While the criminal investigation into Beverly Watson's death heats up as a result of the finding of her body, civil actions connected with the two-year investigation make their way slowly through federal courts.

Bill McKenney of Atlanta, attorney for Maj. Bruce Jordan of the Fayette County Sheriff's Department, said that motions for "summary judgment," asking a judge to dismiss suits against Jordan and the FCSD, will be filed very soon. The motions connect to former Fayette Deputy Joseph Winn's suit against the sheriff's department for wrongful termination and will be accompanied by depositions, McKenney says, which will "clearly show that the termination was not only justified, but required under the rules and regulations" of the sheriff's department.

Winn says in the suit that he was fired for providing information to lawyers for Jim Watson, husband of the dead woman, McKenney said. Watson has been investigated by the FCSD but heretofore not named a suspect.

Jordan is the head of the FCSD Criminal Investigations Division and has been the lead investigator on the case since Beverly Watson's disappearance two years ago. Watson alleged in a suit in October of 1997 that Jordan and the sheriff's department committed civil rights violations against him by an illegal search and seizure, McKenney noted. Jordan has countersued for libel.

Jordan has said that the suit arose from a traffic stop after Watson allegedly drove slowly and repeatedly through the premises of the FCSD. The windows of Watson's car, Jordan said, were illegally tinted, and it is also the policy of the sheriff's department to stop cars which drive slowly by the jail area because of the problem of contraband being tossed over the fence to inmates.

Jordan said the Winn depositions will show that the former deputy did not know about window-tinting laws, did not observe departmental procedures on traffic stops to protect fellow officers, and came to allege "corruption" in the sheriff's department because Winn believed the stop to have been improper.