By Phil Williams Chief Investigative Reporter

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. -- A federal lawsuit accuses top officials of the Upper Cumberland Development District of illegally hacking into the personal messages of an employee after she refused to go along with the wrongdoing.

The complaint, filed Wednesday on behalf of former UCDD employee Ashley Pealer, alleges that UCDD officials violated the federal Stored Communications Act, the federal Wiretap Act, as well as her rights under the Fourth Amendment.

It names interim director Randy Williams personally, as well as current UCDD chairman Mike Gannon. Read the lawsuit

"This is the first of the lawsuits that we will file," attorney Gary Blackburn told NewsChannel 5 Investigates.

As we recently reported, Pealer and her mother Kathy were fired by Randy Williams in June, less than two weeks after he took over the agency.

Afterwards, Ashley said that she began hearing from inside agency offices that some of her private messages were being passed around.

"On my smartphone, I had my private Hotmail and my private Facebook account -- I've been told that both have been printed off," she said.

She added that she had found evidence of a strange posting that someone made to her personal Facebook page from the agency cell phone she'd been required to turn in.

It was "from my phone," she said, "to appear as if I was the one who had posted it."

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Lawsuit Claims UCDD Officials Hacked Personal Messages