A recent Tennessee Court of Appeals ruling found that district attorneys general don’t qualify for the same blanket protection against defamation claims as policymakers do, but that doesn’t mean the doors for defamation suits have been opened.
The decision is the latest development in a yearslong legal battle between Hamilton County District Attorney General Neal Pinkston and a Gatlinburg, Tennessee, detective who Pinkston said made false statements while under oath during court testimony.
THE CASE FOR PERJURY
Detective Rodney Burns was indicted on two counts of aggravated perjury in May 2016 after a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation probe found he made false statements while under oath during a February 2016 Juvenile Court hearing for three former Ooltewah High School employees charged with failure to report child abuse.
Three of the school’s basketball players raped a 15-year-old freshman teammate and three others with a pool cue on a team trip to Gatlinburg, Tennessee, in December 2015. One of the boys sustained severe injuries, but the coaches who found him bleeding and in pain didn’t call police or the Department of Children’s Services. They took the boy to a hospital, where medical staff alerted the proper authorities. The teen had to have surgery to repair his colon, bladder and prostate.