A Hamilton County judge ruled Thursday that a domestic assault charge against a criminal defense attorney who was arrested the week of Thanksgiving will be dismissed next year – if he behaves himself.
Police say Walter Edward “Rip” Biggs, 36, pinned his girlfriend against a refrigerator door and threw her to the floor after he came home drunk on Nov. 10 and the couple got into an argument. When an officer arrived, he found the woman with cuts on her left elbow and bruises darkening her face, reports show. Biggs was gone.
Biggs, who handles criminal matters such as driving under the influence, illegal drugs, homicide and domestic assault, was picked up on a warrant Nov. 23. He posted a $750 bail around 5 p.m. that day, records show.
Before approaching the judge at his arraignment Thursday, he sat beside his defense attorney, Hank Hill, at one of the tables set aside for legal counsel. Normally, defendants in General Sessions Court are ushered to one of the back rows or already are in custody.
Hill said afterward the domestic assault charge would be dismissed if Biggs wears an ankle monitor for 11 months and 29 days and “does what he’s supposed to do.”
Walter Edward “Rip” BiggsSessions Court clerks said Biggs’ good-behavior agreement includes transdermal monitoring, which measures a person’s blood-alcohol content through sweat. Judge David Bales also lifted the no-contact order between Biggs and his girlfriend, who briefly appeared in court Thursday.
Hill said the good-behavior outcome was an agreement between the state, the victim, Biggs and himself. Hill also provided counsel for Biggs in 2012 and 2013, when the Chattanooga-based attorney faced a litany of charges in the Superior Court of Catoosa County, Ga. Records show those charges included battery, cruelty to children in the third degree, disorderly conduct, interference with government property and willful obstruction of a law enforcement officer by use of threats and violence, which is a felony.
Biggs and Richard Matthew Biggs were arrested June 30, 2012, after a drunken scuffle with law enforcement, according to a Fort Oglethorpe Police Department incident report. Biggs had gone with his brother to pick up his children from a neighbor’s house nearby, the report shows.
A Chattanooga Police Department officer visiting the house noted that both men were allegedly “highly intoxicated” and said he tried to talk some sense into them after hearing the children were afraid to return home with them. When neither man listened, the officer told his girlfriend to call police. Then he walked outside to his truck to grab his duty weapon, badge and other gear, the report shows.
When he started to go inside, he saw the brothers sprinting toward him, the report says. He identified himself as a police officer and told them to leave, but they punched him in the face and knocked the gun out of his hand, according to the report. Fort Oglethorpe police soon arrived and arrested Biggs’ brother. Biggs struggled when they tried to arrest him and bloodied one officer’s nose, the report says.
Biggs pleaded guilty in July 2013 to willful obstruction of law enforcement officers by use of threats or violence, a felony that was reduced to a misdemeanor battery charge, as well as battery, disorderly conduct and simply battery, court records show. He was sentenced to 24 months of probation and 40 hours of community service, and ordered to complete an alcohol assessment and 26 weeks of anger management class and replace his mother’s front door, which was damaged during his arrest. His sentence also ordered him to present his mother with 12 red roses and no longer use profanity around her, court records show.
Hamilton County records show Biggs, who was licensed to practice law in 2013, also was arrested on an assault charge on Feb. 6, 2014, after he allegedly approached a group of lawyers, punched one in the face and then chased him. Biggs later pleaded guilty to reduced charges of offensive touching, also in Judge Bales’ courtroom, records show.
On Nov. 7, 2014, Biggs was pulled over for speeding on Signal Mountain and the officer smelled alcohol on his breath, according to an arrest report.
The city’s municipal court convicted him of first-offense DUI and made him complete 24 hours of community service and driving school in lieu of a prison sentence.
Biggs is scheduled to return to Sessions Court Dec. 1, 2016, records show.
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