After reports that Coffee County, Tennessee, District Attorney Craig Northcott said he would not enforce domestic violence laws for people in same-sex unions, some area prosecutors say the law is clear on what they can do.
"I don't agree with some of what General Northcott has said publicly, but here is what's important: As the district attorney general for Hamilton County, I believe in following the law, and the law says that in domestic abuse cases, charges can be brought against current or former spouses and adults or minors who are dating or who have dated or who have or had a sexual relationship," Neal Pinkston said Thursday. "It's clear to me that anyone can be a victim of domestic assault, regardless of a person's sexual orientation."
District Attorney Craig NorthcottPinkston did not join in the call for Northcott's resignation that began last week after his comments, which he made at a Bible conference in 2018, and a Facebook post referring to Islam as "evil" were made public. Pinkston said that decision "should be left to the voters in his district."
As of Thursday afternoon, more than 300 lawyers across Tennessee had signed a open letter calling on the Tennessee Board of Professional Responsibility to investigate Northcott for the "highest level of prosecutorial misconduct and abuse of discretion."
"Far beyond the issue of the marital status of gay individuals (though, gay marriage is the law of the land) are the ethical implications of a District Attorney who will not serve nor protect the constitutional rights of citizens without first subjecting them to a test of sexuality or religious beliefs," the letter says.
Northcott, who did not respond to a request for comment Thursday, was recently appointed special prosecutor to investigate allegations of whether Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada's former chief of staff, Cade Cothren, submitted false evidence in an effort to get activist Justin Jones incarcerated. According to a report in the Tullahoma News, the Coffee County Republican Party chairman said the group stands behind Northcott, who has been in office since 2014, in his First Amendment right to free speech.
According to a video of the comments he made in 2018, Northcott said domestic violence charges have more built-in punishments than other assault crimes - such as losing the right to a firearm - to protect the sanctity of marriage. But with gay unions, he said, "there's no marriage to protect. So I don't prosecute them as domestics."
Two other area district attorneys, Steve Crump and Mike Taylor, whose jurisdictions cover multiple counties in Southeast Tennessee, declined to comment Thursday on Northcott's comments, saying they hadn't seen the full remarks in proper context. But both said they prosecute domestic violence cases involving gay couples in their districts if the facts match the law.
"This would just be my opinion, but if you have a factual situation that fits the parameters of the statute, then you would prosecute under that statute," Taylor said. "My personal opinion has nothing to do with it."
Crump's jurisdiction covers Bradley, McMinn, Monroe and Polk counties, while Taylor's covers Bledsoe, Franklin, Grundy, Marion, Rhea and Sequatchie counties.
Contact Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.