Karl FieldsSpecial prosecutors unveiled several text messages Wednesday that sparked a Chattanooga police detective's resignation in 2015 for hiding evidence that could have exonerated an alleged rapist.
Karl Fields, 44, never submitted to the district attorney's office cellphone videos of James Leon Works Jr. having seemingly consensual sex with another woman in August 2014 for a reason, prosecutor Alyson Kennedy told jurors during the second day of his trial in Hamilton County Criminal Court.
It was because Fields, a married man, had been making sexual advances to the alleged victim since she reported on June 1, 2014, that Works held her in a hotel room against her will and raped her. It was because the woman had suggested they end things. And it was because Fields could repair and "further" the relationship if he hid evidence that would help her attacker, prosecutors said.
Fields was fired in March 2015, indicted one year later, and now faces one count of official misconduct and one count of tampering with evidence.
"Sorry for the impersonal call, supervisor is in my office," he wrote on July 9, 2014. He had received judicial permission a day earlier to search through Works' cellphone for rape evidence.
"How do you feel about me seeing the video?" Fields asked her.
"Not sure what all the video holds," the victim replied. "It's just - - up."
"I tried to give you a little joy in bad times," Fields wrote back. "But you broke up with me."
District Attorney General Neal Pinkston asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to examine the incident after Fields was suspended from the Chattanooga Police Department in the fall of 2014. Pinkston then recused himself from the case since Fields had worked on several local cases. But prosecutor Kennedy called TBI agent Chip Andy to the witness stand Wednesday to read the hundreds of text messages that Fields and the victim exchanged between June and August 2014.
Some had been deleted but recovered through a forensic examination of the phone, Andy said. Some of the messages were about intimate details. In one June exchange, Fields complimented the victim's orange toenail polish. The victim said she could change the color once her back healed enough to bend once more. But after the break up, the tone shifted to the digital evidence on hand.
"He has four cases of girls like me," the victim wrote on July 10, 2014. "All the same charges. One he tied to a tree and sodomized. I need all the info I can get from you I want to be prepared as possible so I can go in with a strong head."
She told Fields she needed to watch the cellphone videos, to see if anything could be used against her. Or if anything triggered her memory. During the kidnapping, when she smoked methamphetamine, Works allegedly beat, burned, kicked and raped her several times before the victim escaped.
"I agree with what you are saying," Fields replied. "I want you to concentrate on your court appearances next week. Our case will not come up until grand jury, and after that, not until at least a year. I will make sure you are prepared."
Defense attorney Jerry Tidwell has argued his client never tampered with anything, that officers carefully consider evidence before sending it to prosecutors, and are constantly building and rebuilding cases.
"It's not Fields' job to send that tape to the DA," Tidwell told jurors during opening statements Tuesday. "The DA decides what to do with the tape."
Kennedy said she hopes to finish the state's case by lunchtime today. Afterward, Tidwell will begin to present proof in Judge Barry Steelman's Criminal Court.
Contact staff writer Zack Peterson at zpeterson@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6347. Follow him on Twitter @zackpeterson918.