A month after getting sued by a former police chief, all four Red Bank officials charged with political conspiracy are requesting immunity from prosecution.
In an official answer to a $1.5 million lawsuit filed by former Red Bank police chief Larry Sneed, Red Bank defense attorney Robert Watson says the officials, which include City Manager Chris Dorsey and three city commissioners, did not do anything wrong.
The commissioners mentioned in the filing are Greg Jones, Floy Pierce and Monty Millard, who is also vice mayor.
Sneed's attorney, Lee Davis, implicated Millard in the original complaint, saying the vice mayor's two Red Bank arrests motivated him to "bring down the Red Bank Police Department and get Chief Sneed terminated."
Red Bank's answer denies Millard's involvement along with charges that the vice mayor recruited Jones and Pierce to lobby against Sneed.
In a press release issued July 15, Red Bank City Attorney Arnold Stulce wrote about a private meeting between a police officer, Dorsey, Jones and Pierce. They discussed "significant turmoil" in the department stemming from Sneed's managerial style and personnel decisions, but the officials never voted on anything, the release states.
"There was no violation of the Open Meetings Act," Watson writes in the most recent filing.
For complete details, see tomorrow's Chattanooga Times Free Press.