Dallas County Sheriff’s Office employees have filed a federal lawsuit seeking millions in unpaid wages, alleging years of uncompensated overtime and denied vacation time. The suit, filed October 3, lists more than a dozen plaintiffs, including deputies and detectives.
The case could cost Dallas County tens of millions of dollars at a time when the sheriff’s office is already struggling with staffing shortages and payroll dysfunction.
Among the plaintiffs is Tina Allman, who claims $20,000 in unpaid wages. Her husband, Deputy James Allman, was killed in a car crash while on duty in August 1995.
County Judge Clay Lewis Jenkins and District Attorney John Creuzot declined to comment on the pending litigation.
Officials, Union Leaders Point to County Leadership
Christopher Dyer, president of the Sheriff’s Association and a senior sergeant, pointed directly at county commissioners. “They hold a very, very strong hand over county government, so they are absolutely the number one responsible party in this because they’re the ones that control the money,” he said.
“They’re the ones that create these positions. They’re the ones that have oversight over everything. They’re responsible.”
Attorney George Hyde, representing the plaintiffs, brings personal experience to the case as a retired police officer. “I’m a retired police officer myself,” he said. “I spent 23 and a half years in law enforcement. And I’ll tell you what, people who put on the badge and go out there and do their job respectfully and properly deserve to be paid fairly. To be told otherwise by your employer is disheartening.”
Hyde said it was “ironic” that county government was violating federal labor laws. “It’s ironic that the county is the one actually violating, significantly and persistently, federal law with regard to how they treat county employees when it comes to pay,” he said.
Dyer defended Sheriff Marian Brown, blaming the county’s payroll system and treasurer rather than department leadership. “I don’t put any blame on the sheriff or the sheriff’s administration at all,” Dyer said.
“Because all of this problem makes it much more difficult for the sheriff to maintain staffing because these types of problems create vacancies. This is what makes people not want to work at the sheriff’s department and that makes everything that she does much more difficult. she loses her trained staff, she has to have more people out there recruiting to hire people and then we have to have more people there for training the new people, so this makes everything that she does much more difficult.”
The county has attempted to address ongoing payroll problems by hiring Chief Financial Officer Dana Foster-Allen earlier this year. New payroll software implemented in 2023 has continued to cause compensation issues.
Broader County Systems Under Strain
The lawsuit comes amid mounting evidence of widespread administrative failures across Dallas County.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, the county’s jail system is also in crisis — with more than 7,000 inmates packed into overcrowded facilities. Officials blame an inefficient software system for keeping people locked up months past their release dates, forcing staff to hand-carry court documents between offices.
County Commissioner John Wiley Price admitted after touring the jail that “we’re in trouble,” describing the reopening of 70 mold-ridden cells that had been mothballed for a decade. District Attorney John Creuzot said the county’s broken software rollout was “poorly integrated,” leaving hundreds of cases stuck in limbo and taxpayers footing the bill for wrongful detentions.
Together, the payroll breakdown, software glitches, and jail overcrowding highlight deeper operational problems within Dallas County government.
The lawsuit adds yet another strain as county leaders face growing scrutiny over payroll errors, technology missteps, and multimillion-dollar liabilities.