Published 1:52 pm Friday, August 14, 2026
Cullman County Detention Center.
A former Cullman County corrections deputy has filed a federal lawsuit against Cullman County Sheriff Matt Gentry and Investigations Captain Phillip Harris, alleging that the two violated his First, Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights after a personal cellphone was seized without a warrant in reaction to the deputy reporting a cybersecurity vulnerability.
Former deputy Payton Rohrsheib is suing Gentry, Harris and Cullman County in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama. The lawsuit also currently names Captain Rex Sorrow, Captain Todd Reynolds and Lieutenant Rebekah Cash as defendants. However, Rohrsheib’s attorneys told The Times that these defendants are to be dismissed.
According to the complaint, in January, Rohrsheib discovered that if the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Services had been previously accessed by an authorized individual, it would later allow access to an unauthorized individual through the computer’s browser history, bypassing the system’s username, password and two-factor authentication process.
Upon discovering the vulnerability, Rohrsheib made a verbal report to his supervisor while in the Cullman County Detention Center’s inmate booking area. The complaint states that the supervisor responded with “That’s weird,” but did not indicate any effort would be made to correct the issue. Rohersheib said his recollection of the interaction could be corroborated by the jail’s audio and video surveillance system.
Two months after the discovery was made, on March 26, 2026, while completing his mandatory National Crime Information Center certification test, Rohrsheib was reminded that certified employees are mandated to report any potential security breach or suspicious activity.
The following morning at approximately 7:30 a.m. Rohrsheib sent an email from both his employee and personal email accounts to Alabama Law Enforcement Agency and CCSO IT Technician, Charlie Gibbs describing the issue.
Less than one hour later, Rohrsheib said he received a phone call directing him to report to Gentry’s office because of the email.
The complaint states that Gentry began the meeting by accusing Rohrsheib of “backdooring” the CJIS portal as well as other CCSO systems for his own personal gain and scolding him for not alerting in-house personnel, despite Gibbs having been cc’d on the email.
According to the complaint, Gentry told Rohrsheib that he had obtained a warrant for his personal cell phone — but did not provide the warrant to Rohrsheib — and that Rohrsheib was required to provide the device’s passcode, which he provided to Harris.
The phone was actively recording audio of the meeting while being searched by Harris and is said to contain two other audio recordings of meetings between Gentry and Rohrsheib.
Rohrsheib was then suspended.
After leaving the meeting, Rohrsheib informed his mother, Cindy Rohrsheib, a veteran State of Alabama probation officer, and informed her of what had transpired. The complaint says that Cindy immediately called the Cullman County Courthouse and District Attorney’s Office to ask about the details of the search warrant, but was told that it did not exist.
During a meeting with Gentry and Harris on the same day, Cindy said Gentry acknowledged that he had not obtained a warrant, but that he intended to get one. He also told Cindy that he would not be returning the phone due to “exigent circumstances,” and he stated that he believed Rohrsheib had been “documenting policy violations at the CCSO and that he intended to pursue criminal charges if he found supporting evidence.”
The complaint alleges that Gentry’s actions were motivated due to Cindy publicly supporting sheriff candidate Tim Creel in the Cullman County sheriff’s race in the Republican primary over Gentry’s endorsed candidate Chad Whaley.
The complaint further alleges that several deputies and CCSO employees, who had shown support for Creel, had been threatened with termination for doing so.
The complaint goes on to state that three days after Rohrsheib was suspended, Captain Harris signed an affidavit — which allegedly contained knowingly falsified statements — to obtain a warrant to seize Rohrsheib’s phone.
Also on March 30, an individual by the name of Rafael Llovera filed a separate lawsuit against Rohrsheib in Cullman County Circuit Court. Llovera’s lawsuit alleges that while he was incarcerated at the Cullman County Detention Center in October 2023, Rohrsheib tased him in the back while he was restrained, causing physical damage that required a visit to the jail nurse.
Llovera’s lawsuit does not include the CCSO as a defendant and only names Rohrsheib as an individual and not his official capacity as a corrections deputy.
Messages left with Llovera’s attorney, Ramon Martin of The Justice Law Firm in Birmingham, were not returned as of publication of this article.
On Thursday, Sheriff-elect, Chad Whaley told The Times that the CCSO requires use-of-force forms to be filled out, which should be able to verify the date and details of the alleged incident.
Whaley told The Times that he would work on verifying the incident, but had not done so at the time of publication.
On April 6, one day before the warrant request was authorized, the complaint says that Harris performed a comprehensive search of all of the phone’s digital contents despite the warrant only authorizing the seizure of the device.
Rohrsheib also said that the phone’s account backup files reflect a gap in text messages and phone call records for March 27, the day the phone was seized, and no longer include photographs, including some of his son. The complaint says this gap in the backup record is consistent with deletion or alteration of data during or after the extraction.
Gentry released the following statement regarding the lawsuit on Tuesday, August 12.
“I wanted to take a moment to address the federal lawsuit that has been filed by Attorney Scott Morro on behalf of Payton Rohrscheib.
I am limited at this time on what I can say about the merits of this case. However, I will say this frivolous lawsuit was filed by an attorney known for filing outrageous and bogus lawsuits aimed at trying to extort local governments out of money.
We hold all of our deputies, detention deputies and staff to the highest standards when it comes to following the law. The full facts and truth will come out promptly which will show we acted in accordance with the law.”
Speaking to The Times on Wednesday, Aug. 13, Morro, with Morro Law Center in Gardendale, said he was hoping to remove Gentry and Harris from the lawsuit in their official capacity, and would rather be liable as individuals.
“I want Gentry and Harris to pay out of their own pockets,” Morro said. “This lawsuit is about holding leaders accountable for their bad decisions and to stop them from being able to hide behind qualified immunity.”
Morro is also representing former CCSO Deputy Jason Dickerson in a lawsuit filed against the Cullman County Personnel Board that alleges Dickerson was improperly terminated by bypassing the legally mandated personnel board process.
Morro said Gentry has filed a complaint against him with the Alabama Bar Association since the lawsuit was filed.
