Violence didn't subside after highly-publicized 'worst of the worst' roundup

photo These 32 men that authorities have called the "worst of the worst" criminals in Chattanooga have been tied to more than 300 crimes, from murder to drug offenses and fishing without a license.

TIMELINEApril 2013: Mayor-elect Andy Berke first pitches VRI to cityJuly 2013: Berke marks 100 days in office, promises the city will see fewer shootings by 2014December 2013: Berke pledges to bring VRI to ChattanoogaMarch 2014: Police and city leaders hold the first call-inJune 2014: Richard Bennett, the main contact for gang members in VRI, is arrestedJune 2014: City and police leaders cut ties with BennettJune 2014: The city asks for a new community partner to replace BennettJuly 2014: City choses Hope for the Inner City as Bennett's replacementAugust 2014: Police say 58 people have landed jobs through VRISeptember 2014: Two of three charges against Bennett are droppedOctober 2014: Police plan to expand the VRI effort to target non-gang membersSource: Times Free Press archives

A wide-ranging investigation that started years before any mention of "VRI" in Chattanooga had much the same goal.

And by the time the four-year probe concluded, it seemed natural to use the roundup of nearly three dozen suspects that authorities labeled the "worst of the worst" to send a message that would benefit the fledgling Violence Reduction Initiative.

These were suspects tied to assaults, murders and robberies, and the investigation aimed to cut out key figures in the city's crack cocaine market. Take them out, the theory went, and violence will subside.

The highly publicized press conference in November 2013 featured a dozen city officials, police, prosecutors and federal officials. They promised harsh penalties and expressed hopes for a noticeable dip in the city's crime rate.

A year later, fewer than half the men have been sentenced. Violent crime declined slightly in the months immediately after most of the men were pulled off the street, then returned to previous levels. Last month, a seven-day period saw 10 people shot in Chattanooga, three of them fatally. It was one of the bloodiest weeks of 2014.

Yet judging a drug roundup's success can never be as simple as just looking at the numbers, experts say.

With dozens of players and moving pieces, the cases are trickling through the federal court system. Only 14 have been sentenced, but almost as many have pleaded guilty and await plea agreements or sentencing. Crime rates may have dipped only slightly for a few months, but experts say that's not unusual. When one player falls, another steps in to take his place. Doesn't even one less shooting make a difference?

"Every time you make an arrest, particularly if you take down an organization, then you have a direct impact on the community that is affected by it," said Gregory D. Lee, a former Drug Enforcement Administration leader and expert witness.

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Most of the men named in the case were spread across two indictments.

Some were indicted as early as August 2013, while at least two weren't arrested until as late as May of this year. Charges against them include distributing, manufacturing and possessing heroin and crack cocaine and weapons charges.

photo Deatrice Craddock, mother to Joe and Juanzell Jenkins, two men indicted in the recent roundup and arrest of 32 individuals, all of whom are black, speaks to the crowd about her sons' positive qualities, saying they do not deserve to be labeled "worst of the worst." Craddock was at a meeting held by the Chattanooga-Hamilton County NAACP chapter to discuss the effects of the roundup and its media coverage on the black community on Tuesday in Chattanooga.

As of Thursday, 14 of the men had been sentenced. Those sentences range from 10 months to 12-and-a-half years. Six men were sentenced to more than 10 years, and a majority of those sentenced so far will serve at least five years in prison.

Those weighty sentences were partially based on prior convictions. More than half of those arrested were already convicted felons. Officials said from the beginning they hoped to use the heavy hammer of federal mandatory minimum sentences, which do not include a possibility of parole, to discourage crime.

"I think they were trying to make a statement, there's no question about that," attorney Graham Swafford said.

Swafford represented Frank White, who pleaded guilty to conspiring to sell and distribute narcotics and was sentenced to 10 years and eight months in prison. Swafford said he still thinks White was on the verge of turning his life around. He wanted to start a rap career.

"I'm not saying they're pure as the driven snow, but I did not feel that my guy was quite as bad," Jasper, Tenn., attorney Swafford said.

Chattanooga attorney Mike Acuff represented Kentarius Nealy. As part of a plea agreement, Nealy was sentenced to five years in prison and four years' supervised release on a charge of conspiracy to manufacture narcotics.

"Normally, the feds would not have looked at this case at all," Acuff said. "He's caught in a couple conversations that bring him in, where I see he ends up with a long federal sentence, and that would never have happened without this roundup."

But officials say those sentences have importance beyond a single case: They send a message that is critical to the success of the Violence Reduction Initiative.

"There will always be other opportunistic dealers ready to step in and take the place of those captured," Tennessee Bureau of Investigation spokesman Josh DeVine said. "That's why swift and severe punishment for those captured can help. It communicates the risk of this type of crime far outweighs the potential benefit."

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The investigation itself took nearly four years. It netted men police said were key figures in the city's crack cocaine market, tied to assaults, murders and robberies.

"Hopefully we're going to have a couple of years where it's going to be very quiet," former Police Chief Bobby Dodd said at the time.

Dodd didn't get his wish. Shootings showed no noticeable change immediately afterward. Drug and narcotic violations showed no change from November to December, and shot up in January in February. Numbers didn't drop until April, and they quickly returned to the same levels as the fall.

YEAR TO YEAR COMPARISONCrime data for Jan. 1-Oct. 29, 2014 vs 2013Total homicides 25 vs 17Gang-related homicides 14 vs 11Total nonfatal shootings 86 vs 94Gang-related nonfatal shootings 52 vs 61Source: Chattanooga Police Department

Aggravated assaults do seem to have dipped for a longer period, declining by five or less from November through March but climbing again in May.

But as a recent spate of gun violence -- including 10 shootings in seven days last month -- demonstrated, violent crime in the city isn't on the decline.

Still, city leaders say the roundup had an impact.

"Any time law enforcement is able to take 32 drug dealers and violent offenders off our streets, that is a positive step in making Chattanooga safer," Mayor Andy Berke said in a prepared statement on Friday.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms special agent Michael Knight said ATF agents judge the success of a bust by looking at the specific locations where the crime occurred before the bust and checking to see whether the crime dropped after the arrests.

"If the crime hasn't dropped overall that usually indicates to us that another faction or group is coming in and filling that void," Knight said. "Because of the location of Chattanooga, with Nashville on one side and Atlanta on the other, you'll have a lot of transient individuals going through. Some of the violent crime in Chattanooga is committed by individuals who don't even live in Chattanooga."

And experts argue that it's impossible to tease out any real impact from straight numbers. Taking dealers off the streets, they say, will always affect a community, but that impact might just be masked by the ones left behind.

"It's hard to measure because, frankly," said Lee, "there are so many criminals out there."

Staff writer Shelly Bradbury contributed to this report. Contact staff writer Claire Wiseman at cwiseman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow her on Twitter @clairelwiseman.

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