A federal appeals court has upheld a $250,000 jury verdict against the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, finding that former detention deputy Jeremy Ellis was illegally fired in 2022 for filing a discrimination complaint with the federal government. The ruling closes out a case that stretched from Ellis’s initial complaint in December 2021 through a March 2025 jury verdict and now a full appellate rejection of the sheriff’s office’s arguments.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit affirmed the judgment in favor of Ellis, according to Tampa Free Press, which first reported the appellate ruling. Judges Kevin Newsom, Andrew Brasher, and Frank Hull rejected the sheriff’s attempts to overturn the trial outcome or secure a new trial, and also denied the office’s post-trial motions. With prejudgment interest added by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in May 2025, the total federal judgment against Sheriff Chad Chronister’s office in his official capacity now stands at $258,950, according to court records filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.
Ellis began working for HCSO in 2007 as a civilian community service officer and became a detention deputy in 2010, per the same court filings. In December 2021, he filed a formal discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Florida Commission on Human Relations, alleging disability and religious discrimination. That filing set off the chain of events that ultimately led to his firing.
From Fitness Evaluation to Internal Affairs
After receiving Ellis’s EEOC charge, the sheriff’s office ordered him to undergo a fitness-for-duty evaluation on January 9, 2022, according to court records. He was cleared, but the agency proceeded to launch a formal Internal Affairs investigation into Ellis in May 2022, and he was suspended without pay during that process, the district court record shows…