FIELDS’ FORMER HOMICIDE CASES
Former CPD detective Karl Fields was working these five homicide cases when allegations of misconduct came to light in September 2014. All of these cases have since been reassigned and Fields has been fired. 1. Victim: Barbara Johnson: Pending 2. Victim: Robert McClure: Cleared by arrest 3. Victim: Franklin Bonner: Pending 4. Victim: Quincy Bell: Pending 5. Victim: Darius Hinton: Pending Source: Chattanooga Police Department
The former Chattanooga police detective who was fired this month after sending a woman sexual text messages while he investigated her rape case last year also failed to properly keep track of evidence in the case, according to an internal affairs report.
Karl Fields never sent the woman’s rape kit to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, didn’t include two key DVDs in the master case file and didn’t fill out all the required paperwork for a search warrant.
He also never interviewed the suspect in the rape case and failed to re-interview the victim when he discovered new evidence that seemed to contradict her story, according to the report obtained by the Times Free Press this week.
“You can see how he botched it from the beginning,” said McCracken Poston, one of the woman’s attorneys. “He had other designs for her. Maybe to keep her as someone he could prey on, it did not need to be a fast and efficient investigation.”