STREAM EXCLUSIVE ORIGINALS

Look: Georgia Police Officer Fired for Flying Confederate Flag Now Suing Department

Silvia Cotriss filed with the help of an alleged white supremacist group.

A former Georgia police sergeant who was fired in July by the Roswell Police Department for flying a Confederate flag outside her home is now suing the police department, reported CNN.

20-year veteran Silvia Cotriss was fired for what her department called conduct unbecoming an officer. Now she has opened a lawsuit and she allegedly received help from a group with white supremacy ties.

After her termination, Cotriss's hired attorney David Ates, who said her firing was in violation of her constitutional right to free speech as a private citizen.

"She was displaying her pride in her Southern heritage and honoring her recently deceased husband," the lawsuit said. "The Confederate flag [is a] generally accepted symbol of Georgia heritage."

Additionally, Cotriss is backed by the Southern Legal Resource Center, a North Carolina nonprofit whose mission is described on its Facebook page as “a return to social and constitutional sanity especially for America's most persecuted minority: Confederate Southern Americans.”

Kirk Lyons founded the group and is considered a "white supremacist lawyer” by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The SPLC website stated that Lyons serves what "has effectively become the legal arm of the neo-Confederate movement."

Lyons denied being associated with any white supremacy groups and said that he is representing Cotriss to make sure that Cotriss "gets a fair shake after being unfairly terminated,” reported the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Cotriss is suing the city of Roswell and the Roswell chief of police for either reinstatement of her former position or 10 years of pay.

Latest News

Subscribe for BET Updates

Provide your email address to receive our newsletter.


By clicking Subscribe, you confirm that you have read and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge our Privacy Policy. You also agree to receive marketing communications, updates, special offers (including partner offers) and other information from BET and the Paramount family of companies. You understand that you can unsubscribe at any time.