Christie Mahn SellGeneral Sessions Judge Christie Mahn Sell pressed her courtroom’s panic button on Thursday when a melee broke out between an irate mentally ill defendant and officers.
On Tuesday, she pressed Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond and the Hamilton County Commission’s Safety and Corrections Committee about her fears that an inmate could grab a gun.
“I heard ‘punch,’ ‘Call back-up!'” Sell said, describing what prompted her to press her panic button on Aug. 18. “All of the officers had guns. The officers were left wrestling with the defendant. … Julie Jacks came to mind immediately.”
Jacks was a Chattanooga Police Department officer who was killed in 2002 with her own service weapon while pursuing an inmate who had been taken for a mental evaluation.
Sell asked Hammond whether Tasers could be used as a method of subduing physical aggression in courtrooms.