NASHVILLE, Tenn. - A former Democratic state senator from Goodlettsville has been arrested on a felony charge of sexual battery.
The Tennessean reports that Joe Haynes, a former Senate Democratic Caucus chairman who retired from the Legislature in 2012, was booked into jail on Monday afternoon.
Nashville Police spokesman Don Aaron told the paper a woman who had retained Haynes to represent her in legal matters related to her mother's death alleges that he tried to kiss her and grabbed her buttocks.
Eighty-year-old Haynes did not immediately return a request for comment from the newspaper. Jail records did not indicate whether Haynes had an attorney.
Haynes was first elected to the Senate in 1982.