WALHALLA — A lawsuit filed to protect the privacy of Oconee County employees was not frivolous, so no sanctions will result from how the case was handled.

That was the ruling Monday from 10th Circuit Judge Cordell Maddox that put an end to a four-year old motion stemming from a lawsuit filed in 2004 by Oconee County employees.

The employees said their personnel records had been compromised in the aftermath of the criminal prosecution of former county supervisor Ann Hughes.

The motion was pressed by Seneca attorney Julian Stoudemire, who objected to the handling of a restraining order Judge Maddox had signed in the course of the lawsuit and what Stoudemire regarded as the frivolous nature of the lawsuit.

Stoudemire, together with Walhalla attorney Larry Brandt, had formed Hughes’ defense team.

Maddox agreed that some points of the case might have been mishandled, but because it stemmed from a desire to preserve employees personnel records confidentiality, “it certainly wasn’t frivolous.”

Oconee County Attorney Brad Norton explained that former county councilman Steve Moore had called several county employees and disclosed to them information from their personnel files, copies of which Moore alleged had been left on his backyard grill.

The employees had filed the suit, which was later dismissed, in an effort to keep the records private.

The records had all been part of the material examined by the South Carolina law Enforcement Division during their investigation of Hughes. Copies had been available to all parties involved in the legal proceedings.

Hughes was charged in May 2003 with embezzlement and misconduct, but the criminal charges were dropped in April 2004 as part of a deal that saw her resume and then resign her office and be named the county’s consultant for the Americans with Disabilities Act. She was later fired from that position, after which she filed a lawsuit against Oconee County. The case was settled out of court in February this year.

“The suit just said, basically, if you’ve got’em (the records), don’t disclose them,” Norton said.

Stoudemire was detained in court Monday and did not himself appear for the hearing. He had originally asked for sanctions to include $819.50 to cover his time and travel expenses for a trip to a hearing on the case that was held in Anderson. Attorney Brandt, however, entered into the record what he reported to be a statement from Stoudemire on the merits of the lawsuit that drew his motion for sanctions.

“He said it was a Republican (County) Council and Republicans were always talking about frivolous lawsuits and this certainly was one,” Brandt said.

Maddox denied sanctions with an amused air.

“One of the things I like about being on the bench is that you can’t make political statements,” the judge said.