A former employee of the Chattanooga Neighborhood Enterprise is suing the agency for $5 million, saying he was wrongfully fired.

Todd Maynor said in the Circuit Court suit that he was hired in July 2010 as a project manager for CNE. He said he worked with funds from a program known as CBGR, which had allocated funds for an assistant. He said CEO David Johnson used the funds for an assistant in the weatherization program.

The suit said when Mr. Maynor told Mr. Johnson that the funds under law could not be used for the other program he became angry and said, "No one is going to tell me how to use my money."

The complaint said Mr. Johnson also was angry that Mr. Maynor "told another co-worker about this improper use of funds and demanded that plaintiff not discuss it with anyone else."

Mr. Maynor said "things became more hostile at work" after that incident.

He said the alleged hostility increased after his brother, Richard Maynor, "was terminated after he complained of sexual harassment from the human resources manager, Dawn Skates, as Richard Maynor was harassed after terminating an affair with Mrs. Skates. After Richard Maynor's termination, the plaintiff continued to stay in contact with his brother and it was known at work that the plaintiff had detailed information about his brother's sexual harassment allegations and that he knew the details of the affair which the married Mrs. Skates wanted to hide. The plaintiff refused to distance himself from his brother or go along with the false stories being told about him."

The suit says Ms. Skats told Richard Maynor in a text message "that she would make sure that Todd Maynor never received a promotion."

It was claimed that during this time David Johnson "approached a contractor and asked him if he would help him 'build a case' on Mr. Maynor. This same thing was also asked of another employee."

The suit says, "During the 83 days between Richard Maynor's termination and Todd Maynor's termination, Dawn Skates constantly found ways to antagonize the claimant and would take him off of projects on which he was working."

The complaint says in August 2011, Mr. Johnson and CFO Carlos Camacho brought Todd Maynor into the CEO's office and said he needed to pay contractors who were not being paid. The suit says Mr. Maynor said his job was to approve the invoices and the accounting department actually made the payments.

The suit says, "After the CEO left the room, the CFO, Mr. Camacho, directed the plaintiff to write an email to say they were 're-doing' the accounting system and send it to the contractors and not let the CEO know about it. The CFO was trying to get the plaintiff to write this email to protect himself as actually issuing the checks is in the job responsibilities of the CFO. The plaintiff told the CFO he was not comfortable with the email and uncomfortable with sending the email only to the contractors and not to the CEO."

The complaint says days later Mr. Comacho threatened Mr. Maynor, telling him, "I want to take you to the parking lot and kick your a--." and calling him a "p----."

The suit says two days before his termination, Mr. Comacho "whipped" him on the back with an Ethernet cable, causing a red welt.

Attorney Amelia Roberts filed the suit.