A public feud between Hocking County officials has exposed what the sheriff acknowledges were two of his on-duty deputies making racist comments on recordings uncovered in a federal lawsuit.

A public feud between Hocking County officials has exposed what the sheriff acknowledges were two of his on-duty deputies making racist comments on recordings uncovered in a federal lawsuit.

Hocking County sheriff's deputies Patrick Allison and Edwin Downs, while on duty and in the office, "joked" about burning crosses and building portable crosses to make cross-burning less work. In two conversations surreptitiously recorded by another deputy, the n-word was spoken eight times.

"Of course, I don't condone that at all, from them or anybody. We should be setting an example," Sheriff Lanny North said.

While the lawsuit has laid bare the elected officials' in-fighting, it's also has exposed what critics say is reprehensible language and attitudes, especially by those who swore an oath to protect and serve all.

"I am past being offended. I'm outraged that it's still going on," Sybil Edwards-McNabb, president of the Ohio Conference NAACP that oversees all NAACP branches in the state . "It needs to be addressed."

In a county where 97.5 percent of its 29,380 residents are white, North admits some might use improper language but stresses that shouldn't happen in his department.

"It seems to be an isolated incident," North said. "They did violate our code of conduct."

The recordings were made in 2013 but entered into evidence in a 2015 civil suit filed by Hocking County Coroner David Cummin. Allison has since left the sheriff's office.

The coroner is suing the sheriff, several of his deputies, Prosecutor Laina Fetherolf and others.

Cummin's suit accuses them of malicious prosecution, intimidation of a public official and violating Ohio's Open Meetings laws. It came after criminal charges accused the coroner of not doing his job. All of the charges eventually were dismissed when a judge ruled that there was no evidence Cummin committed crimes.

North and other officials knew nothing about the recordings, the sheriff said, until four months ago when their attorney learned that they had been submitted as evidence in Cummin's suit.

Jeremy Dye, a Hocking County deputy at the time, made the recordings during discussions with Allison and Downs, the sheriff said.

The discussions were recorded in 2013 and involved the 2012 fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old black teen, in Sanford, Florida, by resident George Zimmerman � an incident that remains in the news after Zimmerman this month sought to auction the gun he used to kill the teen.

"We should make a little money," Allison said on the tape. "They ought to pay us to burn crosses in neighborhoods. We could sell portable crosses, like have a wood cross with the base so you could just stand it in the yard instead of like having to dig a hole for it. It could have like firestarter chunks built into it." The remarks were followed by laughter.

Historically, burning crosses were used to intimidate and frighten blacks.

"Once we had the tapes in our possession, we addressed it," North said.

Both Allison and Downs, neither of whom returned calls for this story, were counseled by the sheriff after the recordings were revealed. North, on the advice of a county-hired attorney, required Allison and Downs to take a one-hour, online class on the awareness of cultural diversity from the Ohio Attorney General's Office. Each completed the course, documents in their respective personnel files show.

"That's not even a punishment to me," Edwards-McNabb said. "That can be interpreted as a slap on the wrist. The alarming thing is (the conversations) were done so casually, especially by sworn officers. There was a comfort level they had in making those comments."

The NAACP, she said, might investigate and "take some direct action" if needed.

Downs, 41, has been in law enforcement since 1995 and with the Hocking County sheriff's office since 2008. Allison, 55, was with the office for 26 years before retiring in 2014. He was rehired by North in 2015 but left again after the tapes surfaced.

"They're human and they have the right to express their freedom of speech, but there's a time and place to do that but the time and place is not in the office in uniform," the sheriff said.

If Allison and Downs want to hold those beliefs, Edwards-McNabb said, maybe they shouldn't be public employees.

"The last place they should be is where they are and where they earn a living," she said.

kperry@dispatch.com

@kimballperry