The city by mail this morning was served a lawsuit filed by former police Chief Bobby Martin over his termination last year, City Attorney Geoffrey Davis confirmed.

Davis said the city has shared the complaint with its liability carrier which has assigned an attorney who will lead the response to this case. 

“Filing a formal answer to a claim such as this is a time-consuming endeavor, and one of the reasons we have insurance is so that when a claim is filed like this the city doesn't have to spend the taxpayers money paying me to defend the case,” Davis said.

Davis said each allegation in the complaint will be studied. “The plaintiff has had over a year to draft the allegations he's made in his lawsuit and they all have to be addressed carefully. That's going to take time, but it will come in the next couple of months.”

Martin claims in the recently filed lawsuit against the city and others that his termination by City Manager Kelly Traynham was malicious and corrupt. 

He says it was motivated by personal desire to protect a department head, protect her advantageous political connections with a department head and other local politicians to retaliate against him for following legitimate and valid actions.

The attorneys who filed the lawsuit on Martin’s behalf did not name the department head in the document.

Named as defendants in the lawsuit, which was filed on June 28 in Halifax County Superior Court are the city, Traynham in her individual and official capacities, Richardson and Davis Investigative Consulting Group and Richardson, Davis and Forest Investigative Consulting Group.

The consulting group investigated allegations of policy violations which led to the firings of Martin and his second in command — Captain Jamie Hardy — in April of last year.