Ohios third-largest county has chosen which sheriff it wants in town Charmaine McGuffey is projected to win the position once again.McGuffey won with 56% of the votes from 99% precincts reporting. Jim Neil and McGuffey have a long history, with one another and the Hamilton County Sheriffs Office.Neil announced in 2023 he intended to run to take his old job back from McGuffey, who was elected in 2020.Neil spent 30 years as a deputy, and was elected to sheriff in 2012 and again in 2017. McGuffey spent 33 years in the sheriff's office and rose to the rank of Major under Neil.Neil promoted her to head jailer of the Hamilton County Justice Center in 2013 a role Neil subsequently fired her from in 2017, citing an internal affairs investigation that concluded McGuffey created a hostile work environment and was dishonest when questioned about it.Investigators wrote she had demeaned her employees, engaged in favoritism and abused her power.Neil claimed he offered McGuffey a civilian job with a pay cut that she refused, so he fired her. McGuffey claimed the investigation and firing were based in bias toward her gender and sexual orientation.McGuffey filed a discrimination complaint with the Equal Opportunity Commission, claiming she was "discriminated against, retaliated against and unjustly terminated" from her role as head of the jail.At the time, she said the investigation report "contains comments from my male colleagues identifying me as very 'pro-lesbian' and many of the females interviewed were questioned regarding how intimate of a relationship we had."She claimed the real reason she was fired was because she questioned how Internal Affairs handled incidents of excessive force among corrections officers. The WCPO I-Team uncovered several of those cases.In 2018, she formally filed a lawsuit against the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office.Then, in 2019 with the lawsuit still pending McGuffey announced her plans to run against Neil. In her announcement, she accused him of abetting a campaign of bullying and silencing that prevented her from doing her job in the sheriff's office.In January 2020, the Hamilton County Democratic Party endorsed McGuffey over Neil to run as their candidate for sheriff in the 2020 primary election. She won in the primary election over Neil with 70% of the vote, then went on to defeat her Republican challenger, Bruce Hoffbauer, in November to become the county's first female sheriff and first lesbian sheriff.In July 2020, a federal judge denied a motion filed by the sheriff's office to dismiss McGuffey's lawsuit, citing obvious differences and sharp contrasts in the way the department investigated McGuffey versus seven others.By the end of December that year, Hamilton County commissioners unanimously approved a settlement with McGuffey and in exchange she dropped the lawsuit.Neil himself was never separately named as a defendant in the lawsuit.To see all Hamilton County election results, click here. Find the latest general election results from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana here.