Woman Fired for Living With Boyfriend
July 3, 2004 -- What would you do if your boss told you to either get married, or else you would lose your job?
A rural sheriff's dispatcher says she was given this agonizing ultimatum for living with her boyfriend of 12 years in North Carolina. The state is one of seven with laws against cohabitation by unmarried, unrelated men and women.
As Debora Hobbs tells it, she was approached by her supervisor in Pender County for violating a statute that dates back to 1805. She then had a decision to make: Leave her job, get married, or move out.
"I took a little time and contemplated it," Hobbs told ABC News' Good Morning America. "Thought maybe, for a couple of days, should we do this to keep the job? And then I turned around and said no. I don't think anybody had the right to make me make that decision."
She admitted she "knew there was some type of ruling about cohabitation," but never expected it would be applied to her.
"I just couldn't believe it was happening, really," said Hobbs.
Sheriff's Response
Hobbs decided to quit the sheriff's office, and is now taking her story to the media. The American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina is looking to challenge what it considers to be an unconstitutional law.
Her former boss, Sheriff Carson Smith, would not say whether that law was the reason Hobbs left, but he told Good Morning America that his staff must obey state laws.
"I believe, as the folks who put me in office believe, that the sheriff's department and the employees there should be held to a higherstandard. And, and that's what we look at," he said.
Smith declined to comment on Hobbs' job performance. "There's really no way I can get into personnel issues," he said.
Other Violators?
Presumably Hobbs and her boyfriend are not the only couple living together out of wedlock in their southern town.
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