Catoosa County Magistrate Judge Anthony Peters returned to the courthouse this morning and applied for warrants targeting several judges, deputies and Sheriff Phil Summers in relation to what he calls a false arrest last week.
The sheriff sent out a prepared statement this afternoon defending his deputies and saying he was "surprised and disappointed" by the warrants "given the fact that I was neither present nor did I have any involvement in Anthony Peters' removal."
"Based upon the information provided to me, I feel that my officers had no choice but to act in the manner in which they did on June 16, 2010, since Judge Peters had placed magistrate employees in fear and had created both a potential security breach at the courthouse and a hostile work environment due to his actions," the sheriff wrote in the statement.
More than a dozen law enforcement officers were called to the Catoosa County Courthouse last week due to a "administrative incident" when Judge Peters and Chief Magistrate Judge Sonny Caldwell got into an argument.
Judge Peters was taken in handcuffs from the county courthouse and held at the Catoosa County Jail until he was released later without charges.
For complete details, see tomorrow's Times Free Press.