher Christopher Michael Willingham, 49, was found dead in his office.
On Wednesday, the county coroner said Willingham died from “combined toxic effects of fentanyl, gabapentin, diazepam, amphetamine, carisoprodol, and methocarbamol.”
The manner of death was ruled as an accident.
A grand jury found Willingham’s death was the “direct result of HPD of negligence, lack of procedure and disregard for human life.”
Five Hanceville police officers, including Chief Jason Marlin, were indicted along with one of the officers’ wives on 26 criminal charges, including allegations that evidence was tampered with and mishandled. None have been charged in connection to Willingham’s death.
The department was accused of engaging in a “rampant culture of corruption” and the remaining officers were placed on leave Thursday. The Cullman County Sheriff’s Office is now handling policing in Hanceville.
The grand jury that indicted the officers recommended the department be abolished all together.
D.A. Champ Crocker on Wednesday said the “unfettered access that a lot of people had to the evidence room” was the basis of the grand jury’s findings regarding Willingham’s death.
“When Mr. Willingham was discovered, there was evidence in his office,‘’ Crocker said. ”Mr. Willingham was given access to the evidence room, like a lot of people were, and he had access to it on his last day at work.”
Crocker showed photos of a hole in the wall that leads to the evidence room. A broom was repeatedly used, he said, to jimmy open the door to gain access.
Mayor Sawyer on Wednesday said he agreed with Crocker that department’s evidence room should be audited by the appropriate authorities.
Hadder, who spent a decade working for the city, said the mayor told him on April 9, 2024 that he “needed to resign,” according to his lawsuit.
The day before, Hadder claimed, he was in a meeting with Sawyer, City Clerk Tania Wilcox and former Police Chief Josh Howell.
When Hadder tried to correct something Wilcox said to him, the clerk yelled at him, the lawsuit states. He said he then yelled back.
Sawyer “gave no reason” for why Hadder needed to resign, Hadder claimed. When the evidence custodian pressed the mayor for an answer, Sawyer said “tensions with Tania.”
Sawyer and Wilcox, who along with the city are named as defendants, denied the lawsuit’s allegations in a response filed in court Jan. 6, 2025. The case is ongoing.
Hadder, who said in his lawsuit that he was never written up or disciplined, said there “was no legally justifiable reason for defendants either to terminate plaintiff’s employment nor to demand plaintiff resign.”
Hadder said Sawyer again confronted him to resign on April 10 when the evidence custodian asked the mayor if he could use all of his sick and vacation time before stepping down.
Hadder also told Sawyer he would need two weeks to take inventory of the evidence room before he left, adding that i was “necessary to maintain the chain of custody for all criminal cases then pending,” the lawsuit alleged.
While the mayor initially agreed with Hadder, according to the lawsuit, Sawyer changed his mind 10 minutes later, telling the evidence custodian he had to leave that day.
“Plaintiff tried to explain to the mayor that that would destroy the evidence chain unless he could complete the inventory and give it to a new evidence custodian,” the lawsuit claimed.
“The mayor repeated his demand that plaintiff leave the premises and further told plaintiff that he had to leave his legally assigned vehicle and leave the premises immediately.”
After Haddon pointed out that he had no transportation to get home because he came to work in his city-owned vehicle, Sawyer had an officer take Haddon home, “causing further embarrassment and mental anguish.”
Haddon’s lawsuit claimed he was unable to take all of his accrued vacation and sick time before his Sept. 1 retirement, and the suit seeks the reinstation of his employment so he could do so along getting all of his state retirement benefits.