After a nurse accused a Williamson County Sheriff's Office deputy of having a racist response to a suspicious person report, the department issued an internal report clearing the officer of any wrongdoing.

Nurse Stephanie Dash, who is black, described on social media an encounter with a Williamson County Sheriff's Office deputy in Franklin in early December. A resident called emergency personnel to report a suspicious person in the neighborhood where Dash was working in a patient's home. Dash claimed the way the deputy, who is white, handled the call was racial profiling. It was the first time Dash had worked in the neighborhood with the patient she was assigned from Amedisys Home Health Nashville.

Original story:Nursing while black? Nurse accuses Williamson County Sheriff's deputy of racial profiling

The 32-page report — issued by WSCO investigator Sgt. Kevin Sheldon — included interviews with the deputies who responded to the call on Walton Road. Sheldon also interviewed the original caller and Dash's supervisor at Amedisys, but never interviewed Dash after scheduling conflicts.

"The Williamson County Sheriff’s Office always takes allegations of this nature seriously and conducted an internal investigation in a timely manner upon becoming aware of the complaint," county attorney Lisa Carson said. "As I believe will be evident from the internal investigation report, there is no indication that the deputies who responded to this call were motivated by Ms. Dash-Martin’s race or by any other inappropriate consideration. The deputies acted professionally in exercising due diligence to ensure that a potentially vulnerable member of our community was protected."

The 911 call

In an audio recording obtained by The Tennessean, a neighbor on Walton Road called emergency personnel about noon on Dec. 5 to report what she referred to as a suspicious person in the area.

The caller said she watched a woman go door to door and that the woman came to the caller's home looking for a person who didn't live there.

"I don’t know if she’s trying to sell something, but she claimed she’s looking for (someone)," the caller said to a Williamson County dispatcher. "And she’s been driving to the back of people’s driveways. Like the back of my neighbor’s driveway, which seems a little interesting."

The dispatcher asked the caller to describe the race of the woman, what she was wearing and what she drove.

The deputies' accounts

The internal investigation arose after Dash's boss wrote a complaint to the sheriff's office.

In Sheldon's report, Officer Rhonda Casillas responded to the suspicious person report and found the vehicle the caller described. Casillas wrote to her supervisor her account of the incident, in which she said a neighbor came out of his house but didn't know the car.

Sheldon wrote in the report that Casillas' in-car audio and video weren't operating.

Casillas wrote when she went to the door Dash appeared. After asking Dash for credentials to prove she was a home health nurse, the two walked to Dash's car, where Dash called her supervisor to inform the company the police had arrived. Casillas reported that Dash's boss asked if Dash was reported as a suspicious person because she was black. Casillas said that wasn't the case and wrote that Dash's boss was uncooperative. Dash's boss reported that Casillas was "harsh, argumentative and aggressive."

An additional deputy responded to the scene because he was in the area. Deputy Arthur Williams said he overheard Dash tell her boss that the police showed up because she was black.

He said he stopped to explain why the deputies had responded in the first place.

"I stated, 'The reason why we are here has nothing to do with you being black,'" Williams wrote. "I advised that we were doing our job. I further explained that when we are called to any residence for any call, it is our job to investigate, which may include us verifying who you say you are."

Dash's response

Attorney Tricia Herzfeld — from Branstetter, Stranch & Jenning of Nashville — said she will represent Dash in response to the report.

"We are obviously considering litigation, and hopefully we can come to an amicable resolution that provides a positive way forward for people visiting Williamson County and the way the sheriff’s office interacts with them," Herzfeld said. "It’s baffling to conclude an investigation without speaking to the person reporting the incident, and we don’t understand what the rush was to conclude the investigation."

Reach Emily West at erwest@tennessean.com, at 615-613-1380, or on Twitter at @emwest22.