A former employee of the Lawrence County Sheriff's Department said he was terminated over a Facebook post about a political candidate, then threatened by the sheriff to keep silent.

Rich Huffstutler, a Navy Seabee, had worked with Lawrence County about three years when he posted on Facebook that he would not be supporting a candidate he believed didn't support the recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in school.

That night, he said, he got a text from his boss, Sheriff Joel Thames, telling him to delete his post.

"You have your right to your opinion in person, but as my employee you have gone t(oo) far by asking people to NOT VOTE for Ms. Fairburn. She is my friend and has a very large family that support me," Thames' text reads. "I want to be re-elected and I WILL NOT allow on employee to cost me support. I'll be waiting to see the deletion."

Huffstutler texted back that he would not delete the post.

"If you do not delete this, I will see you in the morning at my office! It is not Ms. Fairburn's fought (fault)," the sheriff texted back. "The Principals are over each of their school(s). I have a written policy on any detrimental matter posted on social media."

When Huffstutler once more asserted that he would not delete the post, Thames responded, "See you in the morning at 8:00 sharp."

Huffstutler recorded the conversation he had with the sheriff the next morning during a meeting in which he was fired.

Thames, who is recovering from an illness in the hospital, referred phone calls Monday to Undersheriff Willie Wallace, who was present in the meeting. "But I don't recall a time in that conversation where you'd hear him say that was the reason" for Huffstutler's firing, Wallace said.

The recording reflects the conversation began with Thames telling Huffstutler that he had some problems with him, including his attitude with inmates and that Huffstutler had allegedly been padding his time sheet.

Huffstutler confirms the sheriff had corrected him before for his time sheets, and that he had made adjustments in the times he clocked in and out. He said there were days he came in earlier and left earlier, and days he came in later and left later. He said his hours and those of his coworker, Larry Shows, are comparable.

Huffstutler pointed out that another employee who holds the same position had the same amount of hours that he had. That employee was not fired.

Thames told Huffstutler that he would contact the state auditor's office to open an investigation into his time sheets.

"And this is because of that post last night," Huffstutler can be heard saying.

"I've got problems. We've got problems. You know how I feel about that," Thames said.

As the conversation continues, Thames gives Huffstutler the option to resign or be fired, to which Huffstutler replies that he was not resigning.

"I'm going to stand by the flag," Huffstutler said.

"That's fine. You can take the flag to Parchman with you, too," Thames said.

Huffstutler said that was like a slap in the face to him as a veteran.

"I think respecting the flag is a huge thing, and we need to take a stand for that no matter what the cost," he said. "There's too much blood in that flag, too many gave all for that flag, and I don't take that lightly. We shouldn't be intimidated as voters."

There's a period of almost four minutes in the recording in which Huffstutler said Thames said he was opening an investigation into the time sheets. Huffstutler broke the silence by asking, "Are you placing me under arrest?"

Thames said he would leave that to other authorities. He told Huffstutler he would get his last check with his termination letter, then said, "You better pray about it, because I promise you, I'm not backing down."

Wallace said that he couldn't release a lot of details regarding Huffstutler's time sheets because it's a personnel matter, but that Huffstutler was paid by the hour.

"There's a lot of questions about his time sheets. He's been talked to numerous times about it," he said. "There's a list of stuff that's been ongoing. It's a touchy issue when you're talking about personnel matters."

Wallace said that Thames had mentioned Huffstutler bringing up the fact that it's an election year.

"When he got up to leave, he said, 'You do know this is an election year,' and the sheriff told me, 'I don't care what year this is, I've got a job to do,' " Wallace said.

The undersheriff said in Thames' four terms, he's only had to terminate two people. He confirmed the sheriff doesn't like employees to get publicly involved in political debates.

"Everybody's entitled to freedom of speech, but we don't like for our employees, especially in the sheriff's race, we don't like for them to get involved. I think that's in our policy," Wallace said.

Huffstutler said he's not backing down, either.

"As a Seabee, it's ingrained in us that 'We build, we fight,' " he said.