Detective Rodney Burns believes Neal Pinkston has conflict of interest in his prosecution

Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston speaks to the press in this file photo.

Rodney Burns

With more than a month remaining before Gatlinburg, Tenn., police Detective Rodney Burns is scheduled to appear in Hamilton County Criminal Court on charges of perjury, he is asking that Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston be removed from prosecuting his case.

Burns is charged with two counts of aggravated perjury, a class D felony that carries a sentence of between two and four years behind bars, because of his February testimony in the Ooltewah High School rape case.

Burns’ attorney, Bryan Delius, filed a motion last week claiming Pinkston’s involvement in Burns’ prosecution is a conflict of interest because Burns filed a $300,000 defamation lawsuit against Pinkston in February. In the lawsuit, Burns claims he’s suffered damage to his reputation, his active cases were postponed and he’s been ridiculed by the public and media outlets because of Pinkston’s comments about him.

The lawsuit was filed after Pinkston asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to investigate Burns for perjury.

In the motion, Delius argues Pinkston “has a direct personal interest in bringing a criminal prosecution as an attempt to battle the civil claims filed against him.” Delius continues to allege that Pinkston told media outlets Burns committed perjury “for the sole purpose of inflating his own persona his objective was politics and pandering, not seeking justice.”