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Gatlinburg Police Detective Rodney Burns plans to appeal a Hamilton County Criminal Court judge's decision in his case.
Burns faces two charges of aggravated perjury due to his testimony in the Ooltewah High School rape case. The offense is a class D felony that carries a sentence of between two and four years in prison.
Hamilton County Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz denied Burns motion to have Hamilton County District Attorney Neal Pinkston removed from the case in October.
In court this morning, Greenholtz granted Burns request for an interlocutory appeal, which allows Burns to ask the Tennessee Court of Appeals to look into Greenholtz's decision.
Greenholtz said doesn't claim to have all the answers, and is open to the Court of Appeals looking into his decision. But he also does not want the case to stall any longer and set a June trial date.
"The case is getting kind of old already," Greenholtz said.
If the court of appeals decides to look into Greenholtz decision this trial date could be pushed back or canceled.
The rape occurred in December of 2015, and Pinkston asked the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to look into Burns' court testimony in February. Burns was formally charged in May.