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Monday 15 July 2013

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After the beating, police dragged Hicks by the ankles out to their police car, witnesses say. On the way to Erlanger North, Hicks said he started to wake up because the officers were speeding up, then slowing suddenly to throw him into the screen that divides the front seat from the back.
The next day, Police Chief Bobby Dodd told the media that his officer had been "sucker punched" and that Hicks deserved the toughest penalty. Thanks to Emmer's training, Hicks was alive, Dodd said.
But charges of assaulting police, public intoxication, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest were dropped not long after. More than 30 people who had been at the club that night contacted Hicks, telling him they would testify against police, he said.
Attorney Lee Davis, who defended Hicks against the charges, said Hicks was no doubt wronged by the police. However, he told Hicks at the time that he could not represent him in a suit against police because he represents Chattanooga police officers through the Fraternal Order of Police.
Davis' firm is now representing Emmer in the civil suit brought by Adam Tatum.
Assuming that police would investigate Emmer's actions in the Track 29 incident, neither Hicks nor Wetherbee filed formal complaints with the department.
Before Emmer responded that night to Track 29, he already had been investigated three times for complaints alleging excessive force. He was exonerated on each one.
Hired in 2008, Emmer worked nights patrolling downtown bars and streets.
In audio from each of his internal investigation interviews, he sounds confident. He carefully explains why he did what he did.
Each case involved a man who was drunk and, according to Emmer, either noncompliant or aggressive.
In one case, a man was taken to the ground because he wouldn't stop talking to Emmer at a gas station. The man wanted to shake Emmer's hand and Emmer refused, told him he was afraid of germs.
When the man wouldn't stop asking or go away, Emmer overpowered him and arrested him. He later Maced him when the man said he had a gun. No gun was found, Emmer said in recorded interviews.
The second complaint involved a drunken man who was punched and taken to the ground because he refused to get a cab after being thrown out of the Southern Comfort nightclub. He took an aggressive posture and clenched his fists toward officers. So Emmer said he punched him in the face to get distance. As a result the man's tongue was split and he had to be taken to the hospital.
"My adrenaline gets going," Emmer said in the interview, explaining his actions.
The third complaint arose from an incident outside the Sing It or Wing It karaoke bar.
Emmer described the subject as drunk and said the man had started a fight at the bar. Outside, the man resisted police and yelled "Don't ... touch me." Emmer took him to the ground.
When the man tried to fight back, Emmer punched him, then Maced him.
Again he said, "His stance made me think he was going to hit me."
In interviews in each of the three cases, other officers corroborated Emmer's account of what happened. They describe those bringing the complaints against Emmer as troublemakers who were fighting arrest.
Cases closed.In only one interview with Emmer did internal affairs officers chide him. One investigator asked Emmer why his police reports are so bare and short. If the person he was arresting was resisting, why did he not include that in his police report? The man had come back and accused him of excessive force and there was no record that he resisted, just Emmer's word and that of other cops.
Emmer answered that he includes as little as he can in his reports because "everything I put in there they use against me."
The investigator told Emmer he needs to record resistance if he puts his hands on someone he is arresting.
"That way it would have given the defense attorney less ammunition to come at you with," the investigator said.
Emmer may or may not be a bad cop.
But his actions offer insight into a larger problem with the Chattanooga Police Department, said Tatum's attorney, Flores, who was a police officer in South Carolina for 12 years.
Most complaints against Chattanooga officers are dismissed. Most lawsuits against cops are dismissed as well. Without videos, it's the word of the cop against a suspected criminal or drunk.
Even when excessive force complaints are sustained and officers are disciplined or fired, some of those officers are later welcomed back onto the force, Flores says.
The $50 million Circuit Court lawsuit filed by Flores and Raulston on behalf of Tatum lays out several examples of officers accused of excessive force who were fired, then rehired.
"The city has a pattern of overlooking or providing excuses and reasons to justify the misconduct of its officers in order to retain, promote and/or rehire officers," reads the lawsuit.
In 2005, Officer Steven Campbell was fired after beating and Tasing two handcuffed suspects in the parking lot of a Kanku's gas station, which resulted in a settled federal lawsuit. The city later rehired Campbell to the S.W.A.T. team.
The other officer in the case, Michael Wenger, was suspended. He was later promoted to detective and assigned to investigate the Tatum beating.
Officer Kenneth Freeman, who had a long history of complaints, was videotaped shoving a 71-year-old Walmart greeter, which resulted in a lawsuit in 2009. A person who tried to help the greeter was shoved into a glass door. Another officer stood by and watched. Freeman was later suspended 28 days without pay.
Freeman was charged with domestic assault in 2009 and fired.
Officers Steven Miller and Daniel Gibbs were fired for Macing a homeless man in the trunk of their police car and then dumping him at Camp Jordan Park in East Ridge. The two lied about the incident before being fired for excessive force, but were rehired as well, the suit states.
But Emmer's lawyers, Bryan Hoss and Davis, say the case against their client won't hold up in court. Police officers have a history of winning these cases locally. Excessive force is tricky to prove, even when video recordings seem to show unnecessary violence.
Davis and Hoss, who have represented at least a dozen officers in cases that involved alleged civil rights violations, haven't lost a single case.
In 2011, Chief U.S. District Judge Curtis L. Collier -- the same judge who will hear Tatum's case -- ruled in favor of police officers who shot a man 28 times and killed him. The man, Alonzo Heyward, had a gun on his front porch and was ranting about suicide. When the officers thought he was lowering the rifle toward them, they fired 59 times in three rounds, court records show.
Police said the shooting was justifiable and called the death "suicide by cop," though the man's family said he wasn't a risk to police or others. The suit asked for money and claimed a civil rights violation, just like Tatum's.
In his case, Collier lays out the how excessive force claims are argued. The rights of the person have to be balanced against the interest of the government. How severe was the crime? Did the suspect pose an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others? Was he resisting arrest or trying to escape?
Allowances must be made for the fact that "police officers are often forced to make split-second judgments in circumstances that are tense, uncertain and rapidly evolving about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation," Collier's memorandum states.
Hindsight doesn't matter to the case. The question is, in the moment, did the officer believe there was a serious threat of physical harm? Collier writes.
In the end, Collier's decision was appealed to federal court, but was ended when Chattanooga paid the children of the victim $33,500.
The truth is, excessive force is a matter of perception. There are very few cases that are clear-cut, said Maria Haberfeld, chairwoman of the department of law and police science at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York.
Police have a different perception than the policed.
When everyone else runs from danger, police run toward it. Some theories of policing say officers resent it when citizens try to define how they should deal with danger.
There are theories about how police personalize the suffering of victims and want to avenge them. Adam Tatum was a federal inmate. So police knew he had committed a crime against someone.
There is also a seductive element to policing. Police are the only people who can legally use force to coerce. To handle that requires a certain maturity level. And police departments may not screen for that as much as they should, Haberfeld said.
Some departments are more prone to excessive force because it is part of the culture. Some units within a department are more prone to excessive force.
Still, any kind of force seen by citizens could stir fear and anger. When police officers punch a person in the face, it's shocking. We wonder if there was another way.
"Use of force doesn't look pretty," she said. "These are very fragile things. There is no standard procedure."
After what happened at Track 29, Hicks figured there was nothing he could do. Lawyers told him that winning a lawsuit would be a long shot. One lawyer said he would take the case for $10,000.
That seemed strange to Hicks. Emmer left the scene with scratches and a torn contact lens, according to police reports. Hicks went home with five broken teeth, a broken jaw, eye socket injuries, a broken nose, lacerations on his neck and multiple facial fractures.
So he and Wetherbee just tried to forget about it. When people search their name on the Internet and stories came up that say they fought with police, Hicks tells them it isn't true. The cops lied, he says.
Hicks and his family live in a nice home on Signal Mountain, but he wants to move farther away, into Sequatchie County.
"I don't want [those cops] protecting my kids," said Hicks' wife, Amy.
His jaw hurts more and more, and eventually he will have to have plastic surgery and get it screwed and wired, medical records show. The vision in his left eye, which was swollen shut after the beating, is getting worse, too. His wife begs him to go to the doctor about it.
Before he saw a different side of police force, he would hear about accusations against police and not give it a second thought.
In fact, if he had heard Tatum's story two years ago, he wouldn't have cared.
Now he avoids officers and his 4-year-old son cries when he sees one in uniform.
"I tell [the kids that] cops are good people," said Amy Hicks. "I tell them they are
here to help us and not hurt us, even if I don't believe it."
Contact staff writer Joan Garrett at jgarrett@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6601. Follow her on Twitter at @JoanGarrettCTFP.
So this last half of this week is going to see a series of posts on Gilded Age/Progressive Era sexuality. I’m teaching it tomorrow, I was thinking of Comstock, there are some stories to link to, and with the whole birth control insanity, it seems timely. Most importantly, I like talking about it.
So just to get everyone in the mood, I present you two images of the Chattanooga Vibrator, an early version of the vibrator. Doesn’t it look fun?
Russell Fowler, a 10th generation Tennessean, has been a member of the Tennessee Bar since 1987. He is currently Associate Director of the 10-county LAET Southern Region and has managed legal aid offices in Chattanooga since 1997. He earned his B.A. in history and political science and his J.D. at the University of Memphis. After serving as the law clerk to Chancellor Neal Small, he was with the Memphis law firm of James S. Cox and Associates for 10 years. He also regularly served as special chancellor in Parts I and II of the Chancery Court of Shelby County.
Fowler has over 40 publications on law and legal history, including works for the New England Law Review, The Journal of Supreme Court History, The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture, the West Tennessee Historical Society Papers, The Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War, and the Smithsonian Institution’s One Day in History series of books. He also wrote the chapter on President Calvin Coolidge in the book “America’s Lawyer-Presidents” published by the ABA and Northwestern University Press and the chapter titled “Calvin Coolidge and the Rule of Law” in the book, “Why Coolidge Matters”.
Since 1999, Fowler has been an Adjunct Professor of Political Science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) where he teaches judicial process, constitutional law, and civil liberties and was selected by the faculty as UTC’s Outstanding Adjunct Professor of 2005.
Russell Fowler has created and taught many CLE courses on subjects such as Tennessee legal history, chancery and appellate practice, constitutional interpretation, federal fair housing law, and insurance and bonding litigation. He is a member if the Chattanooga and Tennessee Bar Association.
Jonathan is a lifelong resident of the Chattanooga area. He grew up in Harrison TN and now resides in Signal Mountain, TN.
After going away for Law School, Jonathan came to the realization of how wonderful Chattanooga had been to him, and decided to return home. Upon returning to Chattanooga he was fortunate to land a job with the Public Defender's Office, where he quickly learned the ins and outs of criminal defense. Jonathan was able to learn from several great attorneys how to effectively reprsent his clients in hearings, trials, plea baragains, and motion practice. For the last several years, Jonathan has zealously represented many clients in the Chattanooga area criminal courts through his own private law office. He believes in an aggressive and well researched defense style, that must be formulated for each of his cases individually. Every case is different, and needs to be handled differently. Jonathan enjoys what he does and looks forward to discussing your case with you. Please call him today for a free consultation.
More about Jon Turner
Juris Doctor Degree from Michigan State University College of Law
2003 Bachelor of Science from University of TN, Chattanooga
2006 Licensed to Practice Law in all Courts in TN
Licensed to Practice in Eastern District of TN Federal Courts
Member of Tennessee Association of criminal Defense Lawyers Associate member of Justices Ray L. Brock, Jr. and Robert E. Cooper American Inn of Court.

Lawyers in chattanooga Wallpaper Photos Pictures Pics Images 2013