GALENA, Ill. -- Griffith Lippert almost didn't say it.

"I was going to walk away from the whole thing," the Elizabeth man said. "I should've, but I didn't."

So in the middle of the Jo Daviess County Courthouse, the janitor looked the sheriff in the eye and said exactly what was on his mind.

"I just told him, 'I think you're a rotten sheriff,'" Lippert said.

About 10 seconds later, the county worker joined the ranks of the unemployed.

'Improper protocol'

No official records exist of what happened on Tuesday, Oct. 13.

Sheriff Leo Hefel declined comment on what he classified as a "personnel issue," and Jo Daviess County Administrator Dan Reimer also refused to address the incident.

Yet Lippert said everything about his termination only proved what he said about Hefel's abilities.

"He fired me without going through the proper protocol," he said.

'Ridiculous'

The argument revolved around a car.

According to county documents,

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the Jo Daviess County Board decided in July that Hefel could purchase a new 2009 Dodge Charger squad car for a total of $20,417 after trading in another department vehicle. Reimer said the cost of Hefel's vehicle remains consistent with past purchases. In January, the department paid $22,277 for another squad vehicle.

Yet Lippert remained peeved about another aspect of Hefel's purchase: Hefel opted to have the words "enforcer" painted above his tires.

"The entire thing is just ridiculous," Lippert said. "As a taxpayer of Jo Daviess County, I am embarrassed that he spent that much on a car and then topped it off by painting it like that. That's my personal opinion."

It was that opinion Hefel reportedly called into question.

'You'll always be rotten'

Around lunchtime that Tuesday, Lippert went into the sheriff's office to speak to his wife, Kathy Lippert, who works as Hefel's personal secretary.

On his way out of the office, Lippert said Hefel called to him.

"He said, 'I hear you have a problem with me having this car,'" Lippert said. "I said, 'Since you asked, yes, I do. I think that's too much to be spending on a car.' Then he said, 'Well, I'm the sheriff. I can have the car that I want.'"

Lippert said the banter continued for awhile and culminated when Hefel said, "I also hear you think I'm a bad sheriff."

"I said, yes, that I did think that, and then he told me I was a bad janitor," Lippert said. "So I told him to fire me. He said he was working on it."

Lippert began walking away but said he decided to turn around to have his last say.

"I said, 'You know, Leo, you can fire me for being a bad janitor, but you'll always be a rotten sheriff,'" Lippert said.

According to Lippert, Hefel fired the 62-year-old janitor right then.

'In the case of termination ...'

Kathy Lippert said her heart jumped into her throat when her boss, Hefel, told her that her husband had just quit.

"Of course, I was angry and upset," she said. "But I knew Griff hadn't quit. We need the health insurance."

Lippert suffers from a medical condition that requires regular health care, and he denies quitting.

"I was fired. Period," he said.

According to the Jo Daviess County employee handbook, firing at will is not allowed.

"In the case of termination of an employee, the County Board or a designated representative will conduct a pre-termination hearing," the handbook reads. "The pre-termination meeting serves as a check against mistaken decisions and to determine whether there is a reasonable presumption that the reasons are valid and support termination."

Hefel held no such meeting, Lippert said.

'Walking into the lion's den'

For now, Lippert remains unemployed.

"There just aren't a lot of jobs around," he said.

Both he and his wife, Kathy, wonder whether politics influenced the termination, as both were hired by Hefel's predecessor, Steve Allendorf. Both say Lippert never received any formal reprimands from Hefel leading to the incident.

For now, the Elizabeth couple says the situation calls for patience and paperwork, as they work to file for wrongful termination. Yet no matter the outcome, the incident remains awkward, especially for Kathy.

"How can I be happy at work now?" she said. "I just can't. I feel like I am walking into the lion's den. It's very uncomfortable there."