Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond.Hamilton County Sheriff Jim Hammond said Monday he is asking the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to look into whether state forfeiture procedures were violated when he returned a car to a mother after her son’s drug arrest.
“This is a procedural situation. It had nothing to do with influence,” Hammond said. “I don’t know the lady. … She may have gone to school with me, but so did a thousand other people.”
Marcia Tenenbaum said she and Hammond were classmates at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in the criminal justice program. She said she phoned him after her son’s April 13 arrest — Jeremy Tenenbaum, 27, was charged with felony possession after 15 ounces of marijuana was found in her 1990 Lincoln Towncar. The sheriff arranged to have the car returned to her within a few days.
Hammond said he never returned the car without going through the proper channels and that the vehicle wasn’t returned until a month later. He said the sheriff’s office has no interest in the car.
“I vaguely remember someone calling about it. I always turn it over to narcotics. That’s what happened this time,” he said. “We were in error. We didn’t file the paperwork or somewhere it got lost in the shuffle. We will correct that.”